Inspiration and the Seattle ATmosphere Conference

This past weekend was the first ever ATmosphere Conference right here in Seattle. It was an amazing two days of talks, breakout sessions, and hallway-cons centered on the AT Protocol.

It was also about the possibilities, promise, and future that the protocol enables. About bringing together a community of folks passionate about changing the way we create and consume content online. About being part of the change we want to see in the systems—social and political as much as technological—that we all rely on and participate in. About challenging the way things are, and have been, done.

Perhaps more than anything else, in an unspoken yet omnipresent way, it was about both being inspired and being the inspiration.

A side inspiration

After each talk, I found myself jotting down notes, both to follow up with speakers, but also to collect my thoughts on what they spoke about as well as what was not discussed.

As excited as I am to work with the protocol and the folks who are building—and I am incredibly excited to be doing so—as an outsider, I also see lots of opportunities to make the protocol, and its ecosystem, much stronger.

Not just technically, but also things like aligning the mission with the message, the protocol's relationship with Bluesky, how it lands with the communities it serves, and much more.

So over the next couple of weeks, partially to get back into the practice of writing more regularly but mostly to amplify the great ideas and challenge some of those threads left un-pulled, I'm going to post a series here on the blog.

I hope they inspire more dialog, keep the post-conference momentum going, and that you will find them inspiring in their own way.

Thanks for reading 🙏

Errata

It is linked above, but just for clarity, if you want to see the talks from the main room, here is the official YouTube playlist.