Hamish Campbell an #openweb organic intellectual and technologist
The internet didn’t become broken overnight, it drifted from being a network of communities into a marketplace dominated by platforms whose purpose is extracting value. This is the logic of #dotcons most of us invested our lives and community into. How did we get into this mess? The problem isn’t only bad companies, it’s that … Continue reading Why #FOSS matters socially
Three years ago I wrote: “I get the feeling we are running on dregs on the #fediverse dev side. Social movements come in waves; this one is ebbing into the #mainstreaming. No bad thing, but not, I think, what any of us want for ‘our’ #openweb.” Looking back, I wonder what has actually changed – … Continue reading The culture of #FOSS
We need to have a clearer, more grounded conversation about “security” and what it actually means in the context of the #openweb. There is a long history of thinking in #FOSS spaces that security is something we can solve purely technically: better encryption, better protocols, better architectures. But in everyday life and practice, people need … Continue reading A Note on “Security” for the #FOSS Crew
There is a point that often gets misunderstood in conversations about the future of the #openweb and #FOSS that #mainstreaming itself is not inherently good or bad. What matters is who is influencing whom. We can think of it in two very different directions. This second bad option of co-option Is the default, in the … Continue reading A Note to #FOSS Maintainers and Funders: The Problem With #Mainstreaming
I’ve been working at the heart of this space for more than 30 years, funded and unfunded. In that time I’ve seen hundreds of alternative tech projects start with energy and good intentions. Most of them wither on the vine, a very small number flower. After watching this cycle repeat for decades, one thing has … Continue reading A note to #FOSS funders
Twenty years ago the #openweb conversation was simple: build in the open, share the code, grow commons. It wasn’t perfect, but the direction was clear. Now? We talk about “neutral infrastructure” while most energy flows into platforms, APIs, app stores and AI silos owned by the #dotcons. Even many of our own projects quietly depend … Continue reading Make some FOSS compost
In tech funding, over the last decade, the #EU poured hundreds of millions of euros into the #blockchain mess. The promise has proven to be illusion, we built no working transformation: trustless systems, frictionless governance or new economic layers for Europe. The reality? By any honest social metric, 99.9% of that public funding was poured … Continue reading Public Money, Private Hype: From Blockchain to AI – and the #FOSS Path Less Taken
If you’ve spent years in #FOSS, you’ve likely developed a strong allergy to vague political language. You care about licenses, reproducibility, and whether something actually runs. Good. That discipline is why free software exists at all. But here’s the needed uncomfortable question, what if the biggest blocker to the #openweb right now isn’t technical debt … Continue reading Why good faith is a technical requirement for #FOSS
This matters for #FOSS because as if it remains culturally trapped inside the #geekproblem, it becomes socially irrelevant at the exact historical moment it is most needed. Right now, most #FOSS energy still assumes that if you build complex tools, argue narrowly, and keep everything technically “open,” people will come. But only a tiny minority … Continue reading #FOSS needs to take a social lead
A post sparked Hacker News spouting of noise and smoke. It looks like “just fork it.” phrase in #FOSS culture provokes heat. So worth a second look, for some it’s the purest expression of freedom, to others, it’s a conversation-stopper that quietly protects power. What’s striking isn’t that one side is right and the other … Continue reading Power, the social cost we keep talking past in #FOSS
One of the most repeated mantras in #FOSS culture goes something like this: “If you don’t like it, just fork it.” On the surface, this sounds empowering. And technically, it is true. The beauty of open source is that you can take the Mastodon source code, fork it, and do whatever you want with it. … Continue reading #FOSS “Just Fork It” Delusion
Open source was always political, the very idea of #FOSS was always a radical, left-leaning stance. Let’s be honest, you’re giving away your labour.Not for profit, not for career points,but because you believe we’d all be better off togetherif we stopped rewriting the same bits of code in isolationand started building commons instead of empires. … Continue reading Activism, development of #FOSS paths