# Open Social: How We Reclaim Our Data on the Web > Just as open source liberated code, open social protocols are poised to return data ownership and digital identity to users. - Title: Open Social: How We Reclaim Our Data on the Web · Overreacted - Summary: Just as open source liberated code, open social protocols are poised to return data ownership and digital identity to users. Open social decouples your… - Keywords: open social, at protocol, decentralization, data ownership, web development, technology, design, Open, Social, Reclaim, Data, Web - Source: Overreacted — https://overreacted.io/open-social - Read time: 3 min - Topics: open social, at protocol, decentralization, data ownership, web development, technology, design ## Open source won the web Decades ago, critics called open source impossible or even dangerous. Today, it forms the shared infrastructure running the modern digital world. > Nobody gets fired for choosing open source these days. For much crucial software, open source is now the default. ## The next shift is social Social media today stands at the same historical crossroads open source faced 35 years ago. A new movement called open social is emerging to reclaim our digital commons. > I believe we are at a similar juncture with social apps as we have been with open source thirty five years ago. ## Code is free, data isn't What open source accomplished for software source code, open social aims to accomplish for personal user data. > What open source did for code, open social does for data. ## How the early web worked On the early web, publishing meant owning a domain like alice.com. Site owners truly controlled their content and could switch hosting providers at any time. > Only Alice decides what appears on Alice’s website. Only Bob decides what appears on Bob’s website. They meaningfully 'own their data'. ## Links belonged to logical documents Hyperlinks connected documents rather than physical servers. If a host turned bad, you moved your site elsewhere, and DNS restored all existing links seamlessly. > Hosting providers have no real leverage over Alice and Bob... you can just walk away and host it elsewhere. ## The rise of closed social Today, people publish structured entities like posts, likes, and comments inside corporate databases under app-assigned usernames rather than personal websites. > We, and the web we create, have become rows in somebody else’s database. ## Why centralized apps won Storing structured data in a single database unlocked global search, feeds, and notifications. People flocked to shared spaces because humans want to congregate together. > It’s specifically this social aggregation that blows the 'personal sites' paradigm out of the water. ## The trap of platform lock-in Centralized apps trapped our social graphs. You cannot leave a platform without abandoning your followers, likes, and post history. > To leave is to leave it behind. ## Platforms turn on their users When users cannot walk away, platforms lose all incentive to respect them. They squeeze feeds with ads, alter algorithms, or sell out to corporate acquirers. > If you can’t leave without losing something important, the platform has no incentives to respect you as a user. ## Data exports are dead data Downloading a zip file of JSON when you leave an app provides only isolated archives stripped of their living network context. > Those megabytes of JSON you got on your way out are dead data. It’s like a branch torn apart from its tree. ## Enter the Open Social model Open social restores user ownership. Instead of an app-allocated username, your internet handle becomes a domain name you control, like @alice.com. > Your internet handle being something you actually own is the most user-visible aspect of open social apps. ## Data hosted on the web In open social, your posts, follows, and likes live in your personal data repository, a standard web server, rather than inside a company's private database. > Alongside her personal site, Alice now has a personal repository of her data. ## A web of hyperlinked JSON Using protocols like Bluesky's AT Protocol, every data record gets a unique at:// URI. Records link directly across independent repositories. > This is a web of hyperlinked JSON. Just like every HTML page has an https:// URI... every JSON record has an at:// URI. ## True freedom to switch hosts You can move your data repository to a new host at any time. Your identity, posts, and incoming links remain fully intact. > Changing where her repo is being served from doesn’t require cooperation from the previous host. ## Apps become content management systems Open social apps operate like specialized editors for your repository. When you post or like something, the app writes signed data straight into your repo. > Each open social app is like a CMS for a subset of data that lives in its users’ repositories. ## Open data by default Records inside your repository are grouped by application schemas. Anyone or any app can read your public data directly without needing custom platform APIs. > To avoid naming collisions, the data in the repository is grouped by the format. ## A connected multiverse of apps Because data lives together in open repositories, apps can seamlessly build on each other's data, sharing avatars, graphs, and interactions across services. > It starts to feel like a connected multiverse of apps, with data from one app 'bleeding into' other apps. ## Breaking down application silos New apps no longer need to build social graphs from scratch. They can immediately leverage existing identities and content stored in user repositories. > Every open social app can take advantage of data created by every other open social app. ## The power of AT Protocol While open social isn't limited to one system, the AT Protocol provides the most practical implementation today for decentralizing social data at scale. > I think the AT Protocol created by Bluesky is the most convincing take on it so far. ## Inevitable in retrospect Decentralizing social media will take years of sustained community effort. But just like open source, open social will eventually feel like the obvious default. > Good things can happen; all it takes is years of sustained effort by a community of stubborn enthusiasts. ## Key takeaway Open social decouples your identity and content from social media platforms, enabling you to own your data repository and switch apps without losing your social graph.