Online/Virtual Event

Thursday, April 28th 2022 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm

See a recording of this webinar here.

In today's social media world, we’ve seen platforms go awry when faced with the scourges of misinformation and trolling. In authoritarian regimes, entire platforms are easily blocked. And yes, a billionaire can buy a platform and change the rules. 

Would decentralized (or P-2-P) social media, where there is no central controlling entity, be better? How do you take down damaging posts when there is no central command center? The founders of some of the top decentralized social media networks, from Matrix to Manyverse to the new Bluesky initiative, walk you through the possibilities. With demonstrations of how to use these peer-to-peer alternatives to Facebook, Slack and Twitter.

Speakers

Jay Graber is CEO of Bluesky, the initiative funded by Jack Dorsey and Twitter, “to develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.”

Matthew Hodgson is Co-founder of the Matrix.org. Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralized communication with more than 40M users.

Andre Staltz is Creator of Manyverse, a free, open source “social network without the bad stuff,” built on the peer-to-peer SSB protocol. 

About This Series

The World Wide Web started with so much promise: to connect people across any distance, to allow anyone to become a publisher, and to democratize access to knowledge. However, today the Web seems to be failing us. It’s not private, secure, or unifying. The internet has, in large part, ended up centralizing access and power in the hands of a few dominant platforms. 

What if we could build something better—what some are calling the decentralized web?

In this series of six workshops, we’ll explore the ways in which moving to decentralized technologies may enhance your privacy, empower you to control your own data, and resist censorship. Join us to hear from experts in the leading peer-to-peer technologies, from identity to data storage. We’ll see demonstrations of blockchains, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and decentralized storage projects in action. Learn how the decentralized web might yet create systems that empower individuals by eliminating central points of control.