this repo has no description
atmosphereconf-vods.wisp.place/
1WEBVTT
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5Okay, we might need help.
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9Um, I always forget how to do this.
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13Sorry.
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17Is that window or a power?
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21I know our apron is done in this way.
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25I wanted to, um, I wanted to find this and, um...
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29Okay, so you're doing it.
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33So you want them to see this on here?
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37Yeah.
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41Okay.
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45Uh-huh.
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49Okay, got it, got it.
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53I see where it's at.
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57No.
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61Is this, uh, what is this?
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65Uh, this one?
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69Figma.
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73Oh, figma.
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77I see.
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81It's different.
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85No worries, no worries.
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89No.
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93Oh, no, this is really far.
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97You can also, I can open it without, you know?
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101Yeah.
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105It's just the...
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109Um, um...
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113Let me try to shut you up.
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117Yeah.
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121How we doing up there?
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125Okay.
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129Sorry.
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133Figma's being weird and kind of embarrassed.
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137Well, as you all know, I am not Boris, and my stand-up comedy is limited.
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141What's that?
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145How's my uk?
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149Oh.
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153Uk.
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157Oh, someone got that recorded.
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161As you can see, most of us are Apple users, so there has to be at least three dongles
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165involved in this process.
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169We've lucked out so far.
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173Some power for you.
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177I think in Granville Island, my kids stole my other hat, and I wanted one.
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181Yeah, here, in Vancouver.
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185Yeah, thanks.
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189It's a banging hat.
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193I'm going to say Trezzy, because I'm not sure what it looks like, and I'm just assuming,
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197because that man has style.
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201Oh, sorry.
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205Break out of that.
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209Yeah.
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213So we're going to do this right here.
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217That's...
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221She's just going to show me.
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225Okay.
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229And I'm wondering where the...
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233I can just do this, and then walk through it.
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237Okay.
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241Sorry about that.
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245That was the first time you were using Figo.
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249Yeah, I think this is together.
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253Okay.
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257Cool.
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261And then...
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265Yeah, maybe this is just a nice opportunity for a moment of silence.
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269So I'm just going to free up.
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273Does that work?
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277Can you roll it out?
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281So I want to show...
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285Forced Zen.
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289Sorry.
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293That's appropriate, right?
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297The other one on my computer, so I want to extend it.
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301Yeah.
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305For what it's worth of a preview, it looks fantastic.
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309You've seen the first slide, like 100 times.
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313Yeah, I think you can just drag this in there, and then I'll just...
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317Right?
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321I can just flip that.
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325Can you control it then, Fig?
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329Yeah, I can do that.
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333I can control it from there, but I'll just make it a little bit easier.
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337Okay.
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341Yeah.
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345Cool.
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349Okay.
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353All right.
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357We launching?
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361Thank you.
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365Okay.
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369Well, let's welcome Arushi, everybody.
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373Thanks, everyone.
374
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377I feel like I can't see over my computer.
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381Yeah, my name is Arushi, and I'm a founder and CEO of Habitat.
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385And today I'm going to be talking about why we're building Habitat.
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389Is everything okay?
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393Okay.
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397Cool.
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401I believe that at Protocol gives us a chance to fundamentally reimagine what connecting
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405with each other online means, and through that process, rewilding the internet.
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409So I'm going to try to get this right.
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413Okay.
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417It's a loose agenda.
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421In this talk, I start with some questions, talk about my dreams for the web, and use
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425some quotes from writers I appreciate to guide my thinking.
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429We're just doing this.
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433Okay.
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437Cool.
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441So if you go to atproto.com, this is what the website looks like.
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445The first time I read this, I kind of had the question, what actually is the social
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449internet?
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453The term the social internet came around before my time, and even though I've heard it many
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457times, I never reflected deeply on what it meant or what it referred to.
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461Yeah.
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465So this is what the internet does, right?
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469It connects two computers together.
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473So my question was, how can the internet not be inherently social?
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477Why is the social internet separate from the internet itself?
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481Of course, this is not exactly how the internet works in order for two computers to share
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485data with each other.
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489Typically, they connect to a shared server.
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493Oh, sorry.
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497Which could be across the ocean.
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501And that is how you get a platform.
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505Good.
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509Sorry about this.
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513So as I started to read more about this time before myself, when the internet transitioned
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517from unsocial to social, what I realized is that when people use the term the social
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521internet, what they actually mean is the platform internet.
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525When the web transitioned from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, it allowed users to publish pieces of
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529data, including social data, and platforms were the primary way to do so.
