Presenting a lens-focused channel can include determining a state of a separate channel hosted on a data communications network. A topic-specific lens for federating a plurality of topic-specific messages conveyed over the data communications network can be configured in response to a predetermined condition indicated by the state of the channel. A lens-focused channel can be generated for presenting the plurality of topic-specific messages, as federated by the topic-specific lens, to a user over the data communications network.