This newsletter is coming to you from the incredibly pink confines of the nhow hotel in Berlin, where I’ve just spoken at beyond tellerrand.
I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to come to an event like this because it seems like, post-covid, they’re increasingly rare. In Aotearoa, we used to have an annual calendar of great events like Webstock, Gather, KiwiFOO, Codemania, Refactor and more. They were a chance to get together with friends in the sector regularly, but they were also a chance to make new connections, hear new ideas, and be inspired by the future of the web and what we were able to make online.
But the events industry in general is doing it so tough, corporates don’t want to sponsor anything, people don’t buy tickets in advance, and gradually these little bright lights wink out.
I think one of the things we’re losing — aside from the chance to just be in community with one another — is a sense of hope about the internet. The overwhelming message that persists is that life online is a dumpster fire. That we’re better off outside touching grass. That soon we’ll be (or maybe we already are) living in Mountainhead’s reality of slop video misinformation unable to do anything to resist it.
And when it comes to our corporate landlords, that’s probably true. Today I get to talk to Luce on stage about her news this morning that Meta is essentially taking away her ability to do what SYSCA is fundamental for: making the news accessible to her audience. As we talked about it at breakfast the thing that felt really jarring was that they were throttling her account over news about the election victory of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani.
We live in a time when news independence feels more vital than ever, and yet the very people succeeding at that project are being silenced by platforms that measure their engagement metrics in hatred, conflict, and fear.
BUT I also woke up to the news that my colleagues at Graze had pulled off something genuinely special the night Mamdani won. We partnered with Gothamist and WNYC to create a custom feed for election news. While X users saw misinformation, conspiracy theories about election rigging, and whatever Musk had to say, Bluesky users saw trusted, vetted, accurate information.
I keep saying that I don’t know if Bluesky is “the answer” but it’s increasingly clear that ATProto is a huge part of the answer.
A better internet — a better life online — is absolutely possible. And I think we lose sight of that when we don’t gather together regularly to learn from one another and just hang out. Something that also powered the Mamdani campaign.
Scientists believe hope is more important than happiness or gratitude. “When life feels uncertain, recognising and seizing small opportunities can create a sense of forward momentum.” The US democratic wins all over the election map this week show us that people don’t want the bland centrist pablum peddled by pundits who have had their brains rotted by staying on old twitter. They want to believe something better than that is possible (and it is).
So here’s my small ask this week: keep the lights on. Buy the ticket to the little conference, show up to the meetup, subscribe to the indie outlet, build the feed, share the link that helps someone learn instead of rage. If platforms are going to dim the room, then we’ll bring lamps. Let’s choose the internet we want by gathering, making, and maintaining it together — one event, one post, one person at a time.
as part of my talk yesterday (an extended version of The Good Internet, which I’m calling a director’s cut) I created something new: a kind of field guide or visual essay mapping a recent rabbit hole we’ve talked a bit about here. This is part of my commitment to “working with the garage door up”. I’d love to hear what you think.
once again via the incredible Curious About Everything comes this fascinating article about the history of the letter ȝ.
For today, however, just know that the spelling ‘gh,’ which causes spellers so much trouble, was originally a replacement for ‘ȝ’ in these words. But more on that later. Let’s dwell for a moment on the bizarre situation we had in Middle English, where the same letter ‘ȝ’ could represent either a y-sound or that now-vanished gh-sound.
thank goodness we learned about spoiler alerts last week so I can post about celebrity traitors. pbatengf gb zl snir genvgbebhf ovgpu nyna pnee -- lbh jrer nyjnlf tbvat gb jva ohg lbh qvq vg jvgu cnanpur.
Forward this email to someone who’s lost hope.
