Dave Winer is that rare blogger who needs no introduction, having pioneered many of the technologies that have become foundational to how publishing on the web works today. I’ve been excited to see him exploring AT Protocol over the past year. Dave recently wrote about longer form writing via AT Proto with Lexicons and standard.site and I think some of his concerns highlight how we can do a better job of communicating what's possible with the protocol.
When someone publishes to the web using AT Protocol — whether that’s microblogging via Bluesky, blogging with Leaflet, or broadcasting with Skylight — it flows into the network-wide firehose where it can be indexed by any app, surfaced in feeds, or used to power discovery tools.
The AT Protocol and RSS are complementary technologies that allow for both syndication and discovery, in a fully decentralized way. Apps can generate RSS feeds from AT Protocol data, letting you subscribe to Bluesky or Leaflet content in your feed reader while using the protocol’s social layer for discovery and interaction.
A next generation feed reader might:
Watch the firehose for long-form content
Rank it based on your social graph or reading interests
Presents a "discover new blogs" interface
Provides an easy subscribe mechanism via RSS auto-discovery
Discovery through the protocol, delivery through RSS.
Apps like Leaflet, Greengale and pckt are awesome blogging platforms built on AT Protocol and there’s no requirement to use them to publish in the Atmosphere. Any blog can publish using the standard.site Lexicon (or their own Lexicon if they choose, but I think standard.site is great). Dave can add Lexicon support to scripting.com and keep publishing just as he has since 1994 and suddenly his work is discoverable to new tools. Steve Simkins wrote a fantastic primer about adding standard.site to his own blog.
We are, admittedly, in early days, just like Dave was when he created and was the only website publishing RSS feeds. The utility of publishing into the Atmosphere isn’t immediately obvious, and I’m heartened by the number of new blogs and tools coming online every day. There are already apps aggregating standard.site posts, like pckt read and docs.surf.
Dave's hesitation to embrace a new protocol is understandable given how many other web platforms have essentially embraced and extended his work specifically. With AT Protocol, I think we've taken the right steps to avoid this happening — the data is in user-controlled repositories, the network is federated, and anyone can build competing services without permission. But I also think we've got exciting work ahead to bring in more developers and publishers alike.