[
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[Tomorrowland / Walt Disney](
the Guardian
Tomorrowland: how Walt Disney’s strange utopia shaped the world of tomorrow
Disneyland is celebrating its 60th birthday with a movie version of one of its most famous attractions. But do we still need the theme park now tha...
)
People regularly ask me whether Bridgy Fed is ready to scale and support more users. It’s a technical question, but their underlying motivation is usually broader: they believe in the social web, and the [fediverse(s)](
The Nexus Of Privacy
I for one welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS ARMY, millions of Brazilians, Black Twitter, and sex worker Twitter to the fediverses! (UPDATED)
Now also welcoming Black Twitter and sex worker Twitter!
), and they want them to connect [everyone who’s willing](
Evan Prodromou's Blog
Big Fedi, Small Fedi
As I often do, I made a poll on the fediverse about two concepts I am interested in: Big Fedi versus Small Fedi. Although I think these are interes...
), across instances and networks and protocols.
Right now, the answer is, I don’t know. It’s not a technical thing; as an engineer, that part is catnip for me. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and dive in. The more difficult part is *organizational*. Right now, [Bridgy Fed is effectively one person’s side project](
snarfed.org
Re-introducing Bridgy Fed
Hi! I’m Ryan. I’ve been building social network bridges and related tools for over 12 years, including Bridgy, which connects personal ...
). I love building and running (and funding!) it, and I have no plans to change that. However, it has basically no organization, governance, or institutional structure. It’s just me.
That’s ok! At least, as long as it continues to be one person’s side project. It’s growing, though, and people are starting to envision it, and bridges in general, as more important parts of the decentralized social web. Load bearing infrastructure.
Stable, reliable infrastructure is hugely valuable. To do it right, you need stable, reliable organizational structure. You need people to dedicate their time and expertise, sustainably. You need funding, and institutional governance, and some amount of transparency.
Right now, Bridgy Fed mostly doesn’t have those things. It’s one person’s side project.
That could change! I’m open to it. *I don’t plan to lead that change myself, though.* I’ve enjoyed building it in my spare time for [many years now](
snarfed.org
Bridgy Fed
I’m launching a new side project! Bridgy Fed connects your IndieWeb site with federated social networks like Mastodon and Hubzilla. If your s...
), and I have no plans to stop any time soon. It is not [my career](
snarfed.org
(no title)
Experienced engineering leader. 20+ years building and scaling backend infrastructure, data platforms and applications, and cross functional teams....
), though, or my calling, or my life’s work. I’ve spent my last 10+ years in leadership, I’m comfortable with it, but this isn’t where I’m personally looking to do it. For me, Bridgy Fed just a fun, hopefully useful side project. I’ve been between gigs for a bit now, spending a lot of time on it, but that won’t last forever. I expect to take a real job again eventually, and when that happens, I’ll have way less of that time.
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[xkcd: Dependency](
)
So, to anyone hoping Bridgy Fed will become core infrastructure for the social web: that is one possible future! The first thing we’d need is an executive director or CEO, someone who wants to lead its organization, product, and policy. Someone who’d build relationships with groups like [IFTAS](
IFTAS – Nonprofit trust and safety support for volunteer social web content moderators
), the [SWF](
Social Web Foundation
Social Web Foundation
Towards a bigger, better fediverse
), [Bluesky](
Bluesky
Bluesky
Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.
), [IndieWeb](
IndieWeb
The IndieWeb is a people-focused alternative to the “corporate web”.
), and others. Someone who’d own fundraising, if necessary. (Funding isn’t the real problem here, though. I self fund Bridgy Fed right now, and I could expand that to help with staff and other costs.)
This wouldn’t be a full time job; I expect it would only take 5-10 hours per week. It wouldn’t necessarily need a dedicated role or standalone organization, either. Bridgy Fed could live comfortably as one of many projects inside a broader group like IFTAS or the SWF, or even a benevolent company like [Flipboard](
Flipboard
Flipboard: Your Social Magazine
One place for all the stories you care about. Join the Flipboard community to discover and share what inspires you.
) or non-profit like [Ghost](
Ghost - The Professional Publishing Platform
Ghost: The best open source blog & newsletter platform
Beautiful, modern publishing with email newsletters and paid subscriptions built-in. Used by Platformer, 404Media, Lever News, Tangle, The Browser,...
).
Another possible future for Bridgy Fed is the glide path it’s on now: one person’s side project. I can keep running it like this for the foreseeable future. Hopefully useful and stable, but definitely not core infrastructure. No real governance or institutional structure.
In particular, as one person’s side project, Bridgy Fed would probably remain opt-in in most places. This post is not about [opt-in vs opt-out](
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/tear-down-walls-not-bridges/ ), or any other big policy or product decision, but it is about *who makes those decisions*, and *how they should be made.* Regardless of how public or global or searchable a network is, or how much it encourages tools to be opt-out – like Bluesky does – making Bridgy Fed opt-out anywhere would set more of an expectation that it’s core infrastructure. As long as it’s just my side project, I can’t satisfy that expectation.
If you think Bridgy Fed needs to grow up and be real infrastructure, and you’re interested in possibly leading it as executive director, or adopting it into a bigger organization, or you know somone who might be, that’s a very possible future. [Drop me a line](
snarfed.org
about
@snarfed.org snarfed.org snarfed snarfed@ryanb.org Open source and professional software engineer, father, pianist, writer, climate hawk,...
), I’d love to talk. In the meantime, when people ask me whether it can scale, or switch to opt-out, or what the long term plan is, I now have something to point them to. Thanks for reading.
) on a new non-profit for the open social web, across protocols, with Bridgy Fed as its first main project! [Introducing A New Social.](https://www.anew.social/hello-social-web/ )
When I posted *[Possible futures for Bridgy Fed](
) about the potential he sees in the open social web, across all sorts of networks – “people, not platforms!” – and how we have an opportunity now that we haven’t had in a long time.
And there are so many more of you, across the space, who’ve joined and committed to supporting us! We’re truly humbled and grateful. We’re still only at the very beginning, we have a lot of work to do, but we’re excited to get started. Wish us luck, and please [reach out if you want to get involved]( )!
