Notices by Nathan Schneider (ntnsndr@social.coop)

Please share this primer on open protocols with your favorite government officials. https://protocolized.summerofprotocols.com/p/a-government-guide-to-open-protocols

My latest piece in America Magazine lays bare the extent to which US government policy seems to be going in outright opposition to decades of Catholic teaching—particularly on climate, war, and civil discourse. Catholics, we cannot participate in this: https://www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2026/03/19/government-trump-america-catholic-church/

Just read. This is great, @LaurensHof!

In my forthcoming protocol book, I explicitly define protocols as *not meaning*, which is consistent with the pattern you identify. Meaning begins where protocols end.

This also extends the notion of power vacuums that I develop a bit in ch. 1 of Governable Spaces. And I think in ch. 4 I make clear that the fediverse does not address these but replicates implicit feudalism (which is not quite a vacuum but a specific theory of governance embedded in software like Mastodon).

Thank you for further making the case for why we need real governance design for a truly decentralized social.

I think more general

Good point

And stay tuned for my next book, all about protocols!

Upcoming report launch on "member-owned social spaces in local communities and neighbourhood renewal": https://airtable.com/appjkcMPBl4LcoiIX/pagWcBQ8z9HRIBaQe/form?mc_cid=33c56c2acd

Yeah, ESOPs are a version of that, abeit often with a pretty constrained view of worker interest. A charity, also, might encounter tension between a charitable charter and worker interest. Why not just do it as a cooperative to start with?

I love how @404mediaco understands exactly what we're all going through right now: "How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis'" https://www.404media.co/ai-psychosis-help-gemini-chatgpt-claude-chatbot-delusions/

I don't use it for much else, but somehow Gemini got way better than other AIs at resolving Arch package issues.

This post against "age certification" laws is yet another reason I'm proud of our local Colorado Linux computer factory, @system76 https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification/

Data centers aren't just noxious, they're targets in war: https://restofworld.org/2026/iran-amazon-data-center-strikes/

Decentralize the data. And end the wars.

For the first time, I'm organizing a panel at 4S, the Society for Social Studies of Science, in Toronto. I love this conference. If you do too, please consider submitting a paper! https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php

Well that's a longer conversation, and always happy to connect with you!

I love this new reflection on the experience of randomness in governance from @lizbarry of @metagov.bsky.social https://metagov.substack.com/p/randomness-clears-the-way-for-cohesion

RE: https://social.coop/@clayton/116163083104242268

Yay Social.coop is fediverse-famous!

Something new and rad from the furious engine of Colorado cooperativism: "saas is dead. we're building what comes next." https://destroysaas.coop/

What a shameful day. You do not liberate a people by starving and then bombing them.

Second, it perpetuates what I think of as the original sin of US co-op policy: creating tools for specific sectors/industries/stakeholders rather than generalized tools.

This is why you can finance rural electric co-ops but not urban ones, for instance. It's dumb.

I hope that we can build policy strategies that don't treat artists as special snowflakes (eg art.coop's work, or smart.coop) and that seeks to build on artist experience for a broader solidarity economy.

When that is the goal, I'm here to help.