Hamish Campbell an #openweb organic intellectual and technologist
Signal, Noise, and the missing ground – We have a signal-to-noise problem, that if we’re serious about “paths to growth,” we need to be honest about the paths and people pushing us down paths we’re actually walking. The problem was never just the #dotcons platforms. It’s what we build instead – and more importantly, how … Continue reading The Meta-Mess of the “Open” Social Web
When thinking about supporting the #Fediverse, it’s important to understand that the current codebase leadership model is closer to an aristocracy than democracy. This isn’t unusual – most open source projects work this way. A small group of core developers, often a “benevolent dictator,” make key decisions. This model can work up to a point: … Continue reading EU taking the open web path?
A Policy Case for Commons-Based Moderation in the Fediverse The problem with the current approach The normal response to harmful content and behaviour on federated social platforms today is the block. Instance administrators block other instances. Users block other users. Communities build blocklists and share them. This is understandable – it is the tool available … Continue reading Beyond Blocking: Building Trust Infrastructure for the Open Web
YOU can’t do social change or challenge without annoying people If you think you can, you’re probably play-acting – and part of the problem – does that annoy you? If it does… maybe sit with that. 🙂 Food for thought, #4opens is a shovel for composting. The value of the #Fediverse comes from its cultural … Continue reading The value of the #Fediverse comes from its cultural roots in the #openweb
Today there are a lot of dishonest people – it’s become the default. Finding someone who is actually truthful is rare. So with this in mind, let’s stop being polite about this, what we’re living inside online right now isn’t “social media.” It’s a managed enclosure – a system designed to extract value, shape behaviour, … Continue reading Growing the #openweb – Notes for Composting the #dotcons (and growing an #OMN)
It’s obvious to everyone paying attention that the relentless push of #mainstreaming over the last forty years has not made society healthier or more stable. Quite the opposite, the result has been accelerating social disintegration and the rapid expansion of #climatechaos. When the current trajectory continues, the consequences are catastrophic. Over the next fifty years … Continue reading Shovels, Hashtags, and Revolutions: Roots of the #openweb
Almost all funding in the #openweb space gets absorbed by the mediation layer – the people and organisations who talk about, manage, and frame the work rather than doing it. Some money reaches (#geekproblem) developers. Some supports visible projects and #fashionista careers. But the pattern holds: funding flows to what institutions can understand, and institutions … Continue reading Who’s Building the #Openweb – and Who’s Just Feeding Off It
Recently I’ve been doing media interviews – one mainstream piece for a #boatingeurope article coming out in traditional media, and another for the Cherwell student paper in Oxford focused more on biography. Both journalists said the same thing: “It was surprisingly hard to find information about you online.” Around the same time, a boater friend … Continue reading Disappearing from Search: A personal story about visibility, #dotcons, and the shrinking #openweb
Treating the Fediverse as #stupidindividualism is a kind of blindness, yes, individuals matter, but the #Fediverse only works because of shared culture, shared norms, and collective responsibility. Without this social layer, federation becomes fragmentation – lots of voices, but little shared direction to hold together. Since the #twittermigration of a few years ago, many of … Continue reading The #twittermigration, signal vs noise, for rebuilding #openweb culture
We are feeling a cultural current many of us recognise but rarely name clearly. A feeling that something fundamental has gone wrong, not just politically or economically, but culturally. An experience that imagination has narrowed, participation has thinned, and people are increasingly pushed into the role of spectators rather than participants in shaping the world. … Continue reading The #openweb is the soil, #OMN the seeds
Let’s look at an example of how belief systems shape political reality. Some people still deliberately conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. This confusion isn’t neutral, it shapes how discussions are framed, who gets silenced, and which political paths remain possible. Let’s be clear: Much of the current framing is not about honest thinking, it is about … Continue reading Composting the myths: power, hidden religions, and why the #openweb matters
https://nlnet.nl/fediversity Project Title Open Media Network (OMN): Portable Digital Commons for a Federated Europe Summary The Open Media Network (#OMN) is a real grassroots initiative to build sustainable, human-centred digital infrastructure aligned with the principles of the #openweb and the #4opens. To providing easy-to-use, hosted cloud services with service portability and freedom at their core … Continue reading Funding Proposal: Open Media Network (#OMN) – Building Portable, Human-Centred Digital Commons