Allbirds is trying to raise $50M from an unnamed investor to do a full pivot, buy GPUs and build a "GPU-as-a-service" business. New name? NewBird AI. Are we being GAAS-lit?
www.engadget.com/ai/shoe-comp...
I first met Marina through a course I developed at Harvard on tech and innovation in government, and I've been learning from her ever since. I'm thrilled to be hosting the Seattle book party at Urban Family Brewing later this month.
🥳 Join me in Ballard to celebrate: luma.com/oueykyf9
It's launch day for Crisis Engineering — a new book out from former VA CTO Marina Nitze, former US Digital Service administrator and Google SRE Mikey Dickerson, and Matt Weaver, former USDS Rogue Leader.
👉 Buy the book today: crisisengineering.layeraleph.com/crisis-engin...
Surf Social just launched. Which is cool and all. But also there is merch and I'm 100% buying this shirt. surfsocial-shop.fourthwall.com/products/the...
On the scale of 1 to epic
"Rough consensus and running code beat a perfect plan that never leaves the page"
What are your examples of this?
Wishing I had taken more stickers from #ATmosphereConf 🤔
Community is the only moat.
📢 Announcing the Open Social Awards ✨
Alongside PublicSpaces and Waag Futurelab, we aim to honor the work of independent builders around the world, creating innovative products for the open web!
More details below…
newpublic.org/OSA
Very excited to be a part of New_ Public's work on the Open Social Awards: bsky.app/profile/newp...
Please share and if you've built something cool, apply!
“Now, humans aren’t cheese” — @blaine.bsky.social
Technically this train is "American soil." So, first we must wait until the CAN customs people who ~went home~ come back and repatriate us all onto Canadian soil.
Also everyone has to fill out new Canadian customs forms for border patrol since we "left Canada."
Classic North American train update: I've been on the VANCOUVER > SEATTLE train for 2+ hrs but we have only moved a few feet. Turns out the train has a broken wheel so after a few hours of poking around, Amtrak wants to move us to...buses.
But there's more 👇🏽
Was honored to be a funder in the room for this session.
Lots of great talent and insights.
Glad @burrito.space took notes 👇🏽
At ATmosphereCon @jay.bsky.team and @pfrazee.com just announced a new app called Attie, an agentic social feed builder that will automatically build a feed for you on ATProto with natural language.
Paul frazee, cto of Bluesky, with a slide that says "People, not platforms - Anuj Ahooja"
Hey guys, I think this @pfrazee.com guy gets it!
No, seriously, made my day 🙇🏻♂️
Say it louder for the people in the back: People, not platforms!
Image of Tessa presenting on a stage at the University of British Columbia during ATmosphere. The screen behind her reads: consent before cryptography.
. @tessa.germnetwork.com is building encrypted messaging that centers consent and frees us from the phone number.
Free your inbox. Try Germ DM. www.germnetwork.com
Slide explaining that funding models are not binary and include options beyond VC.
Loving the framework and thinking from @mosh.bsky.social to help folks building in the ATmosphere advance from feature > product > durable business.
Pro tip: VC isn't the only place you can get $$$. Think about the stage of your venture and where you're trying to get to next.
We announced the Open Social Awards program yesterday!
🥇 Grand Prize: 10K euros
🥈 Excellence Awards: 5K euros
📆 Apply by Fri May 1
We're protocol agnostic, so if you're building something great on any decentralized protocol, we want to hear from you.
👇🏽 More details below
We're stoked to sponsor the event this year. Thanks to everyone who came to the Meet & Greet this afternoon.
The @newpublic.org team is at ATmosphere talking Roundabout, Open Social Awards, and funding and growth opps for decentralized. Come chat with me or @blaine.bsky.social or @cjtait.bsky.social while we're in Vancouver!
Honestly, I loved Twitter before it became X. Most of my experiences there, most of the time, were fun and useful.
I'll be at PublicSpaces in Amsterdam this June. Hope to see you there!
New_ Public’s own @absp.bsky.social, a UX Researcher and sociolinguist, has a really useful piece on how researchers should be thinking about AI-based fraud, and what to do about it.
Go Abby! 💪🦾
This is the year the internet changes. We have two options: (1) We harden the internet against the bots. (2) We give the bots the internet. And we build something separate for ourselves—the humans. - @kevinroose.com www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/p...
Technologist/podcaster @rabble.nz calls Roundabout, our new local community app in closed beta, “the Good Place version of Nextdoor.”
In an interview with Bluesky’s @jay.bsky.team, they talk about how New_ Public is moving from research & critique ➡️ building flourishing digital public spaces.
"ROUNDABOUT RICHMOND" page showing left sidebar with Home, Feed, Guides, and Calendar navigation, plus "New Post" button. Main content area displays a row of six circular icons with labels underneath: "Info & Updates" (purple with chat bubble icon), "Help & Recs" (yellow/gold with person at desk icon), "People & Lore" (pink with profile in frame icon), "Saving Money" (peach/orange with money/wallet icon), "New To Town" (dark green with waving hand icon), and "Local Biz" (light purple with storefront icon). Below the row of six circular icons with labels is a "Welcome to Roundabout Richmond!" heading with "Edit Note" option. Welcome text explains: "Roundabout Richmond is designed to help you connect with your neighbors, share local information, and build real relationships in your community. You're joining during the beta phase, so there will be rolling improvements over the next few weeks. Thank you so much for joining us! We hope to shape this space together to be what our community needs." Signed by "- Liza & Sam, Richmond Roundabout stewards" with "Liza P" shown with "Steward" badge below.
With Roundabout, our new local community app, we’re reimagining a lot of familiar surfaces and features of “social media.”
Here’s how Roundabout is different:
Let’s dive in! 🧵
Six months ago, I joined New_ Public to help build a new social platform for local communities. Today, I could't be more excited and proud to share what our amazing little team has cooked up, and is launching in closed beta this week.
Learn more at joinroundabout.com
At PDN we focus on designs that improve outcomes on any online platform, but for digital spaces to truly serve communities prosocial design needs to be part of a platform's core. That's why it's so exciting to see this new platform from @newpublic.org go public and enter beta!
joinroundabout.com
