The beauty of an open system is that anyone can build on top of it and try to make it a better place. In the fediverse, software engineer Ryan Barrett is one such developer.
Ryan’s been building social network bridges and related tools for over 12 years, including Bridgy, which connects personal websites and blogs to centralized social networks, and Bridgy Fed, which connects them to the fediverse. He’s also a co-founder of Google AppEngine, which informed Google Cloud’s infrastructure, and has held engineering leadership roles at Google, Color and NCX.
Most recently, Ryan’s work to connect Bluesky, which uses the AT protocol, to Mastodon and other platforms using the ActivityPub protocol ignited a firestorm. Ryan wanted to advance the fediverse’s promise of interoperability but he inadvertently stirred up culture clashes between platforms and fervent discussions around consent, maintaining safety, fears of commercialism, and what being an open standard really means.
Highlights of this conversation include:
1:28 Ryan’s approach to bridging disparate social networks
6:30 Why he built Bridgy Fed; 2-way RSS “a breakthrough idea”
8:11 Reactions when he announced bridge to Bluesky
10:07 Ryan’s takeaways and debrief from the outcry
17:30 Managing expectations: instances, defaults, attack vectors
22:03 Reactions on Bluesky
23:30 Culture differences within the fediverse
25:29 What’s next with Bridgy Fed
30:05 Discoverable opt-in and exploration of different approaches
33:10 Thinking at a macro level: protecting ourselves while enabling global growth
43:17 What is motivating Ryan personally
45:43 How Flipboard is thinking about federation
58:52 Good things that came out of the backlash
🔎 You can follow Ryan at /snarfed.org. He’s also on Mastodon at @snarfed.org@snarfed.org and on Bluesky at @snarfed.org
✚ You can connect with Mike McCue on Mastodon at @mike@flipboard.social or at @mike@flipboard.com
💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the fediverse, sign up here: http://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave
💰Mastodon is a non-profit that runs on donations from the community. You can help Mastodon succeed by supporting the organization via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mastodon
BeAware :fediverse:
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