Deepti Doshi

New_ Public Co-Directors @deeptidoshi.bsky.social and @eli.bsky.social on the kinds of deeper local connection you can sometimes find in the local paper.

We’re building Roundabout, our prosocial community app, to foster local connection online and bring people together offline.

joinroundabout.com

YouTube video by Psych of Tech Institute Fireside chat with Eli Pariser

New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social notes that with generative AI, unlike social media, there’s a lot of portability:

“It was never true that you could download a copy of Facebook on your laptop to use however you wanted.”

This is a new dynamic!

👀🌷📼 Something beautiful is happening with old YouTube videos Ten hours of rain sounds has 9 million views and the comments will make you cry

What brought you to the internet? Before the algorithm, before AI brainrot, it was probably a desire to connect and be seen.

Journalist @jessicafurseth.bsky.social shows us that human connection persists in the comments sections of YouTube’s longest, oldest, anti-algorithmic videos.

Yes, we need rules to regulate social media, but new rules on old, Big Tech platforms can only go so far.

We need new platforms, new infrastructure, and a lot of ingenuity to make something better.

joinroundabout.com

What kind of an internet is possible outside of Big Tech’s profit incentives and surveillance?

For journalist and editor @chezpanique.bsky.social, it would look a little weirder (cyberpunk computer games, anyone?) and a bit more hand-drawn and creative.

Americans drastically overestimate how many people are posting toxic content.

When shown that only about 3-7% of Redditors post hateful or aggressive comments, participants think better of their fellow posters.

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Wikipedia at 25: What the web can be - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

When writer and tech entrepreneur @anildash.com first heard about Wikipedia, his reaction was:

“Well… good luck to those guys.”

That was 25 years ago. Now, he recognizes Wikipedia’s unbelievable collective generosity and reflects on how it’s adapted to each new era of the internet.

Europeans should be able to shape their own online spaces, which is why we’ve been working with public service media in Switzerland, Belgium, and Germany over four years.

Now, open, decentralized protocols like Activity Pub and AT Protocol represent a new avenue for European digital sovereignty.

A majority of Americans (72%!) report a sense of belonging in their local communities and neighborhoods, according to Social Connection in America’s latest survey report.

This is why we’re building Roundabout, our local community app.

socialconnectioninamerica.org/2025-report/

How do we build more escape hatches from closed Big Tech social media? @fediforum.org is looking for ideas on how to grow the Open Social Web!

Submit a position paper for their Un-workshop by Feb. 16th, hosted by @j12t.org and @mmasnick.bsky.social:

fediforum.org/2026-03-grow...

AT Protocol, the infrastructure powering Bluesky, “represents one of the most concrete opportunities for Europe to create their own social networking infrastructure,” says Dutch data analyst Laurens Hof (@laurenshof.online).

Here are four case-studies on European projects that give us hope:

Ok, yes, the state of the social internet is not ideal. We’re so numb to horrific violations of decency and disrespect, that we mostly accept that “this is just how it is.”

But here are some thriving spaces and powerful ideas we discovered last year that give us hope for 2026 and beyond✨

🧵👇(1/6)

Join Blaine Cook, New_ Public’s Principal Software Engineer for Roundabout, at a @getdweb.net virtual meetup this Wednesday from 1-2pm EST

Blaine will present on Roundabout, our new local community app! Folks from @awana.digital and @dod.ngo will also present.

Happy 25th birthday @wikipedia.org! 🥳

Celebrate the collaborative internet experiment that shouldn’t have worked (but somehow did) through this interactive look at Wikipedia’s journey.

We need to reassess our relationship to digital tech Getting off US tech led me to a wider questioning of digital convenience

If you’re feeling trapped within the Big Tech apps you rely on, Canadian tech critic @parismarx.com shares his list of global alternatives and his progress in trying to divest.

“It’s not an easy task to reject services that have become so ubiquitous and are made to be easy to use.”