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533And to be fair, several of the articles I read were by Kyle Chica, so maybe it is Kyle
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537pushing this agenda.
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541But I think generally speaking, what people imagine when you use the term the social internet
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545is platforms like earlier MySpace AOL in the first era, and now we have like X, Facebook
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549Instagram, even Bluesky and Black Sky.
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553When people use the term social internet, what they typically mean are billion user social
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557media platforms.
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561But I don't think that is what the social internet is or what it can be.
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565And I think app protocol gives us the chance to imagine beyond that.
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569Okay.
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573Sorry.
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577So Ursula M. Franklin is a Canadian scientist who in 1989 gave a series of lectures titled
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581the real world of technology.
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585In it she talks about how technology is not just the technological artifact that we put
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589out into the world, but also how it affects the world which in turn affects new technologies.
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593This is kind of like the feedback loop that Rudy from Black Sky was talking about yesterday
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597in his talk.
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601So Ursula says as I see it, technology has built the house in which we all live.
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605The house is continually being extended and remodeled.
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609More and more of human life takes place within its walls so that today there is hardly any
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613human activity that does not occur within this house.
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617All are affected by the design of the house, the division of its space, and the location
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621of its doors and walls.
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625That was written in 1989, but I think it's clear where I'm going with this metaphor.
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629The internet is the house we live in.
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633We are all affected by the division of its space, the location of its doors and walls,
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637and how it is continually remodeled.
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641And I think that's why the artist Spencer Chang's work resonates with a lot of people
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645because it makes the movement through this internet house visible when it is so often
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649invisible or goes completely unnoticed by us.
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653So if that is the case, if the internet is now the house we all live in, then what is
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657the role of technologists?
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661The way I see it, we build not only the house, but we also dictate how the house gets built
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665and by whom through things like standards and protocols.
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669And the decisions we make not only affect the internet itself, but also reshape our
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673physical reality, as in the case of airspace, a term that's also coined by our friend Kyle
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677Chica to refer to how the platform Instagram caused cafes and restaurants to all merge
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681into a homogenous aesthetic.
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685Okay.
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689So there's this thing I say, which is I want to make app protocol the default way to build
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693on the web.
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697And when I say that, I don't necessarily mean app protocol of today.
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701I mean whatever future iteration of app protocol it is that actually enables this to be the
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705case.
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709And many of you in this room might be agreeing with me, but the question we should really
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713be asking is why?
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717Oh, my God.
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721I'm so sorry, guys.
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725What real world conditions am I trying to create by making this statement or rather
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729what is the house that I'm trying to build?
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733And these are questions that we must answer.
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737So Lawrence Hoff, who I think is here, wrote in a recent essay that in the older protocols
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741of the web, the silence about purpose was a politics of noninterference.
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745And this led to governance being controlled by whichever actor had the most resources.
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749So I think it's great that as an ecosystem we are already asking some of these hard questions.
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753Yeah.
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757So I was trying to find the article by Langdon winner.
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761Do artifacts have politics?
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765And I just thought this was funny.
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769It's 2026.
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773We know that artifacts do have politics and not just because the AI overview is telling
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777us.
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781Rather than shy away from dealing with the realities of our jobs, I think we should get
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785really clear on what we are trying to build and why.
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789On the power dynamics encoded in what we build.
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793And on the types of conditions that those give rise to.
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797Okay.
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801So in this talk I'm going to pitch a possible vision for the Internet.
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805Ruha Benjamin in her recent book said those who monopolize resources also monopolize imagination.
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809So I think it's important for us to recognize that the current Internet constrains what
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813we imagine and collectively resists that in order to imagine alternative futures.
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817So in my Internet, we are not followed wherever we go.
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821Platform dynamics make tracking possible because the two computers must use an intermediary
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825server.
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829Hence the whole field of peer to peer.
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833We can be highly contextual in our interactions.
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837For example, I might not use Slack for both my workplace messaging app and my organizing
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841work and talking with friends the way I do today in a flattened context.
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845The things we do are also human sized and human shaped.
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849So here I'm thinking a lot about Aaron Kossain's idea of oversaturation and how the bodily
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853experience or affect of using the social Internet today is not really conducive to a living
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857human being.
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861Oh, I think the slide.
862
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86400:12:50.000 --> 00:12:55.000
865And these conditions that I described are radically different than what we experienced
866
867217
86800:12:55.000 --> 00:12:56.000
869today.
