Online technologies have often taken on a life of their own when a community forms around them. Users put their tools to use in ways the designers never expected. What would it mean to truly hand ownership and control of tools to the people who rely on them most? This month, we turn to Anjali and James Young, the founders of Collab.Land, a piece of software used by thousands of online communities. In 2023, they distributed control of their product to their users, thanks to a blockchain-based token and a cooperative company. But this was not a straightforward process. They explain their hopes and their challenges in attempting this "exit to community."

A new kind of social media is emerging that is open, interoperable, and not controlled by any one company. One iteration of it is called Bluesky. Bluesky lets you follow feeds specific to your interests, and each feed is created, curated, and run by individuals or groups. Rather than relying on corporate engineers, this is everyone's opportunity to try their hand in building their own algorithm and cultivating an online experience.

This month's guest, Rudy Fraser, is the founder of Papertree, a resource that provides joint money accounts for communities. Papertree started as a crowdfunding system to help neighborhoods provide financial assistance for groceries to community members. Rudy chose to build Blacksky, his own feed on Bluesky, to create a space for Black internet users to build a safe and supportive community online. Listen to this month's episode to learn more about the emerging opportunities in social media through Rudy's experience building Blacksky—and how novel moderation systems are reaching for new ways of connecting people online.

On this episode we have the privilege of hosting a distinguished returning guest, who’s groundbreaking research has reshaped the landscape of media studies; the Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, Education, and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California, Dr. Henry Jenkins.

What does it mean to be a fan in the digital age? What do fan practices look like?

In this episode Dr. Jenkins takes us through fan activism to purchasing practices in China as he discusses research on emerging fan cultures. In this episode we will learn all about the new landscape of global fandom in an increasingly digitally mediated world.

Rachel O’Dwyer is a writer and researcher whose work looks at digital economies and culture. Her writing touches on online transactions, art markets, programmable money, and alternative currencies. Rachel’s work probes the social and political landscapes that these technologies bring into being.

She serves as a lecturer in digital cultures at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. Her first book, Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform, was published in 2023.

Rachel’s work digs into the complexity of financial exchange. How especially in the digital era, payment and the platforms and tools that we use to do it bring different social relations into being. Her work offers an ethnography of sorts, drawing on real-life research she’s conducted into money burners and Bitcoin fanatics.

She’s a bracing critic of the connection between big tech and big finance yet offers frameworks for a hopeful future.

In this month’s episode, we dive into what tokens are, what makes them different from regular money, and how they matter today.

On this episode, we host Dr. Henry Jenkins, an esteemed scholar of fan studies, participatory culture, and transmedia.

As the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the author of influential works such as "Textual Poachers," Dr. Jenkins explored how audiences actively engage in shaping and reshaping media content.

He was the principal investigator for "The Civic Imagination Project," a venture funded by the MacArthur Foundation. This project seeks to inspire creative collaborations within communities, emphasizing shared values and visions for the future.

Dr. Jenkins has been at the forefront of transformative projects like "Project New Media Literacies" and "The Education Arcade," advocating for the educational use of computer technology and video games. As a public advocate, he has testified before the U.S. Senate, contributed to the legal struggles over fan-made films, and consistently championed the importance of media literacy.

Today, we have the unique opportunity to delve into Dr. Jenkins' insights on emerging technology, such as AI, its impact on participatory culture, and on our evolving relationship with media and technology.

This month we welcome Benjamin Edwards, AI and Machine Learning Reporter for Ars Technica. He specializes in computer and video game history, has been covering the world of AI technology for over 16 years for publications such as The Atlantic, Wired, PC World, Macworld, Ars Techinca, 1UP, and Game Developer Magazine. Benj also runs Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to computer and video game history.

In this episode, Tara Coughlin interviews Benj on how to develop a new language to try and describe the new things happening in AI.

With the rise of NFTs, blockchain and cryptocurrency took the art world by storm. But often, this meant doubling down on art’s status as a financial asset. However, this technology could have a place in the art world beyond the speculative churn of NFT markets. 

How can blockchain help build an ecosystem where artists and galleries support each other – one where creators have sovereignty over their data, and see it preserved for generations to come? In this episode, we hear from Kelani Nichole, the founder of TRANSFER Gallery, which exhibits digital art both online and IRL. She explains the challenges of preserving and maintaining media art, why “artist data sovereignty” is so important, and where blockchain fits into her vision of digital art’s sustainability. 

As AI systems become more widespread, it is becoming all the more important to know we can trust them. This month, Rohit Taware interviews Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of CalypsoAI, Victor Ardulov. Victor created the technical roadmap, and managed a team of applied scientists, to build a unique software that is being used to check the health and well-roundedness of generative and Deep Neural Network artificial intelligence. We used to ask, "Who watches the watchers?" Today we ask, "Who watches the AI?"

With the rise of open social media platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, nonprofits have new opportunities to develop close conversations with the communities they seek to support.

Many of these open social media platforms are also better aligned with nonprofits’ values than major tech companies have been. What are the best ways for non-profits to get involved?

How do nonprofits navigate this emerging space in an already dense social media landscape? In this episode, we will hear from nonprofit leaders and technologists on how the emerging social networks relate to their organizations’ goals.