Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on Vancouver, customization and the future of social media
On opening night of the much-anticipated Web Summit conference's first year in Vancouver, the convention centre's main event space was jam-packed with attendees eager to hear from a tech superstar.
Jay Graber may not be a household name, but the CEO of the Bluesky social media platform is one of the most high-profile women in the tech world and has a bold new vision for the future of social networking that could revolutionize how we connect with other humans – and maybe even make it fun again.
CTV News had a few moments to speak with Graber backstage after her centre stage discussion on 'The Next Era of Social Media' and quickly discovered the Seattle resident is not stranger to Vancouver.
'I actually love it,' she said. 'I find it so interesting how it's this other city on the other side of the Salish Sea and there's a lot of similarities to Seattle, but it's also very different.'
The entrepreneur has become a heroic figure for some social media users weary of the deterioration of online discourse and enthusiastic about her platform, which has been hailed as a potential 'Twitter Killer.'
What is Bluesky, exactly?
Any time Graber speaks about her company, she inevitably has to describe how Bluesky is different from other microblogging platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Threads. The structure of the technology puts it in a position for other developers to design new interfaces or themes or areas of focus with the same user profile and followers.
It's this flexibility and 'sky's the limit' ideology that Graber believes could usher in a whole new era of social media where users have more control over what they see and how by choosing algorithms built by different developers, for example.
'The long-term vision is that the atmosphere, the broader ecosystem of all these apps being built around Bluesky – some of them interacting with Bluesky, some of them being built more on top of it, and some of them being completely their own thing – can all start to flourish and kick off an era of innovation in social that we haven't seen in a long time,' she said.
New users flock to the 'sky'
It's a huge goal for an app that had been invite-only until last year, but new users signed up in droves after the U.S. election, and the platform continues to gain momentum.
One of those new sign-ups was an account for Mark Carney, which popped up when he was still the Liberal leader. While his staff continue to use X, he is now the first Canadian prime minister to use Bluesky just as often, and Graber acknowledges that has helped add to the platform's legitimacy.
In fact, her staff flagged the account for her early on as they sought to make sure it was, in fact, associated to the real Mark Carney.
'Now we have verifications and the delegated verification system, which means that we're able to start verifying more folks,' Graber said. 'I think it's becoming a better and better place for breaking news and a lot of this is why there's notable people joining.'
So does Graber think Bluesky has the principles, flexibility, and foundation to fix or maybe rehabilitate jaded users' relationships with social media?
'We hope so, that's what we're trying to build,' she explained. 'Anyone who decides that, you know, Bluesky out of the box isn't completely what they want can go in and customize it under the hood.'
Considering that's not easy for the layperson to do, Graber has an open invitation to fellow entrepreneurs and coders to come up with their own take on the social media experience.
'(If) you want to zoom in on something that you like more, you can customize your corner of Bluesky,' she said. 'It can really be a 'choose your own adventure.''
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