The EU opportunity and danger, what grassroots projects can offer

The #openweb reminds us that meaningful autonomy comes from shared infrastructure, collective governance, and mutual trust. Projects like #OMN are built on this understanding: individuals do not create networks alone; networks create the conditions that allow individuals to flourish. Real freedom grows from commons-based collaboration, not from isolated platforms or competitive silos. What can grassroots … Continue reading The EU opportunity and danger, what grassroots projects can offer →

Rebuilding Grassroots Media – Back to the Soil

From my point of view, it needs to start from the raw truth: There is currently no functioning grassroots media. Not in any coherent sense. Before we talk about video, storytelling and digital tools, we have to answer the most basic question, one that most people have forgotten to ask: What is grassroots media? It’s … Continue reading Rebuilding Grassroots Media – Back to the Soil →

Smiling-faced vileness: How enforced politeness becomes a weapon in grassroots paths

Too often, the ugliness we face in grassroots spaces wears a smile. It’s smiling-faced vileness: pleasant, agreeable individuals who wield control by blocking dissent, sanitizing movements under the guise of compromise, and maintaining the fake illusion of consensus. This is especially true in spaces overly tolerant of #NGO-style protocols – those bureaucratic, #fashionista postmodern traps … Continue reading Smiling-faced vileness: How enforced politeness becomes a weapon in grassroots paths →

Why #NGO and fluffy #openweb tech events should include radical real grassroots projects

If you need a working definition of the #geekproblem, it’s the habit, no, the reflex, of putting the social side of tech outside of tech. It’s the behaviour of someone sticking their head in the sand and mumbling, “That’s not my department.”It’s “I just write the code.”It’s “We’re neutral tools.”It’s “Let’s keep politics out of … Continue reading Why #NGO and fluffy #openweb tech events should include radical real grassroots projects →

Building Alt/Grassroots Media Networks to Challenge and Widen Traditional Media

The current ecosystem of alternative and grassroots media is too narrow in its imagination of what media could, and should, be. There’s a persistent naivety or, in some cases, a self-serving dishonesty. Many of the most “successful” progressive media groups continue to mimic #traditionalmedia without understanding, or addressing, the fact that they do not control … Continue reading Building Alt/Grassroots Media Networks to Challenge and Widen Traditional Media →

Rise and Fall of Grassroots #OpenWeb

The #fashionistas are coming https://yewtu.be/embed/u_Lxkt50xOg? It’s time to become more real before this inflow swamps our “native” reboot, if we let them they will consume it and shit it out as more mess. To mediate this shit storm, it’s time to act, please, feel free to repost these web posts, thanks. To understand where the … Continue reading Rise and Fall of Grassroots #OpenWeb →

Actors, Power, and Collective Publishing: Rethinking Fediverse Architecture for Grassroots Media

We recently had an extended and thoughtful discussion on signal between collaborators working on #IndymediaBack and #MakingHistory, a key issue emerged: how should we structure “actors” (ActivityPub identities) in a network where the focus is collective action, not individual performance? This question isn’t just technical. It’s political, and central to the success or failure of … Continue reading Actors, Power, and Collective Publishing: Rethinking Fediverse Architecture for Grassroots Media →

Rebooting the Fourth Estate: Building tools for grassroots governance

We’re living in the wreckage of the old 19th century social order. The so-called Four Estates, pillars of traditional power and authority, which 200 years latter are either rotting from within or already dead. It’s now past time to stop mourning and start composting this. Right now we are doing this at the #OMN we’re … Continue reading Rebooting the Fourth Estate: Building tools for grassroots governance →

Mainstreaming: Building Grassroots Balance

We do have a good history, with our involvement in #EU digital outreach and policy meetings, but this has made one thing starkly clear, our #openweb is deeply entangled in the process of #mainstreaming, a messy, often co-optative dynamic where grassroots voices are softened, diluted, and redirected into bureaucracy, then in the end they are … Continue reading Mainstreaming: Building Grassroots Balance →

Rebuilding Radical, Grassroots Media

For way too long, our digital spaces have been hijacked by corporate interests, turning the internet into a surveillance-driven wasteland where control, profit, and censorship push aside community, useful creativity, and communities autonomy. As a first step to reclaim our media and communication networks, we need to step away from the #mainstreaming mess and build … Continue reading Rebuilding Radical, Grassroots Media →

VisionOnTV: A Lost Future of Grassroots Video

Nearly 20 years ago, we built something radical. #VisionOnTV wasn’t just another platform, it was a #4opens movement. A bold attempt to break free from corporate-controlled media and give people the tools to create and share activist-driven, alternative television. We weren’t waiting for permission; we were building the future we wanted to see. Before #YouTube … Continue reading VisionOnTV: A Lost Future of Grassroots Video →

How #mainstreaming funds grassroots movements, they get their value from

One of the tensions in the fight to build an alternative, sustainable future is the relationship between mainstream resources and seeding grassroots projects. The reality is STARK that grassroots movements need resources to survive and thrive, yet the act of receiving funding, if they can access it at all, drags them into the suffocating grip … Continue reading How #mainstreaming funds grassroots movements, they get their value from →