On Thursday, November 6, 2025, some nerds gathered at Remnant Brewing to talk about the new internet.
At @atproto.boston: > Are you from the Internet? [Wait, this isn't Reddit...] > Are you from the *New* Internet?
About 15 people attended the first ever @atproto.boston meetup. Folks came from many walks of life, from OG internet creators to curious fediverse users to young ATProto enthusiasts. Some found the event on Smokesignal and Bluesky. Others saw the Luma event. Some heard about it from friends in the local digital civil liberties community (awesome 😍). We even had an out of town guest! Shout out to @wesleyfinck.org coming all the way from Vancouver.
Discussion was lively. People quickly broke into small pods of conversation with 3-4 people. Topics ranged from genuine curiosity about how ATProto compares to ActivityPub, ongoing work in the space from @cosmik.network and others, and brainstorming potential applications and integrations with the likes of Obsidian. Some ideas discussed:
Replicate the user repo as an Obsidian vault with the JSON reflected in YAML frontmatter
Use said folder of markdown files as a local approximation of personal private data, where files created or edited are not published to the PDS until that action is taken.
How the current open social web movement, and specifically the energy around ATProto, compares to past internet protocol movements
Chatted with an OG Internet guy at the @atproto.boston meetup today. Asked him about the last time he saw so much community excitement and engagement for a protocol. He said http and html.
Photos
Some attendee thoughts after the event
Great time at the @atproto.boston meetup. Great to chat with you @ronentk.me and @wesleyfinck.org! Lots to think about and build! Looking forward to playing with semble.so! Thank you for organizing @tynanpurdy.com!
Semble | A social knowledge network for researchers
Follow your peers' research trails. Surface and discover new connections. Built on ATProto so you own your data.
I went to a great meet up last night focused on #atproto and its overlaps with #activitypub I learned a lot and came away appreciating its take on content ownership, identity management, and moderation @tynanpurdy.com @avni321.bsky.social @codewiz.org @eagraf.dev @internet-in-a-box.bsky.social
ATProto Boston Meetup! · Luma
The first of its kind! Gather ye ATProto tinkerers, wonderers, and enthusiasts for a night of community and beer. Hosted by tynanpurdy.com and myself (ATProto…
This first @atproto.boston meetup was so special. Great turnout, great conversations, and great people! Thank you everyone for coming. A longer recap to come. 🫶🏻
Gratitude
The ATProto community constantly impresses me. Boris says the strategy is to "lead with joy". I see that every time I get the luxury to meet people in person. The positivity, the hope, the excitement that we can make the internet we've always wanted. Always deserved. I am grateful to everyone who came. Big thanks to Ronen for helping organize the event.
Housekeeping
If you have any thoughts on how we can make these meetups better, ideas for other locations, or other hopes for our next gathering, throw them in the comments or @atproto.boston on Bluesky.
Cheers to a great community and many meetups to come,