Blacksky As a Service

Rishi Balakrishnan is the lead engineer on Acorn, Blacksky's soon-to-be-released platform for letting communities run their own moderated spaces on atproto. Jim and Alex talk with him about how Acorn came together and the design choices that went into building a landing page that doesn't mention a PDS, relay, labeler, or Lexicon. Acorn is built for communities that don't necessarily know what atproto is but want a space that isn't owned by a tech giant. Rishi walks through a bit of the history of Blacksky, starting as a custom feed, then a moderation service, and now a full alternative implementation of the protocol with rsky. Acorns is the next step, turning the infrastructure Blacksy built for itself into a service for other communities to use. Links and references Introducing Acorn: Community Infrastructure That Grows With You Tech Policy Press Podcast: Rudy Fraser on Building Blacksky and the Future of Middleware Listen and read more at atproto.com/off-protocol/blacksky-as-a-service-a-first-look-at-acorn Off Protocol is a production of the Bluesky developer relations team. For more about AT Protocol and an archive of this show, head to atproto.com. Our theme music was composed and produced by Saleem Reshamwala. Catch our livestream every other Wednesday at stream.place/atproto.com.