Everyone’s posting about 2016, with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

In 2016, Instagram switched their default feed from purely reverse chronological feed to algorithmically-sorted. In retrospect, this marks the beginning of a shift towards a passive, spoon-fed internet.

Design matters for connection.

YouTube video by New_ Public A tour of the indie web

The Internet is alive! @chezpanique.bsky.social builds on her viral newsletter and takes us on a tour of the indie web.

These are hand-coded, independent websites, outside the walled gardens created by tech giants.

“It’s a canvas for boundless creativity and really you can be yourself.”

Screenshot of an online forum discussion thread on a September 25, 2012 article from the Times of London. The thread contains four comments: First comment posted at 9:29 AM by a partially redacted username. The text discusses being in mid-forties with a job, wife, and teenage children, mentioning dark thoughts about ending it all. Second comment posted at 10:01 AM by a partially redacted username. Suggests talking to a professional about personal issues and mentions stress, depression, health, or aging as possible reasons for thoughts. Recommends releasing pressure by writing things down. Third comment posted at 10:58 AM by Ben Whitelaw, identified as Communities Editor, with a small avatar image. Recommends speaking to the Samaritans, describes them as trained professionals available 24 hours a day, and includes a URL link: http://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you/contact-us. Ends with "Hope that helps, regards, Ben - Communities Editor". Fourth comment with no timestamp visible, asking why not seek help and wishing the person well.

You never know what’s going to happen in the comments. Here, over a decade ago, a commenter on a Times of London article bore their soul, and other commenters showed up for them.

@benwhitelaw.bsky.social l says, “I believe in the comments, and I think they have a future.”

The New_ Public Survey 2025 Tell us about what's important to you: we'd love your opinion on both social media and New_ Public.

Last chance to be part of our 2025 survey – we’d love to hear your thoughts and questions about New_ Public, what you’d like to see us focus on in 2026, and your experience accessing information in your local community.

Purple text on light blue background. The heading reads “Central question” followed by two paragraphs. Paragraph one: “What trends/forces/developments will most significantly shape how humans connect to and build relationships with groups of other humans in online spaces in the next 2 years? Paragraph two: “AND: Where are there opportunities to leverage these trends to support human thriving and connective human relationships?”

This is what we’re thinking about right now. Let’s peel the onion together 🧅

New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social wants your opinion: How will we be talking to each other online in two years?

The Case for a Public Social Media Platform - JSTOR Daily Artist and writer Joshua Citarella explores why corporate platforms corrode democracy—and what a postal-service-style digital commons could do differently.

Rather than settle for the status quo of social media, artist and writer @joshuacitarella.bsky.social imagines a truly “public” platform, as useful and universal as the post office.

What’s possible when we disconnect from the underlying business incentives that have shaped the social internet?

Screenshot of an article with four paragraphs on a light gray background. Paragraph 1: States "reader comments are having a mini renaissance" (bolded) and discusses publishers recognizing commenting's value for advertising and subscription revenue. Paragraph 2: The Washington Post "relaunched" (hyperlinked) a subscribers-only commenting platform in late 2024 for "meaningful and high-quality discourse." Paragraph 3: The Financial Times uses "automated moderation tools" (hyperlinked) for better discussions. WIRED "touted a new commenting experience" (hyperlinked) connecting readers with journalists. Paragraph 4 (light blue highlight): Notes that despite digital advertising decline, paywalls, social media issues, and AI tools, publishers are realizing "the best community has always been right under their noses."

Have you noticed that a lot of news sites are restarting or reimagining their comment sections? Which news orgs are doing comments exceptionally well right now?

www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news...

The Six Points of Connection Report — Chamber of Connection

Why are we disconnected, and how could we reconnect?

The US Chamber of Connection just released the Social Connection Index, a “practical, data-backed blueprint for rebuilding social bonds, trust, and belonging across communities.”

Take a closer look at the full report:

Last year, we shared a lot of innovative research findings showing that having meaningful connection and conversation on social media isn’t a lofty dream — it’s possible!

Here are some of our favorite studies from 2025.

