Since this re-surfaced from the second chance queue, this is a good place to say they just announced the first and very important steps to an independent PLC directory: https://martianbase.net/@mackuba/116314877708269740

From the alt text:

Initial board

- Bryan Newbold - Bluesky, protocol engineer

- Richard Barnes - Co-founder Let's Encrypt, Co-author MLS, ACME, HPKE, etc

- Wendy Seltzer - Internet Lawyer & open standards advocate

- Filippo Valsorda - Cryptographer, Go cryptography maintainer, transparency log aficionado

- Thyla van der Merwe - Cryptographer, security & privacy engineer at Google

This is on top of the IETF working group news: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/atp/about/

I can really get behind this positive take on ATProto and the ecosystem. I know there was early criticism, but much of that stems from the project taking a fairly long-term viewpoint early on, and then having to work their way towards fulfilling that. We're now at that point, and the model looks great.

Just want to add that the AT Protocol IETF working group has been formed, and the PLC directory independent organization and board has officially been established. I’m at the closing talk for this years Atmosphere Conference as I write this and it’s really an incredible community of devs.