First up, the keynote by [evan@cosocial.ca](https://community.nodebb.org/user/evan%40cosocial.ca) 

Evan talking about AOL. [mike@flipboard.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/mike%40flipboard.social) would be proud. 

[jesseplusplus@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/jesseplusplus%40mastodon.social) 

[evan@cosocial.ca](https://community.nodebb.org/user/evan%40cosocial.ca) fielding some real hardballs in this question session! Topics have touched on protocol wars, blockchain, and authoritarian regimes 

This is awesome, thanks for posting it Julian!

[quillmatiq@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/quillmatiq%40mastodon.social) talking about "The Last Network Effect", anew.social, bridgyfed, and more. 

A shout-out to [gabboman@app.wafrn.net](https://community.nodebb.org/user/gabboman%40app.wafrn.net) and it's native bridge to BlueSky 

We can debate endlessly about which protocol is GOAT, or how to define decentralization... 

@julian i don't think interop comes first. what is the goal? if the goal is explicitly to promote decentralization then yes you should define that term first. and decentralization is fundamentally a political goal while interop is fundamentally a utilitarian goal. for example: facebook has 2 billion users, so it clearly has some utility for some people. but it is politically unacceptable for other people, who will oppose it despite its utility. it is shortsighted to prioritize interop alone.

Next up is [j12t@j12t.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/j12t%40j12t.social) — "From Millions to Billions: A plausible narrative for growing the Open Social Web" 

[trwnh@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/trwnh%40mastodon.social) I think what [quillmatiq@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/quillmatiq%40mastodon.social) is getting at is less that decentralization isn't important (because it is!) but more that UX friction is a surmountable barrier for adoption, and arguably more important now than later.

@julian @trwnh yes! In fact, a couple slides after I call out "And then, Decentralization"

[j12t@j12t.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/j12t%40j12t.social) dropping truth bombs about fedi vs the greater social media landscape 

Reiterating [mike@flipboard.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/mike%40flipboard.social)'s favourite talking point about AOL vs. the WWW

@quillmatiq @julian personally i find that interop can lead to worse UX if you have to compromise on your own experience to be compatible with someone else's assumptions. so improving UX might require explicitly breaking interop.

more generally, UX friction can be good, and good UX doesn't imply that the thing is good. putting decentralization first means you emphasize values -- do it right before you do it well. putting interop first means you defer the value judgement.

[j12t@j12t.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/j12t%40j12t.social) "now I realize I am standing between you and Lunch" Poor Johannes, at FOSDEM he was standing between us and dinner, too.

[chris@socialbc.ca](https://community.nodebb.org/user/chris%40socialbc.ca) discussing his petition to the Government of Canada to adopt a free and open social media network for communication to all Canadians. 

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca](https://community.nodebb.org/user/chris%40mstdn.chrisalemany.ca) talking about starting up SocialBC is inspiring! Makes me wonder if something like this could happen in Ontario... esp. rural communities.

[boris@cosocial.ca](https://community.nodebb.org/user/boris%40cosocial.ca) giving us ATProto 101. Good, I have no idea what any of this is.