Decoder with Nilay Patel
Bluesky’s new CEO wants a big tent, not a bubble
· Summarized
Key takeaways
- Blue Sky is positioned as both a user-friendly social app and a foundational open protocol, At Protocol, designed to foster a decentralized, interoperable social web.
- The company's leadership vision emphasizes a long-term, 10-year outlook aimed at building a diverse, scalable, and resilient social ecosystem that prioritizes the public good.
- The platform plans to implement monetization through affiliate-style revenue sharing, enabling creators and users to earn within the ecosystem, while maintaining an open and trustable infrastructure.
- Decentralization and handing control to communities and independent entities are core to Blue Sky’s strategy—particularly through transitioning key components like the identity directory to independent organizations.
- The coexistence of standards like ActivityPub and AppProto is expected long-term, serving different use cases in a complementary manner.
- Blue Sky aims to be a civil, inclusive space that hosts a range of communities—sports, politics, arts—while emphasizing moderation tools, user control, and privacy.
- Overall, Blue Sky’s approach is to create an open, diverse network that avoids the pitfalls of monopolistic social media platforms, fostering a broad, multi-faceted digital public square.
Summary
The Future of Blue Sky and Open Protocols
Tony Schneider discusses Blue Sky's current state as both an app and an open protocol called At Protocol, which underpins a growing ecosystem of over a thousand apps. The platform aims to promote a decentralized, interoperable social web that serves the public good. Schneider emphasizes the importance of decentralization and handing over control of the protocol to various independent entities, including the ITF, to ensure it remains open and resilient. The app itself is designed to be a friendly, human-focused social space that integrates with a broader ecosystem of interconnected applications.
Leadership Transition and Strategic Vision
Schneider narrates his journey from interim to full-time CEO, highlighting his long-term vision for Blue Sky as a project with a decade-long scope. He discusses the strategic decision to focus on both the protocol's development and the consumer app, viewing the app as a gateway to the wider ecosystem. The approach to decision-making at Blue Sky is characterized by balancing reversible choices with long-term irreversible commitments, ensuring the company's actions align with its foundational vision for an open, decentralized social web.
Building a Diverse and Scalable Network
The conversation covers the structure of the small, remote team working on Blue Sky, with an emphasis on collaborative, high-agency teams. Schneider underscores the significance of modular, open standards like AppProto and ActivityPub, which enable the development of various apps including TikTok-like experiences, without the platform needing to control all content forms. He discusses the importance of critical mass for network effects, the growth of private communities, and the effort to support a multitude of use cases on the protocol, aiming for a billion users in the long term.
Content Moderation and Community Management
Schneider explains the innovative approach to moderation via a pluggable, distributed system that allows various community-led moderation efforts. Privacy features, such as private data, are also under development to enable more private spaces within the open protocol, expanding use cases and user trust. He advocates for user-controlled moderation tools, allowing communities to self-manage content and moderation, thus maintaining civil and positive discourse.
Monetization and Economic Sustainability
Schneider discusses plans for monetizing Blue Sky, emphasizing a model where the platform facilitates creators and publishers to monetize their content and audience through affiliate-like arrangements. The goal is to help users and creators make a livelihood, with revenue sharing built into the ecosystem. He stresses the importance of building a sustainable, open, and equitable economic model that prevents harmful incentives and supports the growth of a large, diverse community.
Interaction with Other Protocols and Standards
The conversation explores Blue Sky’s relationship with ActivityPub, with Schneider noting that both standards will likely coexist long-term, serving different use cases. The goal is interoperability, allowing apps built on different standards to communicate seamlessly, akin to email, rather than a monopolistic control of content or identity. The vision includes expanding the Blue Sky brand beyond politics to encompass diverse communities like sports, aiming for a broad, inclusive social platform.
The Broader Social and Political Role of Blue Sky
Schneider addresses concerns about political bubbles on social media, describing how Blue Sky aims to be a civil, positive space that hosts election coverage, sports, and diverse communities without favoring one political ideology. The platform’s open and user-moderated nature allows for a variety of user experiences and community-building, with emphasis on safety tools and civility. The goal is to grow a network that reflects the broad spectrum of society, counteracting polarization.
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Show notes
Today, I’m talking with Toni Schneider, the new head of social platform Bluesky who formally took over after a short stint as interim CEO. This is one of my favorite kinds of interviews, because a couple years ago we had Bluesky’s prior CEO, Jay Graber, on the show — she’s now the company’s chief innovation officer. All of that kind of shuffle is pure Decoder bait: a new CEO often brings with them new priorities, which is perhaps the most Decoder subject of all.
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber | Decoder (2024)
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber steps down | TechCrunch
Staying in the game | Toni Schneider
The messy WordPress drama, explained | The Verge
Proton CTO Bart Butler | Decoder
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Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder’s producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Eileen Felix. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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