Leading Change: Social Shakeup 2024 Edition
Originally published on LinkedIn Dec. 15, 2024
If you have been following me for a while you know not too long ago I added a couple more social channels to an already lengthy list of handles where you could find me in the ether. Well, it didn't take long for those experiments to show there were still more opportunities to improve the social and collaboration experience in a sustainable way. This year, I added a couple more platforms to my list: Bluesky Social and The Matrix.org Foundation.
Similar to my Mastodon experiment, this has been a learning experience around protocols and apps that offer more flexibility and portability, along with some more granular privacy and security controls.
Bluesky's app is based on the AT protocol, so you can quickly learn a few things about that if you want to self-validate your account like I did rather than take a default bsky.social handle.
Element.io uses the Matrix protocol, so I've been spending more time learning the options in the collaboration app here while using a handle at matrix.org. The public rooms here operate very similarly to some of the spaces I've been in on other platforms like Discord. However, your experience still depends on the purpose and professionalism of the people participating in and maintaining it - just like anything else these days.
Given how fragmented social and collaboration platforms are now, I'm sure many of you have multiple profiles strewn across different places, but only a handful where you invest most of your time and energy. This is usually the time of year where I go back and review the activity myself and decide what my engagement plan is going to look like in the new year. Curating your feeds and notifications takes time to make sure you are prioritizing the participants and content you care about the most, but I have no doubt the connections made in these spaces will continue to pay dividends with the right investments you decide on for yourself.
I've got more to share on what I have been learning the past few months in healthcare and disaster recovery, too, so keep an eye out for more updates soon. In the meantime, hope you find some time to enjoy the holiday season and ringing in a happy, healthy, and safe new year!
Reference
AT Protocol https://atproto.com/
Bluesky Social https://bsky.social/about
Element https://element.io/
The Matrix.org Foundation https://www.matrix.org/foundation/about/
Zakhari, Nivine. "Leading Change: The Social Shakeup," Learning it All Newsletter, Nov. 26, 2022, at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leading-change-social-shakeup-nivine-k-zakhari/