870
871218
87200:12:56.000 --> 00:13:00.000
873So we don't know what it feels like to have that Internet or to live in that Internet
874
875219
87600:13:00.000 --> 00:13:01.000
877house.
878
879220
88000:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.000
881And I think changing those conditions is what fundamentally gets us past skeuomorphism.
882
883221
88400:13:10.000 --> 00:13:15.000
885So we can't just throw new products into being better non-skeuomorphic without first changing
886
887222
88800:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.000
889the conditions that cause people to actually make them useful and needed in the first place.
890
891223
89200:13:19.000 --> 00:13:25.000
893Sorry about this.
894
895224
89600:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.000
897Yeah, so that's kind of like the hard part is the direction setting.
898
899225
90000:13:38.000 --> 00:13:42.000
901And that's why the older protocols had a politics of non-interference because it's hard to do
902
903226
90400:13:42.000 --> 00:13:43.000
905this.
906
907227
90800:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.000
909It's easier to step back and say this is just a protocol.
910
911228
91200:13:46.000 --> 00:13:50.000
913But once we do that, we can articulate what we need to build and therefore what the protocol
914
915229
91600:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.000
917needs to provide.
918
919230
92000:13:52.000 --> 00:13:59.000
921So the Internet of my dreams can only exist if there's no data hoarding by default.
922
923231
92400:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.000
925So like the easiest way to build on the web is privacy preserving.
926
927232
92800:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.000
929This is not the case today.
930
931233
93200:14:04.000 --> 00:14:08.000
933In order to serve a social experience, you need to store user data.
934
935234
93600:14:10.000 --> 00:14:15.000
937I believe the types of software and user experiences that are delivered on the social Internet
938
939235
94000:14:15.000 --> 00:14:20.000
941today are limited because it's software engineers and tech companies building them.
942
943236
94400:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.000
945When people talk about Web 1.0 and what it feels like to me, the glory era of the Internet,
946
947237
94800:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.000
949they talk about how what drew people to the Web was the fact that so many different types
950
951238
95200:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.000
953of people, technical and non-technical, were creating websites.
954
955239
95600:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.000
957I think we need to do the same thing for Web 2.0.
958
959240
96000:14:37.000 --> 00:14:46.000
961And then reflecting on the idea of what it means for the Web to be human shaped, I think
962
963241
96400:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.000
965a big part of what is missing on the Internet is this idea of communities or groups as a
966
967242
96800:14:51.000 --> 00:14:56.000
969first principle rather than using platforms to then build relationships or communities
970
971243
97200:14:56.000 --> 00:14:59.000
973on top.
974
975244
97600:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.000
977Okay.
978
979245
98000:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.000
981So what does this mean for the protocol?
982
983246
98400:15:04.000 --> 00:15:10.000
985I think an iteration of the protocol that enables this should support privacy by design
986
987247
98800:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.000
989and default.
990
991248
99200:15:12.000 --> 00:15:15.000
993Thanks.
994
995249
99600:15:15.000 --> 00:15:22.000
997Should be usable, maintainable, extendable beyond protocol people.
998
999250
100000:15:22.000 --> 00:15:27.000
1001And should be flexible enough to support group self-management.
1002
1003251
100400:15:27.000 --> 00:15:33.000
1005So I really believe in this idea of leveling up people rather than dumbing down technology.
1006
1007252
100800:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.000
1009Okay.
1010
1011253
101200:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.000
1013So all of this stuff is what I think about every day, what my collaborators and I at Habitat
1014
1015254
101600:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.000
1017think about every day.
1018
1019255
102000:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.000
1021And it's funny because even though I think about it, writing this talk really clarified
1022
1023256
102400:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.000
1025to me what Habitat's mission is as reimagining the social Internet.
1026
1027257
102800:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.000
1029Oh, my God.
1030
1031258
103200:16:01.000 --> 00:16:02.000
1033Okay.
1034
1035259
103600:16:02.000 --> 00:16:08.000
1037So at Habitat, we are trying to lower the barrier of who can build on the social Internet.
1038
1039260
104000:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.000
1041Sorry, I can never find that.
1042
1043261
104400:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.000
1045One, no.
1046
1047262
104800:16:20.000 --> 00:16:25.000
1049In the traditional Web, people who build platforms create the social Internet.
1050
1051263
105200:16:25.000 --> 00:16:31.000
1053AppProto changes this with PDSs, custom feeds and other levers to tweak experiences on platforms.
