New_ Public

Young people are rebelling against Big Tech 😎🤘 They’re rethinking how AI’s role in society and sharing ideas on what it should look like. TOMORROW Oct 29th @ 6pm EST: Hear from 18 ReThink Citizens Youth Coalition innovators as they pitch the ideas and early-stage solutions.

Let’s supercharge the digital culture of the open social web! The Social Web Foundation is offering grants up to $20k for developer/creator teams creating content for the open social web! Folks who are interested should apply by Wed. Nov. 4th or reach out to SWF with questions.

Engaged California spent over five months & nearly 30 hours talking with Californians about how they want AI to be “built, used, & governed.” This rare, transparent, deliberation process is a reminder that decisions about AI development should move at the speed of trust — not the other way around.

You know, I was reflecting on my backstory recently (if you’re a JSK fellow or alumnus, you know why) and I’m super proud of some of the stuff I was able to be a part of. I’ve sometimes felt small in some contexts, but really, what a privilege to do these things. I loved this conversation:

The open web is not a panacea. @werd.io, @jskstanford.bsky.social Journalism Fellow, founder, and tech builder, reminds us how important it is to balance openness and safety when building the digital commons. newpublic.substack.com/p/why-this-p...

Around the same time Mark Zuckerberg was creating Facebook, @werd.io — writer, founder, investor, and tech builder — was creating an open source social network. Instead of becoming a billionaire, Ben set about building technology with the potential to make the world more informed and equal.

Our Co-Director @eli.bsky.social went The Curve, the Golden Gate Institute for AI’s annual gathering of some of the smartest AI thinkers — including some show-stealing sci-fi writers for some much needed futurism 🤖✨🧙

Melissa Bell, CEO of Chicago Public Media, previews chicago.com, a local community platform powered by Roundabout: localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2026/1...

Who *really* made Facebook, X/Twitter, etc...? As @irrational-tech.wsocial.eu states, social media's power lies with the people ✊ irrationaltechnology.substack.com/p/social-med...

Join New_ Public Co-director @eli.bsky.social at @alltechishuman.bsky.social’s Responsible Tech Summit. He’ll be discussing rebuilding the digital commons in the AI era alongside Workday Foundation, The Rithm Project, & @civichealthproject.bsky.social. Taking place in NYC, Oct 29th! Register here:

Can social media make us social again? To answer that question, @vardon.world from @sparkable.cc, Filip Gaman from @monnett.social, and @jonathanstray.com from @mysky.social talk financial incentives of social tech, how to bring users to alternative platforms, and bridging algorithms:

Thank you to everyone who applied to our Entrepreneur in Residence pilot! We received over 600 applications from solo founders with a hunch about how to make the Internet a little more human and a lot more informative. We’ll have an update on our first residents soon! 🌐💭

How do you allow people to connect one-on-one, for things like coordinating coffee chats and free item pickups, without creating a vector for spam and abuse?: In response to community member requests, our team came up with an elegant solution: Direct Replies

Information designer and author Giorgia Lupi believes that we’re using AI for the wrong part of the creative process. It can’t replace the “slow part” of discovery, listening, and thinking — but it can support the iterative process afterwards. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A mother fighting for justice. A Gen-Z innovator rebuilding technology. Teens everywhere reclaiming their attention. OUT TODAY: “Your Attention Please” investigates how social media is designed to hijack our attention & introduces the people building it differently. www.yourattentionplz.com/watch

A few field experiments test how feed algorithms can improve social outcomes like partisan animosity - but this is the first I've seen showing that healthier feeds can also improve individual wellbeing. Young women in 3 conditions showed improved body image: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Repeat after us: Public media CAN be cutting-edge! 😎 Chicago.com, our partnership with @wbez.org & @chicago.suntimes.com, is part of a new wave, where public media organizations are meeting newer audiences where they’re at (online) and building BETTER digital spaces for them to gather.

Did you know the Luddites, English textile worker activists in the early 1800s, weren’t actually anti-technology? Yes, they smashed machines “Office Space”-style, but primarily, they were pro-community, pro-worker, and concerned about how technology was negatively impacting their communities.

In developing Roundabout, a local community app for your town or neighborhood, we’re taking inspiration from, among other things, your household teapot. We want this new platform to be as useful, helpful, and reliable as possible. More soon! 🫖

Have you ever heard of “calm technology”? Think about how a teapot never competes for your attention until the exact moment you need it — when the water is boiling. Unlike social media apps, your teapot isn’t sending push notifications to your teenager at 3AM, trying to coax them back online. 🙄

We are not a-Mused 😤

What is GIFCT and why does it matter? Here's a primer: newpublic.substack.com/p/-the-terro...

A surprising stat from Murmuration’s new report, “Life in the Digital Age”: 57% of Americans use social media daily, and more say it usually leaves them feeling drained (18%) than happy (17%). murmuration.org/research/how...

This is so exciting. I say that as someone building what would have historically been seen as a "competitive" product. Instead, we're building on shared foundations. Our shared goals are measured in terms of our communities' collective well-being. 💖

How did Roundabout go from a well-researched idea to an app piloting in communities across the US? It all starts with @newpublic.org Co-Director @eli.bsky.social sharing how we realized that reliable local info is a real need for many people and communities: newpublic.substack.com/p/your-towns...

Social media algorithms don't allow us to understand or control what we see online and why... until now! Top scholars @jonathanstray.com and @noupside.bsky.social are sharing @mysky.social, a tool that allows users to adjust their feed’s priorities and explains why certain posts appear over others.

An important milestone with Roundabout: Promising signs of civic participation in our North Chattanooga, TN, Roundabout community, where the most-clicked link in a recent newsletter was a local voter lookup tool 🗳️ This is a great example of @newpublic.org’s Civic Signals 👇

As a rule, calico kittens love public-spirited digital public spaces

The toothpaste is out of the tube: the internet is no longer 100% human, but we should lift up the people who are putting in the time, effort, and care to keep our digital spaces alive and meaningful. www.techpolicy.press/millions-of-...

Social media is often full-scale rhetorical warfare, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be online conflict. Priya Parker says there's another way: “healthy heat: the willingness to hold tension, with care, long enough for it to become clarifying.” theisolationjournals.substack.com/cp/215506446

@anildash.com warns that “cancer capitalism” is what happens when venture capitalism, meant to only be a small portion of an investment portfolio, grows uncontrollably, to the detriment of the entire economy. www.anildash.com/2026/09/02/c...

We do not need to “accept all cookies” when it comes to tech innovation for the sake of innovation 😤 Atlantic writer @cwarzel.bsky.social and @hasanminhaj.com discuss how people are rejecting AI and pushing back — unlike the initial widespread acceptance of social media. youtu.be/z7lQdkiQfo4?...

⭐ This year’s Tiny Awards finalists are open to public vote (and to explore)! In the running are: a digital moth that wanders Wikipedia, summer camp for your mouse, train-timed jazz, organic fonts, and more. tinyawards.net/vote/?2026

Thanks to AI-powered tools, coding is more accessible than ever, but that doesn’t mean builders have decentralized tech know-how. Grey Area is offering an online course called “Beyond Big Tech” for community builders and designers building alternative tech futures! Apply by September 24th