Protocols for Publishers: Building an Open Social Web with AT Proto

Last Wednesday evening, I attended the ​Protocols for Publishers (PfP) Showcase​ in New York City. The event brought together publishers, developers, and researchers to explore the future of social content and publishing as AI devours the web, and how adopting open distributed technologies like AT Protocol (a.k.a., "AT Proto") can help prevent creators and publishers from getting squeezed out by the big tech corporations.

WTF is AT Protocol?

Many people (if they know of it at all) know that AT Proto is "the thing Bluesky runs on." Although Bluesky is built on AT Proto, it is actually an open standard for distributed social networking services. As the PfP Showcase demonstrated, developers are using AT Proto to build all sorts of interesting digital products, only some of which are related to social networking.

The End of the Web as We Know It?

Since the dawn of the web, the browser has been the primary interface between users and content. There's a growing concern that as conversational interfaces like chat and "the agentic web" gain popularity, browsers will become obsolete. This would have numerous implications, but the most troubling for those at the PfP event was the potentially disastrous effect on creators and publishers who depend on browser-based search for traffic and display advertising for revenue.

Despite these risks, the mood in the room was optimistic. During the formal talks (Ivan Sigal from Free Our Feeds, Devin Gaffney from Graze, and Rupert Manfredi from Unternet) and in my conversations with attendees, there was a sense that this moment is our opportunity to develop tools and protocols that ensure the web remains open and Silicon Valley does not create yet more walled gardens for their own benefit. The Q&A session was lively and honest, with audience members asking about real-world challenges such as AI scraping, monetization, and the challenges of moving beyond theoretical discussions to actual products.

We Can Build a Social Web for Everyone

At Limeleaf, we believe in a web where users, publishers, and developers all have a voice, and where standards are open, free, and driven by consensus, not the profit goals of tech monopolists. We must insist on the same principles for the "AI web," whatever form it takes.

What I appreciated most about the Showcase was that it reminded me that billionaires didn't always control over our digital spaces, and that there are passionate communities out there actively working to reclaim them.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the ATProto NYC Community Hackday on Thursday, but you can read highlights from the event in Bsky posts tagged ​#ATProto_NYC​.

If you're interested in these issues or want to participate in AT Proto development, there's a very active AT Proto developer group on Discord.

Check Out These AT Proto Builders

At the Showcase, I met some brilliant people who are cool products on AT Proto:

• Germ Network enables secure E2EE chats over AT Protocol.
• Web Applets are "an SDK, protocol, and set of standards for building software that both humans and AI can understand and use together." 
• Kernel is "a series of modules which work in tandem to form the basis of a future agentic operating system." 
• Sprk.so is a video-first app built on AT Proto (covered in TechCrunch). 
• Telepath is a stealth startup, so I have no clue what it is, but I really enjoyed talking with its creator, Stephen Hood.