1054
1055264
105600:16:31.000 --> 00:16:37.000
1057But to build a new type of social experience or modality, oftentimes you still need to build an app view.
1058
1059265
106000:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.000
1061Habitat wants to see if we can go even further.
1062
1063266
106400:16:40.000 --> 00:16:45.000
1065What kinds of protocol level or shared infrastructure do we need to make it as easy to build a social experience
1066
1067267
106800:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.000
1069as it is to build a website?
1070
1071268
107200:16:48.000 --> 00:16:59.000
1073We believe building the social Internet should not require sacrificing user privacy.
1074
1075269
107600:16:59.000 --> 00:17:04.000
1077So once that we're taking in this direction is trying to give users agency over this data.
1078
1079270
108000:17:05.000 --> 00:17:12.000
1081So in Habitat, you can see and say who as people or both apps have access to parts of your data,
1082
1083271
108400:17:12.000 --> 00:17:16.000
1085and we're trying to give people a way to search over all their data in one place,
1086
1087272
108800:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.000
1089which is something you should be able to do today on the Web, but it's pretty much impossible.
1090
1091273
109200:17:27.000 --> 00:17:30.000
1093And then third, we're thinking about this community piece.
1094
1095274
109600:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.000
1097So I quit my job at Figma a month ago to work full time on Habitat.
1098
1099275
110000:17:34.000 --> 00:17:47.000
1101And one thing I think about is how at Figma, the tools I primarily used were Slack, Google Suite, and Zoom.
1102
1103276
110400:17:47.000 --> 00:17:52.000
1105I'm a part of this wonderful organization called Collective Action School,
1106
1107277
110800:17:52.000 --> 00:17:57.000
1109and it's an experimental school for tech workers to reshape the industry from inside of it.
1110
1111278
111200:17:57.000 --> 00:18:03.000
1113So there, the primary tools we use to communicate are also Slack, Google Suite, and Zoom.
1114
1115279
111600:18:03.000 --> 00:18:09.000
1117And when building Habitat, the easiest tools to reach for were also Slack, Google Suite, and Zoom.
1118
1119280
112000:18:09.000 --> 00:18:16.000
1121So when I think about data agency and self-determination for groups, but specifically Collective Action School as a community,
1122
1123281
112400:18:16.000 --> 00:18:23.000
1125my goal and what we're really trying to build at Habitat is that communities can create their own spaces for their own context
1126
1127282
112800:18:23.000 --> 00:18:29.000
1129rather than have to use a particular platform for a particular tool or use case.
1130
1131283
113200:18:30.000 --> 00:18:35.000
1133So I imagine possibly building something like this for Collective Action School where we have our public-facing website,
1134
1135284
113600:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.000
1137but when you log in, there's a space that's members only.
1138
1139285
114000:18:39.000 --> 00:18:46.000
1141And it doesn't look like any other chat or syllabus or schedule like any other space on the internet
1142
1143286
114400:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.000
1145because it's made specifically for Collective Action School.
1146
1147287
114800:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.000
1149Okay, cool. I wouldn't be a good CEO without a little shameless plug.
1150
1151288
115200:18:57.000 --> 00:19:04.000
1153So we do have a version of permission data that actually looks quite similar to what the Bluesky team put out, I think,
1154
1155289
115600:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.000
1157and will be forwards compatible with what they do.
1158
1159290
116000:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.000
1161So if you have use cases for permission data, we'd love to chat.
1162
1163291
116400:19:10.000 --> 00:19:17.000
1165And we've been building out products on top of our permission data and other tools and services to show what you can do with Habitat.
1166
1167292
116800:19:17.000 --> 00:19:22.000
1169Our first toy app is Docs, if people want to play around with that.
1170
1171293
117200:19:22.000 --> 00:19:29.000
1173But we're also building out a control plane to actually see what it looks like for users to have agency and transparency into their data.
1174
1175294
117600:19:33.000 --> 00:19:34.000
1177Thanks.
1178
1179295
118000:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.000
1181Okay, but back to the title of the talk.
1182
1183296
118400:19:42.000 --> 00:19:51.000
1185In ecology, rewilding is a process where humans do an initial intervention in a given place or land in order to restore the ecosystem.
1186
1187297
118800:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.000
1189And the hope is that these seeds of intervention will seed natural processes and increase biodiversity.
1190
1191298
119200:19:59.000 --> 00:20:07.000
1193So I think in a lot of ways that our work as developers in and of this protocol is to make these little seeds of intervention on the web
1194
1195299
119600:20:07.000 --> 00:20:13.000
1197in order to enable others to use and build on the web as a sort of natural and organic process on its own.
