Nodestar: Building Blacksky w/ Rudy Fraser

Computer Says Maybe

Social media isn’t really social anymore. But that might be changing. Rudy Fraser over at Blacksky Algorithms has built something new. He has built the infrastructure to provide a safe online space for the black community, and in the process challenges the ideas of hierarchical, centralised networks. His work — even outside the very cool development of Blacksky — is an amazing, concrete example of how the abstract ambitions of decentralisation can provide real value for people, and sets us up for a new kind of tech politics.

More like this: How to (actually) Keep Kids Safe Online w/ Kate Sim

This is part two of Nodestar, our three-part series on decentralisation. Blacksky is a community built using the AT Protocol by Rudy Fraser. Rudy built this both out of a creative drive to make something new using protocol thinking, and out of frustration over a lack of safe community spaces for black folks where they could be themselves, and not have to experience anti-black racism or misogynoir as a price of entry.

Rudy and Alix discuss curation as moderation, the future of community stewardship, freeing ourselves from centralised content decision-making, how technology might connect with mutual aid, and the beauty of what he refers to as ‘dotted-line communities’.

Further reading:

• Blacksky Algorithms
• Blacksky the app — if you want an alternative to Bluesky
• More about Rudy Fraser
• Open Collective — a fiscal host for communities and non-profits
• Paper Tree — community food bank
• The Implicit Feudalism of Online Communities by Nathan Schneider
• Flashes — a 3rd party Bluesky app for viewing photos
• The Tyranny of Struturelessness by Joreen

Rudy is a technologist, community organizer, and founder of Blacksky Algorithms, where he builds decentralized social media infrastructure that prioritizes community-driven safety, data ownership, and interoperability. As a Fellow at the Applied Social Media Lab at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, he advances research and development on technology that empowers marginalized communities, particularly Black users