Bulletin Board: Cloud Atlas, Portland, and Small AI

Welcome back to New_ Public’s Bulletin Board, where we share the best of what the prosocial internet has to offer and build connections among technologists, builders, funders, designers, engineers, researchers, community leaders, and anyone else who wants to make the web more public-spirited and healthy. ✨

This month’s Bulletin Board meanders across different approaches to AI, new research resources and opportunities, and local communities — both IRL and online. We encourage wandering: it’s how you find what you didn’t know you needed.

• Calling prosocial design researchers: The Prosocial Design Network announced two convenings and new mini research grants for researchers and practitioners building alternatives to Big Tech social media. They want to fund research on fostering connection, community, and social cohesion. Reach out to Julia at the link for more info about their event focused on the open social web in Spring 2027.

• Roundabout in Portland podcast: Hays Witt, part of the Roundabout team and also a community steward in the new Southeast Portland Roundabout space, went on a local podcast to talk about what’s been working — SE PDX is now our biggest and most active space, by far.

• A milestone for Roundabout communities 🎉:

• Watch Nathan Storey — Director of Data Governance at NYC’s Office of Technology & Innovation and the creator of Civic AI Tools — share his vibe-coding setup at this Show & Tell from Civic Tech Field Guide. Also, check out their crowdsourced collection of thousands of democracy tech projects from around the world!

• A cool project to keep an eye on: writer / researcher Erin Kissane is working on what she calls A Cloud Atlas for the ATmosphere, an ecosystem map of everything built on top of AT Protocol, the open social web standard that powers Bluesky.

• Wow: here’s a library of over 2,000 pieces of evidence cited in lawsuits against social media companies across the United States.

• Tech communicator Baratunde Thurston had New_ Public Co-Director Deepti Doshi on his podcast “Life with Machines” to talk about AI vibecoding in local communities, as well as Roundabout, our local community app. Baratunde is genuinely excited about Roundabout.

We ask new newsletter subscribers about their favorite public places, and sometimes we get great responses! 🗺️Carolyn in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, told us about the two-block-wide complex near her house:

It includes Brower Park, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and a public elementary school. I find myself at Brower Park at least 4 days per week. I go there to read, meditate, meet a friend, grab ice cream when the Mister Softee truck is out front, or simply sit on a park bench and watch the world go by.

This public space is a gathering ground and an information hub, and is a lifeline in my neighborhood. This space helps me learn more about where I live, discover new community groups, and meet people I might not encounter otherwise. It’s the kind of space that could inspire digital elements or platforms.

We hope this inspires you to share your favorite public space with us — reply in the comments or send us a note through our contact form.

• What’s your favorite public space, and why does it matter to you?

• Is there a way to translate some of those elements into digital spaces?

Leave a comment

In last month’s Bulletin Board, we asked if you thought AI tools are inherently parasitic. It’s a topic the New_ Public team is continuously reflecting on, as we work on research like After the Feed and think about our AI policy.

This question makes me think of AI and datasets where scale is not the objective, an idea I was introduced to by artist and researcher Aarati Akkapeddi during their public talk on handmade datasets.

Aarati highlighted other small datasets like AIxDesign’s chapter on Small AI and Small Batch: A Dataset Farmers Market that put community at the center of the technology. Seeing AI projects at this smaller, community level makes AI feel less artificial and more like an active archive.

Occasionally we get requests that might be a great opportunity for someone in our larger community. Let’s see if we can make a connection!

Lauren Mecca is growing Tech/ish, a network of hosts gathering diverse groups to understand AI together. Events range from a creative installation to a monthly salon series. Tech/ish aims to promote broad AI literacy and inspire togetherness across views. If you’re interested in (or already!) hosting events that help communities build resilience through the AI transition, reach out to Lauren.

Want to get in touch with Lauren? Use our contact form and put “For Lauren M.” at the start of your message. We’ll pass along your messages. Or, if you have a request to share in the next Bulletin Board, also please send that along.

We like to use this space to remind folks that not only are there great alternatives to mainstream social media apps and tools out there, we have a directory of over 300 of them that anyone can submit to!

A quick shoutout to PeerTube, a decentralized, peer-to-peer distributed online video-sharing application that’s funded mainly through grassroots donations and European government grants. No ads, no algorithm, no tracking! Here’s more from the Association for Progressive Communication’s interview with PeerTube.

Mari Hsu, on the difference between being efficient and being effective, in the context of urban planning:

Shifting from efficient to effective may not be popular. Community engagement efforts are messy, time consuming, and expensive. But so are curb cuts - without them, we fail to meet ADA standards and leave wheeled folks literally in the gutter. It may be less efficient to plant trees when repaving a sidewalk, but without them the space is unfriendly and uncomfortable for pedestrians. This simple language change can drive larger systemic changes in modes of thinking, and in the effect our work has on communities. We can be part of positive change if we put our minds to it effectively.

Yours inefficiently,
Nina Joung