Hyperlink Academy

screenshot of the top of our new landing page, with isometric illustration of "hyperlink academy" as a village of learning, and text "a place for collaborative creative projects" with signup and newsletter links below

✨ new hyperlink homepage ✨

snazzified with this awesome hero image from @celine.cloud

& new header linking to our blog + docs

& lil illustrations for how spaces work

& section on our current focus on internet clubs / creative communities of practice

hyperlink.academy

what do you think??

Just retroactively published our changelog for @hyperlink.academy going back ~2 years to the first commit

94 entries / nearly 6k words haha…AMA!

Honestly quite fun to revisit how the app has evolved, and ended up writing a Roadmap too :)

You can read it here: hyperlink.academy/docs

What are the most interesting innovative independent schools you know of?

Particularly for adults. Large or small. On- or offline. Broadly defined.

We'd like to talk to em!

Working on a) making software for such schools & b) ideas for an interview series on what schools can be

four versions of the same page in the hyperlink app, each with a different set of backgrounds and text colors

mmmm... theming...............

(early in the works!!)

so coool - awesome to see, thanks for giving it a try!! would love to hear more, will follow up by email :)

That said, there are a number of creative collaborative contexts we're excited to experiment with further :)

We want to practice focusing on one at a time, but plan to explore a couple others later in the year.

Anything you're particularly excited about trying with Hyperlink??

Projects are great for learning.

Self-driven learning is a core value of Hyperlink. Too often the objects of online learning only weakly align with our true interests & dreams — projects of our own design, that we're fully motivated to explore, can be the best way to learn.

Small scale collaboration — at the extreme, 1:1 — is a nice counterbalance to social media.

Projects have boundaries; unlike algorithmic feeds and streams, they start and end. Projects with specific collaborators lead to us being more invested in the work…and having more fun.

It feels like there's demand here!

We've talked to many creative project-doers who we think would get a lot of value from this, it's fairly legible, and it's flexible in supporting a range of the types of projects we like best.

We all love seeing people do cool projects; we're collectively most excited about this right now.

It aligns with great experiences we've had using Hyperlink, and feels like a continuation of our current thinking + a natural progression of the app that can give it more focus.

Why "projects with friends"?

We talked through a dozen+ ideas for how to use Hyperlink — from tools for IRL communities, to micro-schools, to async online conferences, to book clubs…and more!

4 reasons we picked this use case as our first focus area in a series of experiments:

Schools should be made with friends — who better to learn with than people you know & trust?

Schools should *be* friends — why not make it easy for collectives of learners to intermingle & help each other?

If you enjoy doing projects with friends & want to try experimenting with Hyperlink, let's chat!

More detail here on what we have in mind & how to get involved :)

https://notes.hyperlink.academy/note/projects-with-friends

We're trying a series of experiments using Hyperlink intensively in specific contexts, starting here: creative projects w/ close collaborators.

We'll be doing our own projects, talking w/ project-doers, encouraging experiments

…and aiming to make Hyperlink *great* for projects

hyperlink 🤝 projects 🤝 friends

For the next ~month we're getting cozy & doing projects — focusing on how we can make Hyperlink great for small-scale creative collaborations.

focused 🌱 personal 🌱 active 🌱 creative 🌱 emergent

1:1 even…projects with just you + a friend!

still an early MVP but excited to test more — we think it'll be useful for many groups of collaborators…even just two friends w/ a bunch of things they're exploring together!

like a shared multi-project dashboard / feed…

more info here! https://notes.hyperlink.academy/note/building-studios

Illustration: left, three figures work on a project, caption "in a space"; right, those figures are situated beside several other clusters doing different work, caption "in a studio!"

just launched v1 of Studios, a new part of Hyperlink!

Studios are internet homes for close-knit groups to learn & create together

now Hyperlink has:

~SPACES: containers for doing projects 🌱

~STUDIOS: places to start, join, share & talk about projects with people who care ✨

ECOSYSTEMS

Our projects and circles connect in many ways, some emergent and unpredictable. A complex graph of people, things, creations.

We need new schools and networks, where work can evolve over time, where we can connect and explore shared interests and experiment…

COMMUNITIES

We care about many things. We're part of many circles; many communities.

We need many ways to collaborate: with a friend, a team, a community. Ways to design experiences with varying parameters, pieces, and participants…

FRIENDS

Learning is better together; friends make things fun. Creative momentum is amplified by close collaborators, comrades, confidantes.

We need environments where we can brainstorm together, pose questions, exchange feedback, focus shared energy…

SELVES

We all have projects, passions, dreams. There's special alchemy in taking a fascination or ambitious goal, and taking steps to make it real.

We need containers, intentions, magic circles — help taking that key first step; spaces where we can go to get things done…

social theory of internet learning

how we think about learning, creativity, and collaboration, as a series of social layers…

selves --> friends --> communities --> ecosystems

*what do you think, does this make sense? what layers do you find most resonant or exciting?*

some themes we're exploring:

- redefining what a school can be (community of practice, microschool, personal playspace, ecosystem…)

- research lab conducting experiments for collaboration; building better squad infrastructure

- small, nimble, flexible, emergent educational institutions

very cool! send us a note (contact @ hyperlink . academy) if you'd like to chat more, interested to hear what your ideal learning group would look like & glad to share some detail for what we have in mind :)

we 💙 peer-driven learning, composable groups, communities of practice, creative collaboration…

excited about bsky / atproto & visions for open social ecosystems—what should we explore?

e.g. spin up Hyperlink Spaces (~group chat + shared workspace) from public discussions, w/ DID-based membership?

what can a *school* be? ✨

research lab • community of practice • microschool • metalabel • studio • collaborative circle • ⁉️

places for people to learn, with shared vision + values

expansive—big campuses
or intimate—shared studios

…what [school] do you want to build?

status: scheming about schools

working on hyperlink "studios" — shared environments for groups to talk about projects & explore together

thinking about a "meta school" summer program to experiment with internet learning institutions…let us know if that sounds interesting :)

FRIDAY PROMPT 🌱

What are the most interesting small clusters of people / learning orgs exploring novel frontiers — research, creative work, etc — you'd like to see nurtured & encouraged to grow, as a network?

example: html energy, naive weekly, sunday sites, html review, etc (diy website poetics!)

announced our beta today! opening signups so folks can test the app & invite friends :)

one thing we're aiming to do each week is chat w/ a couple folks for demo / onboarding / experiments

if you'd like to try making a Space for a collaborative project, please reach out - contact @ our handle ✨🌱

nice reply thread re: internet scene formation

& the importance of balancing more intimate local community stages or clusters within larger, relatively anonymous spaces that give room to breathe and play