Why I Call Myself a "Bluesky Research Fellow"

On December 11, 2025, I received a verification mark from Bluesky as a researcher.

I'm grateful for this recognition. But the mark isn't why I started calling myself a "Bluesky Research Fellow." This title carries questions I've been grappling with for over 30 years.

CD-ROMs as Self-Contained Worlds

In 1993, I got my first personal computer.

Back then, CD-ROMs contained "worlds." Encyclopedias, games, multimedia titles—each had clear boundaries, a self-contained universe. I was fascinated by exploring these universes.

In 1999, I encountered the internet, and my perception shifted.

The "world" wasn't something pre-recorded and packaged. It was something people were continuously creating across networks. From closed universes to open processes of generation. This shift became foundational to my thinking.

Between Theory and Practice

In the early 2000s, I encountered several formative works.

There were practical guides on building online communities. And there was Tsutomu Nishigaki's Fundamental Informatics—a biosemiotic approach that reframed information not as data transfer, but as meaning-generation for living systems. This was a radical departure from the Shannon-Weaver model that dominated information theory.

Around the same time, as a graduate student, I was involved in community design projects connecting universities with local communities. Moving back and forth between theory and practice, I became drawn to the concept of "interaction design."

Not UI design. Rather: how do we design the interplay between people? Between people and information? How do communities emerge? How do they sustain themselves?

These questions haven't changed in over 20 years.

Cognition, Language, Communication

My curiosity branched out in other directions as well.

Cognitive science—how do we perceive and conceptualize the world through language? Pragmatics—communication operates by implicit rules, with constant negotiations of face and identity happening beneath the surface.

Language isn't a tool for transmitting information. It's an act of weaving relationships. This perspective connects deeply to questions about how communities form and sustain themselves.

I also began examining information propagation in communities through the lens of rhetoric. Ethos (trust in the speaker), logos (logic and evidence), pathos (emotion and resonance)—how do these three intertwine to make discourse spread, or fail to spread?

The mechanics of virality. The dynamics of pile-ons. The formation and collapse of trust. It's all connected.

From Micro to Macro

The interplay between cognition and language doesn't happen only inside individual minds.

It operates in interpersonal relationships, in social discourse, within cultural frames—across scales. From individual cognition to interpersonal communication to social narratives to cultural frameworks. I believe we need perspectives that move fluidly between micro and macro.

Bluesky as a Field Site

My interest in Bluesky and the AT Protocol emerges from this same intellectual lineage.

It's not just about the shift from centralized platforms to decentralized ones. I see it as a question about the autonomous formation and sustainability of communities. Who controls the network? Under what conditions do communities develop healthily?

I run a Discord server called "Hidebu" (Interaction Design Labs). It's a gathering place for Japanese Bluesky enthusiasts—members from Yotsuya Labs, NTT, Sharp, and Naoko Takano, Bluesky's Japan Community Manager. For me, this is a laboratory for exploring these questions in practice.

Why "Research Fellow"

Community design, interaction design, cognitive science, pragmatics, rhetoric—these look like separate fields. But for me, they're different angles on a single question:

How do humans form relationships and generate meaning in information spaces?

I'm a researcher working at the intersection of language and cognition. And Bluesky is an ideal field for pursuing these questions.

I'm honored to have received the verification mark. But I call myself a "Bluesky Research Fellow" not because of the mark. It's a declaration of intent: to continue pursuing questions I've carried for 30 years, on this platform.