1198
1199300
120000:20:14.000 --> 00:20:29.000
1201So I care about all of these things, but I really care about the second point that builders on our protocol and on the web for social experiences shouldn't just be software engineers and companies.
1202
1203301
120400:20:30.000 --> 00:20:42.000
1205This idea of biodiversity or diversity in general comes up not just in ecology but across disciplines.
1206
1207302
120800:20:42.000 --> 00:20:48.000
1209In the dawn of everything, David Graeber and David Wengrau reconsider the narrative of human history.
1210
1211303
121200:20:48.000 --> 00:20:57.000
1213So this history is usually discussed as a straight line from hunter-gatherer society to agricultural revolution to industrial revolution to now.
1214
1215304
121600:20:58.000 --> 00:21:09.000
1217The Davids challenge this notion and point out how during the long time where humans were thought to be hunter-gatherers, there's not too much evidence of what they were doing, so it's easy to spin a bunch of narratives on top of that.
1218
1219305
122000:21:09.000 --> 00:21:15.000
1221But if you do look at the evidence, there seems to be a plurality of societal forms.
1222
1223306
122400:21:15.000 --> 00:21:24.000
1225So there are hunter-gatherer societies but also nomadic farmers or chiefdoms or different combinations of this depending on seasonality.
1226
1227307
122800:21:25.000 --> 00:21:31.000
1229So they say, maybe the real question is how did we get stuck? How did we end up in one single mode?
1230
1231308
123200:21:36.000 --> 00:21:44.000
1233Wendell Berry is another one of my favorite writers and a lifelong farmer, and he talks about the importance of diversity to farming,
1234
1235309
123600:21:44.000 --> 00:21:54.000
1237both at a local level where a diversity of crops is needed to sustain soil, but also at a global level where each farm, being in harmony with the land,
1238
1239310
124000:21:54.000 --> 00:22:03.000
1241lends to a diversity of ways of doing farming as opposed to cash-crop or industrialized farming that treats all land as the same and therefore depletes it.
1242
1243311
124400:22:03.000 --> 00:22:17.000
1245And in this essay, Maria and Robin, who I think is here today, write that ecologists know that diversity is resilience.
1246
1247312
124800:22:17.000 --> 00:22:22.000
1249I think this concept goes beyond ecology. I think this is true of the Internet as well.
1250
1251313
125200:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.000
1253An Internet where one data center going down means the web goes down is not resilient,
1254
1255314
125600:22:27.000 --> 00:22:33.000
1257and where one platform means everyone's experiences are not resilient.
1258
1259315
126000:22:37.000 --> 00:22:51.000
1261So I think the key for App Protocol to survive as a protocol and ecosystem is for us to be resilient by supporting the necessary diversity of infrastructures, technologies, social networks, and communities that human life demands.
1262
1263316
126400:22:51.000 --> 00:22:56.000
1265Right now, this lack of diversity online is a really strongly-felt experience.
1266
1267317
126800:22:56.000 --> 00:23:06.000
1269In the physical world, your library doesn't look or feel like your kitchen, your bedroom, your school, your patio, etc. But online, this is absolutely the case.
1270
1271318
127200:23:06.000 --> 00:23:14.000
1273My hope is that with App Protocol, we can shape our digital habitats with as much agency as we can our physical ones.
1274
1275319
127600:23:14.000 --> 00:23:25.000
1277So in the real world of technology, Ursula M. Franklin talks about how hard it is to define technology as a concept.
1278
1279320
128000:23:25.000 --> 00:23:31.000
1281However, one definition we might be able to agree upon is technology as a way of doing something.
1282
1283321
128400:23:31.000 --> 00:23:40.000
1285So if the current state of the web is just one way of doing the social Internet, then let's build the social Internet differently.
1286
1287322
128800:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.000
1289Thank you.
1290
1291323
129200:23:46.000 --> 00:23:50.000
1293Let's give Arushi a big round of applause. Thank you very much. That was great.
1294
1295324
129600:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.000
1297Thank you, and sorry for all the technical difficulties.
1298
1299325
130000:23:54.000 --> 00:24:04.000
1301Say less. We're going to have a few minutes for people to come in, and we're going to have some closing remarks, and I'm going to go find Boris so that I don't have to MC anymore.
1302
1303326
130400:24:10.000 --> 00:24:12.000
1305Feel free to move out.
1306