Moats & Drawbridges
In a world obsessed with moats, the open social web drops drawbridges
augment
A space where I write essays about technology, mostly focused on the open social web and the human internet.
Latest posts
Hello, Leaflet 👋🏼🍃
How I moved my existing standard.site blog to Leaflet, and why
Introducing Disperse: A Share Sheet for the Atmosphere
Over the last few months, I’ve been thinking through what services that cross the Atmosphere would look like. It’s led to a few experiments that are worth sharing, so here’s the first one. Disperse is a website, bookmarklet, linkable service, and (soon) a browser extension that allows you to share in several different formats across the Atmosphere all at once. It uses the unique account and data…
The Joy of AtmosphereConf
Last weekend, I was at the second annual AtmosphereConf among 300-some-odd of the kindest people I think I’ve ever met in tech/tech-adjacent spaces. I wanted to capture some of my emotions as I left the space on Monday, so here’s a peek into my experience. I’ve opted to keep people’s names out since this isn’t a transient post on the skyline. That said, I hope the references are clear and you know…
augment's Atmospheric Home
We made it! augment has officially moved over to a self-hosted site, and I’m so excited to tell you all about it. I’ve always wanted augment to be a space that I could write, but more importantly, I wanted to be a canvas where I could imagine what blogging can look like when it becomes a ==social space==. One where published posts don’t just sit to be seen, but commented on, interacted with…
I'm moving 🚚
Well, not me, really. This blog is moving. For those who may not be aware, this blog is currently hosted by Ghost , a popular newsletter tool that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using over the past year and change. That said, my long-term goal has always been to self-host this blog. So, behind the scenes, I’ve been working on migrating to my own site. I’ll talk more about how it’s all set up once we’re…
The Everything Account
I’ve been thinking a lot about our accounts lately. We all have an ever-growing pile of digital identities scattered across the web, many forgotten after a brief stint with a random service we found in an app store. It’s like second nature at this point: we check out a new service and fill in the usual suspects: first name, last name, email, username, password (better confirm it!), address (wait,…
But First, Interoperability
Back in November, I wrote an essay that explored the significance of services like Bridgy Fed , a protocol-level bridge that connects open social platforms. Since then, Ryan Barrett , the builder behind Bridgy Fed, and I have started A New Social : a nonprofit focused on building more cross-protocol tools like the bridge. Recently, we announced our first in-house project: Bounce . It allows you to…
The Vibes Are Insecure - Human Generated Content
Hey there! It’s good to be back on the blog. Over the past few months, I’ve been focused on setting up the foundations for A New Social . I couldn’t have imagined this is where I’d end up after writing my Bridges & The Last Network Effect post, but here we are! It’s been a wild ride, but I’m energized about the work we’ve set out to do, and we’re ready to share a lot of exciting things over the…
Bridges & The Last Network Effect
We’re in an exciting moment for the open social web. As Elon makes one bad decision after another on X, we’ve seen waves of users leave the platform for alternatives. Three obvious beneficiaries of these, ahem , lapses of judgment are Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. What’s particularly interesting about these three platforms is that while they have different perspectives on the open social web,…
Sky High - Human-Generated Content
Human-Generated Content
A Quick Update
Hi folks! Phew , it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I hope everyone is doing well, and hello to all my new subscribers! The last month has been busy, to say the least, and I wanted to give a few updates on what I’ve been working on. Hello, sub.club First off, over the last few months I’ve been advising s ub.club, a payments tool built for ActivityPub. I’ve been harping on about how we need a P atreon…
Escaping the Rigged Internet - Human-Generated Content
“User-generated content continues to be tremendously undervalued by the platforms that distribute user-generated content” - John Green The vlogbrothers have entered the conversation about the future of human-generated content, and you already know that I had to talk about it. Hi there! In this issue, we’ll be diving into a discussion between Hank and John Green (the vlogbrothers) about how deals…
The Fediverse and Front Porches - Human-Generated Content
Human Generated Content, Issue 6
If You Can't Beat'em - Human-Generated Content
Human Generated Content, Issue 5
The Threads Creator Paradox
It’s been just over a year since Meta launched Threads, a microblogging platform built upon Instagram’s foundation. While still in its infancy, the team has quickly added features that present itself as a viable alternative to its contemporaries, the most important being a TweetDeck-like desktop UI . But there seems to be an existential question that keeps bubbling up under the surface every few…
Erasure and Slop - Human-Generated Content
Human Generated Content, Issue 4
Human-Generated Content 3
“My goal for the next issue is to not talk about the Fediverse.” That was me in the last issue of Human-Generated Content and I would like to start by apologizing for this very predictable lie. Hello, again! Last time, we talked about the diverging strategies between publishers choosing AI or the social web - let’s continue that thread today. If you didn’t notice, there were a lot of AI stories…
Human-Generated Content 2
Publishers are seeing two very different futures for their businesses. Is the future of media aggregated and summarized or is it direct-to-audience?
Patreon Belongs in the Fediverse
Patreon needs to become Threads before Threads become Patreon.
Google Danced - Will Apple?
Boy, did they make Google dance.
Human-Generated Content 1
This issue, Nilay Patel talks to Google's Sundar Pichai on AI, chriswaves and Mike Masnick each explore the managed decline of the web, and Molly White and Mike McCue chat about building a new web inspired by the old one.
Ghost is about to beat Substack in Discoverability
Ghost's Fediverse integration will have larger implications for the newsletter landscape. Namely, I think this will eventually bring the slow death of another social silo, Substack.
Social Silos: On Post, Artifact, and the future of closed networks
I think Post's greatest miss was not interoperating with complementary products like Flipboard, Artifact, WordPress, Medium, and Ghost to build out a cross-platform network of creators, curators, and consumers.
Threads on Mastodon and The Bright Future of the Fediverse
This is my journey that started as an experiment to see how my Threads feed would look like on Mastodon and ended with me finding experiences that went above and beyond my expectations.
hello 👋🏼
Hi there! Thanks for dropping in. You’re likely here because you saw me posting on Threads , Mastodon , or Bluesky about this new project I’m kicking off. It’s been something that’s been on my mind for longer than it should’ve been and I’m excited to finally take the plunge. augment is a blog / newsletter by me, Anuj Ahooja. I’ll be using this space for longer-form content. A place to review…