A Free Press Needs Free Protocols - Links
Links to support our session at NPA Summit on October 23, 2026
Oct 23, 20262 min read
ews Product Alliance Summit, October 23 2026
AT Protocol
This is the underlying protocol behind Bluesky, Chicago.com, the new version of TimelineJS, and much more.
- Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech: Mike Masnick’s seminal paper for the Knight First Amendment Institute that kicked off Bluesky and AT Protocol development
- Official documentation: get started building on the protocol
- Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media: a computer science paper diving into the underlying concepts
Chicago.com
Chicago Public Media’s social site for Chicago neighborhoods, powered in part by New_ Public’s Roundabout platform.
- Main site
- A new digital home for Chicago: the original announcement post
TimelineJS
Knight Lab’s easy-to-use visual timeline project, now rebuilt on top of AT Protocol.
- TimelineJS Reimagined
- About Atmosphere: how the reimagined TimelineJS makes use of AT Protocol
Open protocols in the midterms
Some examples of how AT Protocol is being used in the upcoming midterm elections.
- Election Night 2026: Graze’s real-time dashboard for election content
- 2026 CA Midterm Election: A live Bluesky feed curated by CalMatters
Other projects
These projects all make use of the AT Protocol ecosystem.
- Bluesky: the AT Protocol based social platform
- Standard.site: a protocol extension to make long-form content easier to discover, index, and move
- Offprint: an easy way to publish long-form content and build an audience
- Pckt: a personal blogging platform
- Leaflet: a customizable way to showcase original writing
- Currents: a visual exploration and bookmarking tool
- Tangled: a social-enabled git collaboration platform
- Atstore: a gateway to even more applications in the ecosystem
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