Thoughts on ATmosphereConf as an ATProto Newbie

If you logged into Bluesky over the weekend, you no doubt saw posts about the ATmosphereConf that took place in Vancouver, BC. I, myself, had the pleasure of attending as a newbie to the ATmosphere.

TL;DR: I had a great time, met lots of people, and got inspiration to build something meaningful. It was such a great experience, I plan on attending next year, wherever it’s hosted.

If you’re thinking about whether you should attend, or just want to know what the conference was like from a noob’s perspective, I’ll share my experience and a couple suggestions to make the conference even better for first-timers.

First, a few things about me

I’m an idealist*.

I’m so much of an idealist, I started a meditation group for people like me that believe life can be bigger than just sleep, work, doomscroll, repeat. I believe the antidote for many societal challenges is a strong network of nourishing communities. The Community is my life purpose, and the drive behind everything I do.

I also hate that Big Tech owns my community.

Meetup.com is where we get new members, and how we organize events. Discord is how we keep in touch outside of meetings. My salary, which supports the group, even comes from Big Tech. My community is at the mercy of techno-capitalist overlords.

*I'm an Earthseed idealist, IYKYK

Why I attended ATmosphereConf

When I attended the conference, I wanted to answer two questions. Can I:

Get excited enough about ATProto to build something for my community?

Meet other idealists like me that want to support me and my goals?

I’d say the answer to both questions is yes. Through this blog, I hope to explain why.

On getting inspiration to build

On the idealism front, the presenters more than matched my energy. There were certainly many talks covering technical aspects of the protocol. But, most importantly, there were also talks about why the protocol is necessary, and what’s at stake if this protocol and others like it don’t succeed.

What I learned: federated social media is critical to democracy’s survival. If we want humans to reach each other and share information freely, we cannot allow social media to be controlled by a handful of oligarchs.

@sebastian.eurosky.social illustrated this best when he explained how Nazis used centralized ownership of the radio to capture the national narrative. It’s why Germany’s radio stations, to this day, remain federated. To prevent one single authority from exerting their will over the airwaves, Germany's radios must be free and independent.

We must do the same for social media.

Some of my favorite talks on this were:

Open social tech and geopolitical risk by @ivansigal.eurosky.social

Building Public-interest infrastructure on ATProto by @sebastian.eurosky.social

Journalism must create its own algorithms by @aendra.com

Advocating for Digital Sovereignty: European Experiences and Global Lessons by @samvie.eurosky.social

Creating a Safer Web: Blacksky's Moderation Tool by @drkalyncoghill.blacksky.team

On the builder front, there were many opportunities to learn and get inspired. Friday contained a whole day of workshops to teach attendees how to consume and produce content in the ATmosphere. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to participate meaningfully, but the presenters were nice enough to share their repo of learning materials.

Throughout the conference, I also learned by just hearing about what others built. Some of my favorite talks include:

Who owns the group chat? Building collaborative spaces on ATProto by @brittanyellich.com

Oaklog: Building a community calendar in the Oakland Bay Area by @pop.pe

On meeting my peers

As an ATProto noob, I’m happy to report meeting people was fairly easy.

Part of this was because of the ethos of the conference: “we can just do things.” This meant, whenever anyone wanted to do a fun activity, they posted about it on #ATmosphereConf and invited people to link up. That’s how I met a bunch of people my first night - @julietshen.bsky.social made dinner plans, and suddenly I had 15 new friends.

This “we can just do things” spirit was infectious - I even felt bold enough to coordinate a small hangout to launch ATProto PDX. We're using this group to evangelize the protocol, connect technology and civic engagement, and help each other stay accountable to our projects.

I got so many good vibes from my fellow idealists, and I'm super excited about what we will accomplish.

Final thoughts: it’s worth attending

If you’re a person like me that:

Is obsessed with communities, and

Believes technology should be used in service to humans to leave the world better than we found it,

I think the conference is worth attending. It’s a great opportunity to get new ideas, and learn how to use ATproto to support the causes you care about.

Some ideas to make next year even better for first-timers

Skip the question, “So, what are you building?” If we want this community to be welcoming for newbies, we need to be open to the idea that some attendees may not have a passion project yet. As a noob to the space, the question “what are you building” made me feel as though I needed A Thing to be deemed worthy enough to speak to, and that my (tech) project mattered more than who I am as a person. If you care about creating a welcoming space, I invite you to ask instead, "What inspired you to come to the conference?" This gives people the space to talk about their motivations, whether it’s technical, or human-centered.

Recruit conversation leaders as volunteers. As the conference gets larger, it will become more challenging for first-time attendees to make new friends. Big crowds are often overwhelming, and if you’re not naturally outgoing, it can be hard to spark conversations with strangers. Conversation leaders solve this. Their job is to spot the solo attendees, help them feel welcome, and - with the attendee's consent - connect them to similar attendees so they can leave the conference with new friends. Connectors are essential to a thriving community. Instead of hoping connections happen organically, we can encourage people to take on these facilitator roles in an official capacity.

Organize a meetup-meetup. Small groups can help new attendees make friends in a more welcoming environment than a large conference hall. A day before the meetup, organize a space where groups like regional hangouts, Blacksky, Northsky, etc. can meet each other and find buddies to attend sessions with.

I invite the conference leaders to consider these ideas for next year.

But, of course, “we can just do things” also means any one of us has the power to make these ideas happen.

Addendum:

I suppose you probably want to know my answer to, "So, what are you building?"

One perk of living in PDX? I live near @brittanyellich.com . I'm excited to use OpenSocial.Community over the next few months to build something special for my meditation community.

I'll be sure to keep you updated.