Bluesky describes it as a “federated social network” where separate networks exist within a single hub.
According to Bluesky, AT Protocol is built based on four main ideals: account portability; algorithmic; performance; and interoperability. This framework is supposed to allow you to easily transfer your account data to another Bluesky provider as well as give you more control over what you see on a network, among other things.
The website doesn’t offer any details about when the app could become available to the general public or how many testers are allowed to use the app, but it lets users join a waitlist for access.
The big question from my side is where does it exist? Is it going to be its own federated network (ie. you must create a new identity and you only interact with others in the decentralised Bluesky network), or will it interconnect with the Fediverse, Friendica, Hubzilla, etc as well?
If the latter then it would slot in nicely (Friendica and Hubzilla are both on their own decentralised networks, but they have plugin modules that interconnect with the Fediverse as well as Diaspora. This allows new users to join on Bluesky and interact “everywhere” and existing users in the Fediverse could follow and interact with Bluesky accounts.
But if it is its own network and not inter-operating with others, then all I can say is “more duplication and fragmentation”. Users will struggle to then get their friends to also sign up on the new network. Many using Mastodon (and the Fediverse) are quite happily settled there already, and don’t need yet another massive exodus a year later to a different network, but one which is all on it’s own.
I’m really hoping it will be the former case of interoperability would allow for quicker adoption and integration with existing users.
#technology #socialnetworks #decentralisation #Bluesky