Hi there,

We're A New Social, a new non-profit organization focused on building cross-protocol tools and services for the open social web.

Our mission is to liberate people's networks from their platforms, enabling The Last Network Effect and leveling the playing field across the open social web.

The first project we'll take on to accomplish this mission is Bridgy Fed, a service that enables users of ActivityPub-based platforms like Mastodon, ATProto-based platforms like Bluesky, and websites to interact and engage across ecosystems.

Who We Are

A New Social will be led by engineering leader and writer Anuj Ahooja and open source engineer and founder of Bridgy Fed Ryan Barrett.

“I believe that the social web should be centered around people, not platforms. To do that, we need to have what I believe is The Last Network Effect, where users are on a combined network using platforms embracing open protocols. This enables people to choose platforms based on their needs rather than how many users are active on them, and Bridgy Fed is a centerpiece of this mission. We're excited to push it forward with A New Social.” - Anuj Ahooja, CEO & Executive Director

“My passion lies in connecting social networks together. Open standard social protocols allow us to create those connections outside of monolithic walled gardens, which has tremendous benefits. I've spent a long time doing that individually, and in communities like the IndieWeb. Now, with communities growing on several protocols, we need a real organization, governance, and public transparency where everyone can benefit and contribute. That’s why we established A New Social.” - Ryan Barrett, CTO

Over the next month, we'll be recruiting a Board of Directors and a team of advisors as we complete the process of forming the non-profit. If you're interested in working with us, we'd love to hear from you! You can reach out to letsbuild@anew.social.

Industry Partnerships

We will also work closely with existing organizations building on top of the open social web, focusing on maintaining compatibility and collaborating on features and education. We've already begun discussions with industry partners like Flipboard, Bluesky, Meta, and Mastodon, and we look forward to continuing to work with them.

“I’ve been so impressed by how Bridgy Fed has expanded and supported so many new platforms and protocols in a really collaborative way. With A New Social, I’m sure Ryan and Anuj will foster that same style of partnership and cross-protocol coordination that will help us all innovate faster together. We look forward to working with them.” - Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard

"We're excited for Bridgy Fed to enter its next phase of maturity as it continues bridging across multiple open protocol-based networks. Ultimately, this interoperability benefits the end user, and we're glad to see the open social web become a reality through the efforts of multiple parties across the ecosystem.” - Emily Liu, Growth & Partnerships at Bluesky

“Our goal at Threads is to help grow the Fediverse responsibly, prioritizing the success of a safe, diverse, content-rich, and interoperable community. We’re excited to see A New Social join other non-profit organizations like IFTAS and The Social Web Foundation to collaborate with policy makers and other stakeholders to make progress on open standards like ActivityPub.” - Threads team at Meta

"Bridgy Fed demonstrates the value of open, accessible social APIs: more choice for users, through interoperability. People using Mastodon can - if they wish - now communicate across an even greater range of the new generation of social platforms. Mastodon enables people to share via open protocols, and Bridgy Fed extends that reach. We look forward to working with A New Social in their mission to educate people about these new opportunities." - Andy Piper, developer relations lead at Mastodon

We're thrilled to work with so many platform builders on day one and are excited to add more partners over the next few months.

Collaboration Between Non-Profits

Part of A New Social’s charter will be to work with other organizations, such as the Social Web Foundation and IFTAS, that have been pioneering and advancing initiatives across the open social web.

"The social web is proving to be a viable alternative to standalone social networks. A New Social provides essential infrastructure that helps people connect across platform boundaries. To grow, the social web needs builders like Ryan and Anuj, and we look forward to partnering with them to deepen and improve cross-platform connectivity." - Evan Prodromou, Research Director at SWF

“The creation of A New Social marks an important milestone in advancing innovation and responsibility on the open social web. [..] At IFTAS, we believe bridging platforms requires robust safety measures to protect vulnerable communities and we are encouraged by A New Social’s approach to embedding trust and safety at the heart of its mission.” - Jaz-Michael King, Executive Director at IFTAS

Both the SWF and IFTAS play crucial roles in the ecosystem and will help us build with standards and safety in mind.

Next Steps

For our first year, A New Social’s initiatives will be focused on improving Bridgy Fed, user advocacy, and providing services to platforms, people, and social apps. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Configuration of bridged accounts
• Bridged network discovery
• Portability of connections
• Educating the public about the open social web
• Working with platforms to ensure long-term compatibility 

In the coming months, we'll will further shape the team, announce priority projects, share ways for the community to get involved, and create a funding strategy for new and emerging ideas.

If you are interested in future communications and opportunities, please feel free to reach out over email at letsbuild@anew.social.

To stay up-to-date on our work, you can follow this blog via e-mail, RSS, and soon over ActivityPub and ATProto. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads.

We're excited to help build A New Social that's centered around people, not platforms.

You can read our full press release here.