MIT Technology Review: “..Last year, we put “Twitter killers” on our list of 10 breakthrough technologies. But the breakthrough technology wasn’t the rise of one service or the decline of another. It was decentralization. At the time, I wrote: “Decentralized, or federated, social media allows for communication across independently hosted servers or platforms, using networking protocols such as ActivityPub, AT Protocol, or Nostr. It offers more granular moderation, more security against the whims of a corporate master or government censor, and the opportunity to control your social graph. It’s even possible to move from one server to another and follow the same people.” In the long run, massive, centralized social networks will prove to be an aberration. We are going to use different networks for different things. For example, Bluesky is great for breaking news because it does not deprioritize links and defaults to a social graph that shows updates from the people you follow in chronological order. (It also has a Discover feed and you can set up others for algorithmic discovery—more on that in a moment—but the default is the classic Twitter-esque timeline.)..”

• See also FastCompany – The website tracks how fast Bluesky is growing in near real time. Bluesky has added millions of new users since the election—and this site lets you watch each one as they sign up.
• See also Lifehacker – This Is the Best Way to Find People to Follow on Bluesky. Bluesky Directory is a repository of knowledge about the booming new social media service.
• See also A Second Academic Exodus From X? Numerous high-profile academics have announced they are leaving X, citing concerns about disinformation and how owner Elon Musk used the platform to support Trump.