Founder and CEO of Ghost, John O'Nolan, discusses decentralizing technology, integrating ActivityPub, and empowering creators. They explore open-source publishing, micropayments, digital sovereignty, and challenging algorithm-driven platforms for a more equitable internet future.
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insights INSIGHT
ActivityPub Integration in Ghost
John O'Nolan, CEO of Ghost, explains their ActivityPub integration aims to solve the "lonely" problem of independent websites.
It creates a social interaction layer, connecting publishers and readers in a decentralized network.
insights INSIGHT
Balancing User Experience and Discovery
Casey Newton's move to Ghost from Substack highlights the trade -off between clean user experience and discovery.
ActivityPub's organic discovery through social interaction can address this, complementing existing directories.
insights INSIGHT
Two-Way Interaction in Ghost
Ghost's ActivityPub integration focuses on two -way interaction, not just broadcasting.
Readers can respond, creating a sense of community rather than one -way content delivery.
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John O’Nolan, the founder and CEO of Ghost, calls himself “the inverse Peter Thiel.” That’s because he wants to build a tech company that bucks the usual narratives, with as few monopolies as possible. His open-source publishing platform is structured as a nonprofit and is integrating with the ActivityPub protocol, giving creators digital sovereignty. No longer do writers have to perform for an algorithm to succeed or get stuck inside closed systems that monetize off their backs.
Does this scenario seem too good to be true? As you’ll hear in this conversation with Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, John doesn’t think so. There’s still a lot to be figured out, but both entrepreneurs are here for whatever this next phase of the internet brings.
Highlights of this conversation:
Why John believes in ActivityPub
Ghost’s ActivityPub integration
Parallels with the early internet
Being at a grassroots stage
Decentralizing human connection
Impact of catering to algorithms
Micropayments and other models
🔎 You can find John at https://john.onolan.org/
✚ You can connect with Mike McCue on Mastodon at @mike@flipboard.social or via his Flipboard federated account, where you can see what he’s curating on Flipboard in the fediverse, at @mike@flipboard.com
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