Relevant Overviews
- Bluesky and the ATmosphere
- Content Strategy
- Fediverse
- Online Community Management
- Social Media Strategy
- Content Creation & Marketing
- Digital Transformation
- Change & Project Management
- Personal Productivity
- Innovation Strategy
- Communications Tactics
- Social Web
- Media
- Politics
- Communications Strategy
- Science&Technology
- Business
- Large language models
Overview: Bluesky and the ATmosphere
The ATmosphere is the information ecosystem based on ATproto, the protocol developed by and for Bluesky. More interconnected apps are emerging. The potential for better online conversations is profound... if adequate revenue streams can be confirmed.
(last edit: February 2025)
Just as Mastodon is on the Fediverse, an information ecosystem where it and other apps can interact using the ActivityPub protocol, the Bluesky protocol (ATproto) underpins the ATmosphere ecosystem. In 2025, I'm betting that this is the most promising ground for #AI4communities.
Origins: Bluesky
ATproto was originally going to underpin Twitter before Elon Musk bought it. Moreover, when the Bluesky team then spun off from Twitter, they decided to keep many things unchanged, making the transition easier for people fleeing X.
The result looked and felt so similar that many people didn't spot how the open, permissionless nature of this new environment set Bluesky apart. Some key Bluesky features include:
- Custom feeds, each a subset of the Bluesky firehose, tuned to a particular community's interests and moderation preferences, created by anyone using a variety of 3rd party tools (see Bluesky custom feeds) and usable by anyone by simply pinning the feed to their interface
- Labellers apply labels to accounts - like custom feeds, anyone can create one, using a variety of tools, and anyone can subscribe to them if they want to see the label
- Block/mute lists are a sort of labeller: subscribe to one and you'll never see content from anyone on the list in your timeline
- Starter packs package a list of up to 150 people and (optionally) custom feeds relevant to a particular topic, and provide a feed of the people's posts.
- 3rd party apps: you don't need to use the official Bluesky app - there are many others, and because the ATmosphere is permissionless they won't go the way of Tweetdeck.
Enter the ATmosphere
The ATmophere is a permissionless ecosystem - anyone can build anything they like, and can access the Bluesky feed, without having to get Bluesky Social PBC's permission.
So, like Mastodon, Bluesky is not the only kid on its protocol block: in mid-2024 the Whitewind blogging platform launched, and within a few months a plethora of other apps were in beta, including Instagram- & TikTok lookalikes (all tools tagged #atproto and #tool).
Is it decentralised?
Yes, but not as decentralised as Fediverse. The key arguments in this once-fractious debate were both articulated and calmed by two protocol engineers: Christine Lemmer-Webber (ActivityPub co-author) and Bryan Newbold of Bluesky, who exchanged three enormous blog posts. After reading, annotating and generally struggling through all three (and more), I came out with a few conclusions (paraphrased from my newsletter from December 2024 and January 2025):
- There are different degrees of decentralisation, and different ways to get there. A comparison between the relatively mature Fediverse and Bluesky, with its brand-new protocol, is therefore tricky, particularly as Bluesky is focusing first and foremost on providing an X-like experience as possible for everyone fleeing X, which required certain choices to be made.
- There are too many blog posts, not enough wikis - someone should lock these two in a room somewhere until they come up with a text they both agree on
- I hope this protocol competition will evolve until the two spaces complement each other, as:
- ATProto's shared-heap model structurally favours few servers, "and thus has a natural centralizing force"
- ActivityPub has an incentive to keep the average followers/user low.
- the Fediverse will therefore probably remain a good place for cozyweb spaces, and co-exist with more global conversations on the more centralised and business-like ATmosphere.
- The world needs both.
What does the ATmosphere represent?
I first saw this when I published my December newsletter, and an extract from it as a stand-alone post, on Whitewind (see everything I Do or Think tagged #Whitewind).
When you sign up to blog on Whitewind, you use your Bluesky ID, and your blog posts live in your Bluesky Personal Data Store. So it's your content, and if Whitewind disappears, you can take it with you to another provider (or build your own), and all of your links keep working. Whitewind doesn't own you. You own you.
Moreover, there's "seamless comments integration with BlueSky: a comment posted to the blog is shared on the commenter's Bluesky account, and whenever someone shares the post on Bluesky it also appears under the post" - Thinking transparently in the ATmosphere.
The code for that integration is freely available, so this has massive implications for website-based communities, among other things.
One of those other things is #ai4communities, which was originally more Fediverse-oriented when I first started articulating it in January 2023. In 2024 I began revisiting it on my experimental wiki with a "technology-agnostic" post accompanied by sub-pages exploring how it would look on the Fediverse, the ATmosphere and (tbd) Nostr. The exercise convinced me that the ATmosphere is most promising, which is why it's been the focus of recent newsletters.