🔬🦠💬

Why It Matters Platforms are becoming increasingly proficient in their ability to capture and keep users' attention, which can have an adverse effect on individuals' sense of satisfaction and wellbeing. Digital Self-Control Apps give individuals who are aware of the potential detrimental effects of social media and other engagement platforms a promising way to exercise agency and improve their wellbeing.

Our friends at the @prosocialdesign.bsky.social recently updated the effectiveness of apps for regulating your time spent on social media, like @hankgreen.bsky.social’s Focus Friend, from “tentative” to “convincing” based on new research from Denmark.

www.prosocialdesign.org/library/digi...

Diagram on dark blue background. Left side displays white text reading: "Together, havens, hubs, and hangouts form a complete social infrastructure network." Right side shows a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles. The circles contain illustrated silhouettes of people in different settings. Pink circle labeled "Haven" shows people in a barber shop with annotation "Bonding within a defined group." Light blue circle labeled "Hub" shows people in a studio with annotation "Bridging across different groups." These annotations have arrows pointing to the annotation underneath the yellow circle labeled "Hangout" that says "Bonding and bridging together advance social equity.” The yellow circle shows people in an outdoor space. Additional annotations: "Public life is a shared experience of place" points to the bottom area where all three circles overlap. Footer text reads "Gehl — Making Cities for People"

How did Belfast, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo double down on social infrastructure? By creating a network of …

👐 Havens
🌉 Hubs and
🛹 Hangouts

What would that look like online?

www.gehlpeople.com/projects/soc...

Infographic on light blue background with purple text throughout. Title at top reads: "Tons of innovation in governance tools for online spaces—but it's nascent and siloed, and the tools are not context specific." Content is arranged in two columns with icons next to each heading that read: Community Constitutions (pencil icon) followed by text: "Customizable and evolvable rulebooks defining rights, roles, and decision-making processes." Modular Voting Systems (ballot box icon) followed by text: "Voting methods (e.g. quadratic, conviction, approval), for different use cases." Delegative Democracy (election box icon) followed by text: "A scalable and flexible combination between direct and representative democracy." Sortition Juries (dice icon) followed by text: "Randomly selected user panels used for conflict resolution or major decisions." Restorative Moderation (chat bubble icon) followed by text: "Tools for community-led conflict resolution rooted in repair and accountability." Governance Templates & Toolkits (wrench icon) followed by text: "Plug-and-play governance models like CommunityRule, Contributor Covenant, or PolicyKit." Multi-Stakeholder Councils (handshake icon) followed by text: "Include users, devs, mods, and funders in representative governance structures." Prediction Markets (scale icon) followed by text: "Market-based systems that enable communities to surface priorities" Appropriate Identity Systems (person icon) followed by text: "Tools that enable users to verify their identities in privacy protecting ways." Crowdsourcing (globe icon) followed by text: "Tools that enable input among dispersed participants such as Polis"

To reach a healthy social media ecosystem that serves the public, not billionaires, we’re gonna need a lot of new ideas and tools.

Our friends at @metagov.bsky.social have been funding new governance systems that allow for community agency and value community stewards. More is needed!

Advertising is Coming to AI. It’s Going to Be a Disaster. This piece was published in Tech Policy Press on Nov 27, 2025, and has been republished with permission.

While AI chatbots are helpful, writes Daniel Barcay for Center for Humane Technology, the more they know about us, the greater target we become for manipulation.

“And when advertising enters this equation, it seems more likely than not that the con artist will overtake the therapist.”

Excited to see other technologists getting excited about Roundabout, our new local community app currently in closed beta!

Big shoutout to my colleagues at @newpublic.org for the thoughtful work they’re putting into building each Roundabout community.

YouTube video by Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy Panel: The Existential Crisis Facing Public Interest Media | Attention: Govern Or Be Governed

New_ Public advisor Catherine Tait how public media can double down on its advantage with local reporting and build closer to digital-first audiences.

“I think there's an enormous opportunity right now to be the morels that grow from the roots of the scorched earth."

youtu.be/zbnzbSXxcS8?...