Paul Frazee

It was 2012. So I can say that that vibe at the time was correlated probably to two different things. For one, it was pretty clear by then that the major social players were sucking all of the oxygen out of the room. And so there was a collective of open source hackers who were feeling really excluded from what was exciting about social computing.

It was 2012. So I can say that that vibe at the time was correlated probably to two different things. For one, it was pretty clear by then that the major social players were sucking all of the oxygen out of the room. And so there was a collective of open source hackers who were feeling really excluded from what was exciting about social computing.

and wanting to be able to get in there so you have a general the through line throughout all these projects has always been like frustration with monopoly and feeling like you're not able to get in there and make meaningful change because we're talking about internet technology we're all programmers let's get in there like let's have that Linux philosophy or something like that being applied and so that bugged all of us and that was a big part of it and then you know you also had um

and wanting to be able to get in there so you have a general the through line throughout all these projects has always been like frustration with monopoly and feeling like you're not able to get in there and make meaningful change because we're talking about internet technology we're all programmers let's get in there like let's have that Linux philosophy or something like that being applied and so that bugged all of us and that was a big part of it and then you know you also had um

It's still, I think even then there was starting to be a little bit of initial disillusionment with the major social companies. Who knows if we were kind of like on the right target with that or not, but we, in general, were starting to, you know, this was like... Not that far after Occupy Wall Street, which was a big animating activist era.

It's still, I think even then there was starting to be a little bit of initial disillusionment with the major social companies. Who knows if we were kind of like on the right target with that or not, but we, in general, were starting to, you know, this was like... Not that far after Occupy Wall Street, which was a big animating activist era.

And a lot of us were thinking a lot about where we expected... People still use the term new media in 2012, if anybody remembers saying that nonsense. So there was quite a bit of thought being put in at that point about what are the power structures that are going to be a part of the future of internet and social media. And how are we designing systems to be smart about that?

And a lot of us were thinking a lot about where we expected... People still use the term new media in 2012, if anybody remembers saying that nonsense. So there was quite a bit of thought being put in at that point about what are the power structures that are going to be a part of the future of internet and social media. And how are we designing systems to be smart about that?

So we were thinking pretty heavily about that stuff right from the get-go.

So we were thinking pretty heavily about that stuff right from the get-go.

We never got that far. It was janky at best. And I say that with all love. But we had a lot of challenges that we just did not get through. And if we're going to go through this history, one of the meta arcs I would follow throughout all of it was learning how to...

We never got that far. It was janky at best. And I say that with all love. But we had a lot of challenges that we just did not get through. And if we're going to go through this history, one of the meta arcs I would follow throughout all of it was learning how to...

serious about delivering, you know, the level of quality that's necessary for something like this, because you're on the one hand, you're pressing really hard on like, okay, novel technology, novel way to do things, and throwing out a lot of assumptions.

serious about delivering, you know, the level of quality that's necessary for something like this, because you're on the one hand, you're pressing really hard on like, okay, novel technology, novel way to do things, and throwing out a lot of assumptions.

And along the way, everybody, you know, by the time we get to blue sky, almost everybody at the team had been spending, like I said, years working on this stuff, and nothing was quite working.

And along the way, everybody, you know, by the time we get to blue sky, almost everybody at the team had been spending, like I said, years working on this stuff, and nothing was quite working.

And it wasn't until we got to this project, we all had a bunch of kind of collective, collective realizations as we came together about like, you know what, okay, if we keep these pieces, but then like throw in a lot of the kind of complexity and the novelty that what we're doing, we can keep what we think actually is important about the systems, but have this work actually be usable to end users.

And it wasn't until we got to this project, we all had a bunch of kind of collective, collective realizations as we came together about like, you know what, okay, if we keep these pieces, but then like throw in a lot of the kind of complexity and the novelty that what we're doing, we can keep what we think actually is important about the systems, but have this work actually be usable to end users.

Really both, to be honest. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know if I would give more emphasis to one or the other, because it would affect on both sides. Reliability, scale, and performance on the technology side, and usability on the product side. almost every project that the group of us worked on all use like client side signing keys up until blue sky, you know what I mean?

Really both, to be honest. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know if I would give more emphasis to one or the other, because it would affect on both sides. Reliability, scale, and performance on the technology side, and usability on the product side. almost every project that the group of us worked on all use like client side signing keys up until blue sky, you know what I mean?