Rosieland Roundup 249 — The Bluesky Community Starter Pack

I've been transitioning everything of mine towards the open web and it's giving me real hope for the future of the web, and the world.

Whilst I'm not going to publicly shout out about what I'm quitting, what I'd rather do is share where my focused attention will be going forward.

Rosieland as a website, subscribe via RSS or newsletter, whatever suits. Just incase you're not sure whether there is value there, I have 600+ posts + a comprehensive knowledge base of my community research from the past 4 years.
Bluesky, I'm there as @rosiesherry.com
My personal website (rosiesherry.com) as a more personal space for all my other non-community-building writing. It's a work in progress.

I'm tired of all the moving between different tech and all the algorithm games these platforms create. It's not a game I personally want to play and in the open web we have much more control how and what to consume.

If you're interested in the open web, ethics and generally a better virtual web, I'd recommend Bluesky as a social platform (I created a 🦋 Bluesky community building starter pack 🦋 to help people here connect, drop a comment to the post to be added).

I've also been a huge fan of Ghost over the years. Their non-profit status and general ethics in their business model is something that we need more of in the world. They make publishing easy, support RSS and are working towards becoming more Fediverse friendly.

We've been digitally displaced over the past couple of years, we can get our re-connection back in a different, but better way. The old social platforms should be worried, as should the 'old community platforms'.

Times are changing. Now, we can build beautiful things for ourselves, on our terms. I'm not going to let the social platforms have all the fun.

👉 Onwards to what I found in community this week...

A Sporting Way to Build Community | Reasons to be cheerful

Community-focused groups like Mental Health Swims and Project PT are emerging as vital social spaces, promoting physical activity and inclusivity while addressing mental health issues.

In times of defeat, turn toward each other | Vox

In time of despair, community and collective action gain attraction. Let us hope that in the future, we can find opportunity to invest in community without the pressure of despair.

Bluesky heatmap generator | by @alice.bsky.sh

Bluesky is where I'm at and committing to longer term. The open web, no other way, the only way.

Bluesky and the thriving community ecosystem | Bluesky

It's very cool to see Bluesky thriving at the moment, here are their projects built upon their API. I'm here for this!

Urban Sketchers, nice!

I love stumbling upon communities, go check out Urban Sketchers for inspiration!

Sketching cups, as documented on their blog.

And they have so many chapters, which is cool!

Building Meaningful Community Partnerships | ATÖLYE

Moving Forward — Advancing Community-Centered Journalism | Damian Radcliffe

We know that there is no cookie-cutter model for Community-Centered Journalism. What works in one community will not necessarily work in another.

Nevertheless, we can learn from existing practices and research, and we encourage readers to dig deeper into the links and materials provided in the appendix for inspiration.

Places and Non-Places | Andrew Price, Strong Towns

Today I learned that all of the land used in cities can be divided into two categories: Places and Non-Places.

Places are for people. Places are destinations. Whether it's a place to sleep, a place to shop, a place of employment or simply a place to relax, it has a purpose and adds a destination to the city. Building interiors are the most common form of Places found in cities.
Non-Places are the padding between destinations