Relevant resources
experiments.myhub.ai
Integrating ATProtocol with your website:lets you build powerful, interactive online communities with very simple code; while giving you in-built reach to 40+m users across the Atmosphere; and allowing your members to own and manage their own data.
experiments.myhub.ai
Integrating your event co-creation community with the Atmosphere brings you increased engagement and improved reach with a substantially simpler website.
experiments.myhub.ai
In case you're not following the development of the Atmosphere yet, I thought I'd share the snowballing energy I see every morning when I open Bluesky’s For You feed.
experiments.myhub.ai
My proposal to the atproto.science conference: "I'm interested in exploring how we can manage competition and cooperation in the atmosphere."
mailchi.mp
"I was in Berlin last November to present at a satellite event around the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty. The two posts which resulted are below, followed by the latest from the growing ATProto4Science movement."
mathewlowry.medium.com
"Large organisations need dedicated tools and processes to manage their Bluesky presence and get the most out of ATproto".A repost onto Medium of version 4 of a wiki page I've been developing for most of the year.
Think
media,
science,
community,
eu,
democracy,
publicsphere,
europe,
bluesky,
atprotocol,
eurosky,
atproto adoption,
sovereignty
mathewlowry.medium.com
"What happens when you put politicians, media businesses and protocol engineers in the same room to discuss European sovereignty?" - my post following Eurosky.Live in Berlin, November 2025.
Think
social media,
community,
eu,
democracy,
organisation,
curation,
europe,
bluesky,
bluesky custom feeds,
atprotocol,
atproto adoption,
sovereignty
mailchi.mp
Newsletter as I head off to Berlin to talk about digital sovereignty, social media and ATprotocol.
mathewlowry.medium.com
"A journalist gets blocked by Bluesky, but her Bluesky posts can still be seen via Blacksky. This apparent contradiction goes to the heart of resilient social media, where businesses must support their users to stay in business"
Think
social media,
community,
resilience,
bluesky,
atprotocol,
blacksky,
atprotocol lexicon,
atproto adoption
mathewlowry.medium.com
What does sovereignty look like in the social media space? Some thoughts before heading to Berlin to help launch eurosky.social at a side event around the Franco-German Summit on European Digital Sovereignty.
mailchi.mp
In late April I was in Hamburg for Ahoy! 2025, the first European conference dedicated to the ATmosphere — the information ecosystem built atop of ATproto, the protocol underpinning Bluesky.
mathewlowry.myhub.ai
In late April I was in Hamburg for Ahoy! 2025, the first European conference dedicated to the ATmosphere - the information ecosystem built atop of ATproto, the protocol underpinning Bluesky. I proposed a couple of ideas for the unconference sessions, and came away with content for at least 5 posts, none of which I've found time to write.
Think
collective intelligence,
myhub,
early adopter,
tools,
bluesky,
atprotocol,
ahoy2025,
ahoy,
groundmist
experiments.myhub.ai
Some thoughts on how Groundmist supports the ideas I'm developing for decentralised collective intelligence, written in preparation for an online workshop with the Groundmist developer and other interested people.
whtwnd.com
"Let's build a tool to help large organisations coordinate their Bluesky footprint, helping them get the most out of the platform" - One of my suggested conversation topics at the Ahoy conference, April, 2025.
mailchi.mp
Last month I published a couple of posts on X and Bluesky. They make a nice pair, so I'm including both, below, and taking this opportunity to ask for your perspective. I'd really value getting you and your organisation's views on both platforms in 2025, and I'd be happy to answer any questions in return.
mathewlowry.myhub.ai
If, like many, you think Bluesky is "Twitter, but with less Nazis", this post is for you.
mathewlowry.myhub.ai
I've been cleaning out a few rotten systems recently.
whtwnd.com
"This post was extracted from the draft of my December newsletter and published on Whitewind, demonstrating how a new array of apps on the ATmosphere - the ecosystem built with ATProto, Bluesky's protocol - could potentially usher in seamless decentralised collective intelligence."
whtwnd.com
"I usually circulate my newsletter to its subscribers via Mailchimp before reposting it to Medium for my subscribers there. However, for this edition I posted this content from Obsidian, my notemaking tool, direct to Bluesky's Atmosphere. It's early days, but I think this augurs well for decentralised collective intelligence."
mathewlowry.medium.com
My mid November 2024 newsletter summarises how a deep dive into Bluesky has changed how I view #AI4Communities, and summarises some of the most influential things I've read recently.
Think
publicsphere,
newsletter,
collective intelligence,
fediverse,
bluesky,
ai4communities,
atprotocol
mathewlowry.medium.com
My late October 2024 newsletter introduces my ongoing work exploring #AI4Communities, and provides some of the resources going into the next version.
www.linkedin.com
One of the snippets from a ZNLive interview I did in December 2023: "emerging social media platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky face a humorous yet real challenge - they're like "Twitter, but without your friends."With the European launch of Threads, the question arises: Can it offer a unique appeal to draw users? Will [they]... redefine social net…
Relevant Overviews
- Bluesky and the ATmosphere
- Content Strategy
- Fediverse
- Online Community Management
- Social Media Strategy
- Content Creation & Marketing
- Digital Transformation
- Change & Project Management
- Personal Productivity
- Innovation Strategy
- Communications Tactics
- Social Web
- Media
- Politics
- Communications Strategy
- Science&Technology
- Business
- Large language models