iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

For verification, our first thought has been to start running a labeller at some point - it's on protocol and can be done without needing a large number of institutions to buy into the project.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 3h

> change job, and that's bad! For people who are more permanent, there are some ways that we could work with handles like that. It would require some DNS access to the institute's domain, though, which might get quite complex.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 3h

That could work! We want to start out with something independent of institution, because most people in academia are changing institute every few years, meaning it's more helpful to keep the same handle and have it be independent of your place of work. Lots of people lose personal sites when they >

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 4h

Although we'll need funding eventually to sustain costs, because we aren't here to make profit, we will be able to fund the project through grants, crowdfunding, and maybe paid supporter tiers (although *most* features will *always* be free - and again, point 2. will always keep us honest!)

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 4h

4. But we're also planning on never messing up! We have a diverse team, including current academics and people in public sector roles. We will involve our community as much & as soon as possible to diversify our governance.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 4h

3. All of the code we're writing to operate specific Aster services is open source and available to others to reuse. That coupled with point 2) means that anyone could make Aster 2 if we mess up.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 4h

2. The design of the AT Protocol means that users can migrate away from our hosting if they don't like what we're doing in the future. That means that our userbase will be able to vote with their feet.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 4h

1. We're legally hosted by a non-profit, and our agreement with them is that we remain a non-profit project. As the person who signed that document on our team, I would be legally liable if we break that! (We could make that doc public at some point to help clarify)

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 4h

I get that! Trust is something that has to be earned. I hope that a few things can already make that clear:

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 6h

The most difficult challenge about hosting Atmosphere accounts for researchers is... deciding how to define "researcher". This is a big topic that we want to be transparent about and get community input on. More below from @mathewlowry.eurosky.social:

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 6h

Regarding @sifa.id - this is the plan! The websites we offer will use existing lexicons where possible (eg sifa), so that an update on one service propagates everywhere.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 7h

oooo I will have to check them out! Do you know of Elephant Gym? There's a whole world of math rock outside of the west and it's wonderful. And the bass player is amaaaaazing, I had never seen someone tap on a bass before

youtu.be

Elephant Gym - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

YouTube video by KEXP

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Reposted by Emily Hunt

Modal Foundation @modalfoundation.eurosky.social · 8h

Thrilled that Aster.id has launched, and very happy for the Modal Foundation to be supporting in an incubation role. modalfoundation.leaflet.pub/3mwqgvxl5a22a

modalfoundation.leaflet.pub

Incubating Aster

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Eurosky Social @eurosky.social · 8h

We're so excited to see the arrival of Aster ID as a home for researchers on the open web and to welcome them to the @modalfoundation.eurosky.social family. Very lucky that we've been able to support their tech stack at Eurosky 💖

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Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 7h

The social internet — for science! I'm super excited to see @aster.id launching. It's an Atmosphere service provider (like @eurosky.social) for researchers, hosted by your friends at the @modalfoundation.eurosky.social. Why does it matter? Thread time! 🧵

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Aster ID @aster.id · 8h

The modern research ecosystem of online tools and communities is controlled by for-profit companies. But we think that researchers should be the priority - not the product. So, we're announcing Aster ID: not-for-profit Atmosphere account hosting for researchers.

blog.aster.place

Announcing Aster - a home for researchers on the open web

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 8h

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!! 6+ months of work by SO many people is converging on a fantastic thing for researchers online. We want to democratize access to research infrastructure online, for good, and we've put together an amazing team to make it happen. ❤️

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 15h

I wish that proton mail ACTUALLY came with a wizard, then I could get them to cast "DNS-speedupius" or something

proton mail domain name setup page, reading:
Connect your custom domain to Proton to set up custom email addresses (e.g., you@yourcompany.com). Our wizard will guide you through the process.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 15h

waiting for DNS to propagate so that we can announce a new @atproto.science project 👀 very very excited to show this one off!!!

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 29/09/2026

About to write a reference letter for a student for the first time in my life - exciting! Do you have any general tips on how to write one? Common pitfalls to avoid? I want the student to do well with her applications so I'd like to write a killer letter 🔭☄️

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 29/09/2026

Oh wonderful, someone in my field has started spamming the arXiv with clearly AI-generated 'review' papers that just restate things from a handful of papers but in a new work. How pointless

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Paul Voosen @voosen.me · 28/09/2026

New Horizons is now *three days away* from shutting off its two heliophysics instruments, simply because NASA has not provided the $2M in funding it had promised to the mission last year or this year. There is no science basis for shutting these off. Our earlier coverage:

science.org

NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding

Decision risks “incalculable loss” of data from the edge of the Sun’s influence, scientists say

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

Are you looking to apply for the Astronomy PhD program at the University of Washington this cycle? Please look at our website and see the new Expression of Interest form!! astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

astro.washington.edu

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy is accepting applications to our graduate program for Fall 2027 admissions.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 29/09/2026

Jeez that's so much 😵‍💫 thank you for your service! I wish there was a way to reward reviewing work better, as it's so important - and based on numbers alone, there surely have to be a lot of people who secretly never do it...