Physicians and Scientists Find a New Digital Home: BlueSky
Starting in early November, we noticed a LOT of chatter on Twitter among physicians about BlueSky. The service, which launched well over 2 years ago, had gotten limited attention up to that point – but things were about to change. Physicians, who had exhibited only modest interest in the platform, suddenly got VERY interested – posting 1,143 times about it in the first 3 weeks of November.
In October Bluesky exploded in popularity. Why ?
What happened to Twitter on October 27, 2022?
Elon Musk acquired Twitter and terminated over 1/2 of the employees. According to Yahoo Finance, Musk and his co-investors have lost more than $25 billion on their Twitter takeover.
Musk became the sole director and CEO of Twitter
He fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal
He delisted Twitter from the New York Stock Exchange
What has happened to Twitter since October 27, 2022?
Twitter has seen thousands of employee layoffs
The company has faced issues with AI-generated content and misinformation
Musk has renamed several features to remove references to birds
Musk has taken a free-speech absolutist approach, banning several prominent journalists
Musk has been accused of advancing his power instead of making decisions in the name of free speech.
Bluesky, a social media platform, began in 2019 as a research project at Twitter. It launched publicly in February 2024. Bluesky’s was founded in 2019 by Jack Dorsey, the former owner of Twitter.
Twitter lost 32 million users since 2023.
2019: Jack Dorsey, then CEO of Twitter, announced the Bluesky initiative
2021: Bluesky became an independent company
2022: Development of Bluesky accelerated after Elon Musk acquired Twitter
February 2023: Bluesky launched as an invite-only service
February 2024: Bluesky opened registrations to the public
Goals
Create a decentralized social media platform
Give users more control over their data and experience
Build a new kind of social network that's open and decentralized
Features
Built on the AT Protocol, an open-source framework for building social apps
Allows users to select specific algorithms that power their experience
Enables users to have website addresses as their handles
Elon Musk used his considerable wealth to enter into the field of politics contributing 250 million dollars to the GOP campaign and now sits (literally) as the power behind Donald Trump. This was evident at the post-inauguration festivities on national television. From humble beginnings, he has become a narcissistic megalomaniac. He may be following the path of Howard Hughes.