Putting It All Together

So what really makes Bluesky powerful isn’t anything specific to Bluesky; it’s the plumbing that makes Bluesky work that’s so cool. I’m writing this post on a site that’s logged into my PDS (my pantry). This published article is a record (a single ingredient like an individual egg) that is defined according to a lexicon (the type of ingredient: ‘egg’). This app uses an API (language) to talk to the API servers (a waiter) with a shared protocol (communication method).

Because the schema (organization of the pantry) is always the same, I can put that information anywhere on the internet, including storage that I have control over. With enough know-how you can have your entire social media presence stored on a hard drive in your house if you wanted to. This means that, if you don’t trust a corporation like Bluesky with your pictures, posts, the posts you liked, the blogs you wrote, you can ask someone else—anyone else—to store it.

You can log in to any client (app on your phone or a website on your computer) that uses Bluesky's lexicons (types of ingredients) using your account (the key to your locked pantry) to interact with people through Bluesky posts. This works for all different kinds of lexicons as well.

Finding Things

There's a website called the AT Store (get it? like "app store") that helps you find apps that all work this way. Even each listing on that store is a record on a PDS.

Congrats, You Did It!

Nothing about this requires technical knowledge to understand; if you know how a restaurant works, you know how Bluesky works. It’s all just different words.

Knowing the term “PDS” and what it does is no different than knowing the term “pantry” and knowing what it is.

Many other concepts fit this type of idea: if you want to buy furniture from the store you go to the store (the website or app) as a client, you ask for the thing you want (request) and ask for it to be delivered (another request) and the store brings it to your house (your PDS) via a truck (protocol), opening the door with a key (your username and password). Each dining room chair is a record. Different types of furniture like 'chair', 'table', and 'couch' are all lexicons. The movers are API servers. It's just different words for the same things.

Oh, by the way: the Atmosphere is the name for the collection of apps that use the AT Protocol (the communication method).

Get it? "AT" mosphere!

Hey, if tech people were good at naming things we wouldn't be having this conversation.

By spending a little bit of time learning how it works, all of a sudden you understand why Bluesky and the Atmosphere are so important and, maybe more importantly, why platforms like Facebook and Instagram are different. Now imagine applying this to other pieces of technology in your life and you'll start to see the same kinds of patterns emerge and you'll better understand large parts of your daily life. Understanding the social contracts of using the technology helps you better understand what companies are doing with information you give them.

If you have any questions feel free to log in with your Atmosphere account and leave a comment!

FAQ

"Wait...so what did you actually learn in school?"

I learned math and logic to better understand how to write the recipes (code files) that the cooks and waiters (server applications and APIs) use in a way that lets them do it as quickly as possible with the fewest amount of wasted ingredients.

I learned how recipes (code files) are translated into individual instructions (in computer terms, these are also just called 'instructions') for cooks (servers or, more broadly, any computers) to use to make the food you ordered (the posts you look at and the buttons you press) out of ingredients (the data).

I learned how to explain technical concepts to people, I learned how to think about building apps and how to consider different solutions and different scenarios in which the solutions would operate.

I learned how the 1s and 0s move across the internet and the protocols and languages that power those, and I learned how to tell different types of computers different types of instructions. Routers don't use the same instructions as phones and they don't do the same kinds of things, for example. Like how a waiter doesn't move furniture for a living.