Hamish Campbell an #openweb organic intellectual and technologist
I am not religious, but that does not mean religion is something that can only be dismissed as irrational, stupid or obsolete. There is a useful distinction between believing in a religion and understanding the social, cultural and philosophical work that religion has historically done. This matters for the #OMN because we are interested in … Continue reading Religion, mystery and the #openweb
The problems we face in the #openweb are often presented as technology problems. Which protocol, platform, licence, federation path, software? Which standard? These questions matter, but they are not the foundations of the problem. A lot of what we are seeing is really a cultural clash. Different parts of the alternative tech world have different … Continue reading The #openweb needs diversity, not monoculture
For 50 years we have worshipped the #deathcult – endless growth, extraction, competition and individualism – and now we are living with the damage that this has done to our society and the living world. The current hard shift to the right won’t fix any of this, it simply empowers the #nastyfew to surf the … Continue reading Grassroots #openweb infrastructure is need for a different future
Need to come back to this, as people still are not seeing the value or use. The #4opens is a simple, practical tool for evaluating and guiding grassroots technology, media and social projects. Rather than asking whether a project is simply “open source”, it asks a broader question – can people actually trust this project … Continue reading The #4opens: A Practical Compass for the #openweb
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