Jack Dorsey Pumps $10M Into a Nonprofit Focused on Open Source Social Media (techcrunch.com) 10
Twitter co-founder/Block CEO Jack Dorsey isn't just vibe coding new apps like Bitchat and Sun Day. He's also "invested $10 million in an effort to fund experimental open source projects and other tools that could ultimately transform the social media landscape," reports TechCrunch," funding the projects through an online collective formed in May called "andOtherStuff:
[T]he team at "andOtherStuff" is determined not to build a company but is instead operating like a "community of hackers," explains Evan Henshaw-Plath [who handles UX/onboarding and was also Twitter's first employee]. Together, they're working to create technologies that could include new consumer social apps as well as various experiments, like developer tools or libraries, that would allow others to build apps for themselves.
For instance, the team is behind an app called Shakespeare, which is like the app-building platform Lovable, but specifically for building Nostr-based social apps with AI assistance. The group is also behind heynow, a voice note app built on Nostr; Cashu wallet; private messenger White Noise; and the Nostr-based social community +chorus, in addition to the apps Dorsey has already released. Developments in AI-based coding have made this type of experimentation possible, Henshaw-Plath points out, in the same way that technologies like Ruby on Rails, Django, and JSON helped to fuel an earlier version of the web, dubbed Web 2.0.
Related to these efforts, Henshaw-Plath sat down with Dorsey for the debut episode of his new podcast, revolution.social with @rabble... Dorsey believes Bluesky faces the same challenges as traditional social media because of its structure — it's funded by VCs, like other startups. Already, it has had to bow to government requests and faced moderation challenges, he points out. "I think [Bluesky CEO] Jay [Graber] is great. I think the team is great," Dorsey told Henshaw-Plath, "but the structure is what I disagree with ... I want to push the energy in a different direction, which is more like Bitcoin, which is completely open and not owned by anyone from a protocol layer...."
Dorsey's initial investment has gotten the new nonprofit up and running, and he worked on some of its initial iOS apps. Meanwhile, others are contributing their time to build Android versions, developer tools, and different social media experiments. More is still in the works, says Henshaw-Plath.
"There are things that we're not ready to talk about yet that'll be very exciting," he teases.
For instance, the team is behind an app called Shakespeare, which is like the app-building platform Lovable, but specifically for building Nostr-based social apps with AI assistance. The group is also behind heynow, a voice note app built on Nostr; Cashu wallet; private messenger White Noise; and the Nostr-based social community +chorus, in addition to the apps Dorsey has already released. Developments in AI-based coding have made this type of experimentation possible, Henshaw-Plath points out, in the same way that technologies like Ruby on Rails, Django, and JSON helped to fuel an earlier version of the web, dubbed Web 2.0.
Related to these efforts, Henshaw-Plath sat down with Dorsey for the debut episode of his new podcast, revolution.social with @rabble... Dorsey believes Bluesky faces the same challenges as traditional social media because of its structure — it's funded by VCs, like other startups. Already, it has had to bow to government requests and faced moderation challenges, he points out. "I think [Bluesky CEO] Jay [Graber] is great. I think the team is great," Dorsey told Henshaw-Plath, "but the structure is what I disagree with ... I want to push the energy in a different direction, which is more like Bitcoin, which is completely open and not owned by anyone from a protocol layer...."
Dorsey's initial investment has gotten the new nonprofit up and running, and he worked on some of its initial iOS apps. Meanwhile, others are contributing their time to build Android versions, developer tools, and different social media experiments. More is still in the works, says Henshaw-Plath.
"There are things that we're not ready to talk about yet that'll be very exciting," he teases.
RFC 561, 1459, 1945, 4287... (Score:3, Insightful)
It is sad that the go-to example of an open protocol has come to this.
Translation (Score:4, Interesting)
So he wants to create another Mastodon without mentioning Mastodon nor explaining why Mastodon wouldn't fit his "vision".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
He can implement whatever he wants as long as the backend uses ActivityPub. The Fediverse is neither opposed to new services nor to reinventing the wheel, as long as the wheels are fully compatible.
Investor 101. (Score:2)
Twitter sucks. Jack Dorsey's 15 minutes of fame are as over as Andy Warhol is.
Taking publicly existing protocols and pretending to extend them to create something new is as Trumpian is you get.
There's no THERE here.
He used the idea of limiting conversations to 140 characters or less (as if humans turned into halfwit memory buffers at some point) to make billions. I think he’s just a tad jaded about suck-cess.
You know who’s 15 minutes of fame are just getting started this century? Mass Addiction. Ain’t fucking hard to make another Shitter app. The mildly challenging part is winning the popularity contest just long enough to cash out. Also known as Investor 101.
Hey, at least he’s only focuse
WeShit. (Score:2)
The team at "andOtherStuff" is determined not to build a company but is instead operating like a "community of hackers”..
And I’m sure WeWork intended to build a “community of workers” too. I wonder if this haphazardly marketed bag of WeDoShitHere might suffer a similar fate when The Bobs start walking in and asking ”What would you say you do here, besides vibing?”
Re: (Score:2)
"We fucking do programming, motherfucker." - Zed A. Shaw And The Programming Motherfuckers
Sorry to report the programmer channeling Jules Winnfield , is still sitting in my who-the-fuck bit bucket.
Now I really need to know about THIS motherfucker..