Bridgy Fed Becomes a Nonprofit - Connecting the Open Social Web

Bridgy Fed Joins A New Social Nonprofit

Bridgy Fed, a project dedicated to linking the Bluesky social network with the broader fediverse – encompassing platforms like Mastodon and others – will be the inaugural application incubated by a newly formed nonprofit organization, A New Social. This organization, revealed on Tuesday, is designed to unite developers, researchers, startups, and industry experts focused on building infrastructure for the open social web.

Founding and Mission

The nonprofit was established by Ryan Barrett, the founder and CTO of Bridgy Fed, alongside Anuj Ahooja, who now serves as A New Social’s CEO and executive director.

Ahooja has a history of involvement in fediverse-related initiatives, previously offering guidance to a service aiming to support the fediverse through paid subscriptions to curated feeds. That service, sub.club, along with the Mammoth Mastodon app, ultimately ceased operations due to funding constraints.

The Genesis of A New Social

The concept of establishing a nonprofit to support Barrett’s work with Bridgy Fed emerged as the project evolved from a personal endeavor into one garnering significant attention. This growth also sparked discussions regarding the optimal development path for the technology.

Barrett recognized the potential for Bridgy Fed to become a foundational infrastructure component as he engaged with a wider audience. This realization underscored the need for a formal organizational structure and diverse perspectives to guide its direction.

Funding and Organizational Structure

While considering venture capital funding, Barrett acknowledged the difficulty in defining a clear business model for Bridgy Fed. “The business model was not clear to me,” he stated.

Instead of pursuing a traditional startup route, Barrett collaborated with Ahooja, who was already developing plans to consolidate a suite of utilities under the nonprofit umbrella of A New Social. Ahooja initiated contact after encountering Barrett’s request for assistance with Bridgy Fed.

“It just kind of clicked in the early phases of our conversations,” Ahooja explained. “I had an idea of not just what Bridgy Fed is today, but the implications of a combined network and what you can do with it.”

Future Plans and Collaboration

A New Social is currently assembling a board of directors to provide strategic guidance. Initially, the organization will concentrate on Bridgy Fed and securing funding through crowdfunding, grants, and investments from industry partners.

Subsequently, it will identify and support other open social projects, such as Bridgy Fed, that are dedicated to building the open social web and connecting disparate open ecosystems. This may eventually include projects utilizing protocols like Farcaster and nostr.

The nonprofit will also collaborate with existing leaders in the space, including Bluesky, Flipboard, Meta (through its Threads app integrating with ActivityPub), and Mastodon, to identify promising projects and their developers.

“Before we even started this, we [made] sure that the platforms are on board,” Ahooja emphasized. “I think that’s one of the reasons an organization was important, so we’d have a process around all of these different platforms.”

Broader Ecosystem and Partnerships

A New Social is not alone in its focus on the open social web. The recently launched Social Web Foundation (SWF), co-founded by Evan Prodromou – a co-author of the ActivityPub protocol – is dedicated to expanding the fediverse and enhancing user experience. A New Social intends to collaborate with SWF and other organizations like the Independent Federated Trust & Safety (IFTAS) as it expands its reach.