Exchange Point Institute

We as terminated staffers & former Bluestockings collective cohorts from over 26+ years reject the forced imminent closure of our bookshop/organizing mycelium/Lower East Side mutual aid hub.

We have secured a temporary location (6th Street Community Center, on 6th Street between Aves B and C), to operate out of while we figure out the next steps to keep the mission, principles, and goals of Bluestockings alive.

All funds will first and foremost go towards rent, and setting up a working space for all of us in exile (we will hold a call for conspirators soon!).

No funds will be spent on labor until we put in place a community decision-making process, and share how folx can be a part of it, with ample time for them to become involved.

We are building the ship as we set sail, and we appreciate any ideas, concerns, supportive feedback at stewardsofbstox [@] proton.me

In transformative praxis and towards a new home,

Those in exile

P.S. The money is currently going to a non-profit, which is headed by a Bluestockings steward from 2012. This is to ensure financial transparency and collective decision-making.

The Fediverse is better with your people in it. Let's help you find them!

The hardest part of joining a new social network isn't learning how it works, it's feeling connected. Research shows that people feel happiest on social platforms when they have meaningful ties.

The broader social web has no built-in way to find the people you already know. There are lots of strategies for power users, but we want to bring the millions of new users who show up a privacy-first way to find their friends and affinity groups.

Find My Friends on the Social Web is a privacy-first Android app that cross-references your contacts with Gravatar using only hashed data, so your contacts never leave your phone to find which of your friends and family already have accounts on the social web. That's it! You can then follow them with one tap.

No central server. No data collection.

This project is led by Evan Prodromou — co-author of ActivityPub, the open standard that powers Mastodon, Pixelfed, and the entire Fediverse. Evan is Research Director at the Social Web Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the open social web. The core flow has already been prototyped and tested. We're ready to build.

Every dollar goes directly toward:

You can make a difference by donating today to the Social Web Foundation via its fiscal host, Exchange Point (EXP). The Exchange Point's mission is supporting transformative technology that serves the public interest in achieving social justice. EXP is a 501c3 with programing dedicated to open and interoperable internet, web and emerging technology in the public interest. Its projects include: Free Our Feeds (now Modal Foundation), A New Social and the Social Web Foundation -- all of these are working to grow open, healthy, and sustainable social networks. EXP also supports the Internet Exchange -- a weekly newsletter publication about internet standards and human rights.