Jack Dorsey Pumps $10 Million Into A Nonprofit Focused On Open-source Social Media

15 hours ago

Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey isn’t conscionable vibe-coding caller societal apps, for illustration Bitchat and Sun Day, he has invested $10 cardinal successful an effort to money experimental unfastened root projects and different devices that could yet toggle shape nan societal media landscape.

These efforts are funneled done an online corporate called “and Other Stuff,” formed successful May, whose squad includes Dorsey; Twitter’s first employee, Evan Henshaw-Plath; “Calle,” creator of nan e-cash level Cashu; Alex Gleason, erstwhile engineering head astatine Truth Social; and Jeff Gardner, nan 4th worker astatine Intercom.

The group primitively met done collaborating connected Nostr, an open, “apolitical” societal networking protocol that has been receiving nan bulk of Dorsey’s attraction since Twitter’s waste to Elon Musk and his stepping down from societal web Bluesky’s board. However, nan squad will research pinch different tools, too, for illustration ActivityPub, nan protocol that powers nan decentralized app Mastodon and others, arsenic good arsenic Cashu.

In caller years, Dorsey has been much critical of really societal media platforms person evolved, saying that Twitter should person ne'er been a company and that Bluesky seemed to beryllium repeating nan mistakes he and others made astatine Twitter.

As a result, nan squad astatine “and Other Stuff” is wished not to build a institution but is alternatively operating for illustration a “community of hackers,” explains Henshaw-Plath. Together, they’re moving to create technologies that could see caller user societal apps arsenic good arsenic various experiments, for illustration developer devices aliases libraries, that would let others to build apps for themselves.

For instance, nan squad is down an app called Shakespeare, which is for illustration nan app-building platform Lovable, but specifically for building Nostr-based societal apps pinch AI assistance.

The group is besides down heynow, a sound statement app built connected Nostr; Cashu wallet; backstage messenger White Noise; and nan Nostr-based social community +chorus, successful summation to nan apps Dorsey has already released.

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Developments successful AI-based coding person made this type of experimentation possible, Henshaw-Plath points out, successful nan aforesaid measurement that technologies for illustration Ruby connected Rails, Django, and JSON helped to substance an earlier type of nan web, dubbed Web 2.0.

Related to these efforts, Henshaw-Plath sat down pinch Dorsey for nan debut section of his caller podcast, revolution.social pinch @rabble. (Henshaw-Plath’s grip connected X is @rabble.)

Since Dorsey lives successful Costa Rica and Henshaw-Plath lives successful New Zealand, nan 2 met up astatine a hackathon successful Switzerland for nan chat. In nan astir hour-long episode, Dorsey delves into Twitter’s history arsenic good arsenic his philosophies astir wherever societal media went incorrect and really it tin beryllium fixed.

“It took maine a agelong clip to recognize this…I didn’t really put it into words until I came backmost arsenic CEO nan 2nd time. But it’s difficult for thing for illustration [Twitter] to beryllium a company, because you person firm incentives erstwhile it wants to beryllium a protocol,” Dorsey says. He notes that Twitter was astatine nan mercy of its advertisers — thing Musk besides faces contempt taking Twitter, now called X, private. Musk has moreover threatened advertisers pinch lawsuits complete advertisement boycotts driven by their concerns complete X’s deficiency of moderation and arguable comments Musk himself has made.

While Dorsey understands that catering to advertisers was correct for nan business and for Twitter’s banal price, it was nan “wrong point for nan internet.”

“They tin conscionable region nan money — your money — and your gross goes down completely,” Dorsey says of advertisers’ power. “So if [Twitter] were an unfastened protocol, if it were genuinely an unfastened project, you could build a business connected apical of it, and you could build a very patient business connected apical of it.”

Dorsey yet funded an effort to build an unfastened protocol wrong Twitter, which later spun retired to go Bluesky. But Dorsey believes Bluesky faces nan aforesaid challenges arsenic accepted societal media because of its building — it’s funded by VCs, for illustration different startups. Already, it has had to bow to authorities requests and faced moderation challenges, he points out.

“I deliberation [Bluesky CEO] Jay [Graber] is great. I deliberation nan squad is great,” Dorsey told Henshaw-Plath, “but nan building is what I disagree with…I want to push nan power successful a different direction, which is much for illustration Bitcoin, which is wholly unfastened and not owned by anyone from a protocol layer. That’s what I spot successful Nostr arsenic well,” he says. “That’s wherever I want to push my energy…rather into nan much firm direction, moreover if it is simply a nationalist use corporation,” Dorsey adds.

In later episodes, Henshaw-Plath will question and reply others who person penetration into really societal media and tech person evolved, including journalists for illustration Kara Swisher and Taylor Lorenz, erstwhile Twitter caput of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth, Substack co-founder Chris Best, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, Cory Doctorow (who coined nan word “enshittification” to picture nan authorities of overmuch of nan existent web), and renowned misinformation interrogator Renée DiResta.

The squad astatine “and Other Stuff” is besides moving connected a social media “Bill of Rights,” says Henshaw-Plath, which spells retired what societal media platforms need to provide successful areas for illustration privacy, security, interoperability, transparency, identity, self-governance, and portability.

This, they believe, will thief platforms, including Bluesky and others, stay accountable to their users contempt immoderate extracurricular pressure.

Dorsey’s first finance has gotten nan caller nonprofit up and running, and he worked connected immoderate of its first iOS apps. Meanwhile, others are contributing their clip to build Android versions, developer tools, and different societal media experiments.

More is still successful nan works, says Henshaw-Plath.

“There are things that we’re not fresh to talk astir yet that’ll beryllium very exciting,” he teases.