All about social networks

Focusing on the needs of real people isn't something that you can push up to UI design and ignore at the protocolar level. Decentralisation isn't a property of your software or protocol, it's a measure of how much the people who use and are affected by a system can have agency over it — and that agency has to be reflected at lower layers too.

You cannot fix social media by having a non-profit run it or by guiding it with some ethical principles (which at any rate means absolutely nothing without accountability to people). There is simply no universal ranking of content acceptability — there are in fact likely as many different rankings as there are people — and even if there were there ... See more

One way to understand computer systems in large social settings is as automated bureaucracies. Forget the hype and the jargon, that really is what they are. I know that no one gets excited about bureaucracy (except for social scientists, no kinkshaming) but what kind of bureaucracy runs any given important part of your life (and of society at large... See more

Many concepts that sound good on paper are infeasible to implement, or simply don’t produce the expected results. It’s frustrating when that happens, of course, but the pace of experimentation and learning at a startup is unparalleled. I think this is an especially important form of rigor for theorycels like me. Building product forces a different ... See more

The work of political theorist Bernardo Zacka illuminates the importance of “in-between spaces.” Zacka’s focus is on physical spaces, such as balconies on apartment buildings that overlook the street, and how they can enable what Zacka calls a “reserved sociability” that strengthens pluralism in democratic societies. (12) When the driver of a car s... See more

In a sense, the most important decision for any group to make is how to allocate their attention. In any online discussion platform, a deliberative consensus protocol can be used to focus attention on the most informative conversation threads and on comments that stand up to scrutiny, thereby promoting deep, honest, informed, and intelligent conver... See more