For two decades, activist tech has been stuck in a defensive crouch. We’ve built bunkers (security tools, encryption layers, anonymity networks) but very few bridges. That’s left the field fragmented, insular, and often unattractive to the people we’re supposedly trying to empower.
If the aim is to push social change and challenge rather than just survive, here’s what I think needs building:
- #4opens-native infrastructure Open data → not just sharing docs, but making activist knowledge queryable, remixable, reusable. Open source → tools that anyone can template and that are designed for non-geek participation. Open process → transparent decision-making, recorded and accessible, not locked in Discord chats and private Signal groups. Open standards → making sure our platforms talk to each other rather than becoming new silos.
Right now, most “secure” activist tools violate at least two of these, which is why they never scale socially.
- Publishing-first culture (#OMN approach)
Defensive tools keep activists inside – whisper networks, encrypted groups – but change needs broadcast. We need infrastructure for:
Collaborative publishing (like a modern Indymedia, federated rather than centralised)
Native-to-activist communities, not corporate platforms with activist skin
Embeddable media flows that any group can plug into their own site and feed back into the commons- Bridges between the “geek” and the “street”
We keep losing people at the handover point between coders and campaigners. This means:
Building social UX: not just “usable” but welcoming, narrative, and easy to onboard without a training camp
Open governance for projects, so they don’t ossify into closed dev clubs
Mixing online and offline organising so the tech is embedded in the movement, not floating above it- Messy but live governance (#OGB model)
Most activist tech projects fail when the original team burns out or falls out. We need:
Federated governance where each node makes its own calls but can still coordinate
Lightweight, transparent conflict resolution instead of exile-by-moderator
Structures that reward contribution over gatekeeping- Narrative + polemic
Tech alone doesn’t move people, stories do. The #4opens path should be wrapped in cultural work: films, zines, podcasts, political memes, all pointing back to live, working tools people can join today.
Why this matters: If all we do is encrypt ourselves into tiny rooms, we’ve already lost – the social fabric will rot away outside those walls. Encryption is necessary for many struggles, but it’s not sufficient. Positive activist tech must be porous, messy, and visible, because change needs an audience and a route for people to join.
Bridges: An activist tech roadmap
We’ve made excellent hiding places – but the point was never to hide. What we need to stop building. (Let it compost – it’s done its job, or it was a dead-end from the start?)
Paranoid toys for the already paranoid. Endless “yet another secure messenger” forks for people who already have six installed.
Security fetishism that confuses obscurity with safety.
Crypt bro sandcastles. Blockchain “liberation” projects that replicate Silicon Valley greed, gated by tokens and VC hype.
Anything that smells like replacing corporate overlords with slightly more smug overlords.
Single-issue encryption fortresses. Tools so focused on privacy that they have zero public presence or outreach capacity. Result: the tech survives, but the movement starves for connection.
Endless horizontal-but-empty governance “frameworks” Looming Google Docs full of aspirational process that nobody follows in practice. No real community roots, just “process cosplay.”What to start building (This is the real #4opens + #OMN work)
Social-first tech stacks. Start with people, not protocols.
Build interfaces that encourage conversation, collaboration, and collective memory.
#4opens principles applied to UX, governance, and hosting — not just the code repo.
Native governance baked into the stack. #OGB-style decision-making visible and accessible to every user. Influence exercised in the open, with accountable stewardship, not backroom admin chat.
Open media networks that publish first, secure second. #OMN-style federated publishing where public content flows freely, while personal data defaults to private. Focus on amplifying radical stories instead of just hiding them better.
Tools that make bridges not walls. Mediating the signal-to-noise rather than blocking at the first whiff of disagreement. Spaces where trust can grow between different grassroots tribes without falling into the #NGO/#dotcons gravity well.
Composable, messy, repairable tech. #KISS principles, with the option for local hacks and templates. Document the how and why so that when projects die, others can compost them into new growth.The call-out is we can’t code our way out of the #deathcult with bunker software. The way forward is messy, social, and built in the open. Let’s stop pretending that better locks will save us, and start making better streets for our movements to meet, cooperate, and fight together.
The #4opens + #OMN path is the stepping stone back into the light. Take it, or stay buried.
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@info It is almost laughable how much of human nature works against us in a community setting. Everyone out to climb on top of everyone else. The corporate/organic dichotomy doesn't really come into it at this level.
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Yep, it’s interesting to look back, and the current mess was much less a part of the alt culture, so we need to look forward to regrow cultures where this mess making is much less strong #KISS
In an active current outburst of a social movement and on its primary discussion forum (which should never replace physical processes of decision making), different topics may receive hundreds of responses.
The cumulative work published should be treated with respect and become both the ownership of the collective movement and preserved for those who in the future will look for answers on the same questions. In such a case the archive of all discussions should be able to be easily downloadable and easily restored, not just by insiders but anyone who ever had access to it, (including in some cases the inevitable censored, deleted, removed material).
Restricting or separating a/v material helps much or at least be able to backup content as separated by txt,a,v .
I am not really sure whether this is what is meant within the 4-O proposal. Something like the wordpress functionality or some fediverse instances,
Geeky?
@info
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@yianiris @info this is all a part of the #4opens and the #OMN by having all public data (the vast majority) in public commons and then by distribution this data redundantly in federated commons (as you say text and metadata in wiki format is not heavy).
Then this data can be backed up hot and cold in a #KISS format that can simply be fed back to the network if it's "lost". Sorting is by grouped hashtag to make data flow.
It's a #KISS project that will work if we can get the coding to happen, un mediated by excessive #geekproblem agendas.
https://unite.openworlds.info/Open-Media-Network
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Are we too far gone to even try anymore? Should we hang it up? Between corporate social media platforms, the abomination called discord, and android apps blessed by nsa-google .. are 99% of peoples' response. To appeal to "political" organizations to adopt this mode is even more discouraging. Why would those from above want to empower people from below (and no I am not talking of leninists alone, the others are just as guilty of being "from above".
Unfortunately we are not in 1983 or 1994, and we are not natives of central america … we are corrupt, conditioned, and toxin dependent.
So how do we sell this idea, in which I totally agree with, even if coding was overcome.
And what about gpl2 wordpress php with an indy theme and a public button to backup all content ?
@witchescauldron @info
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@yianiris @info
The stories cover the practical use of the projects and ow they plan to impact our change and challenge.
https://unite.openworlds.info/Open-Media-Network/MakingHistory/wiki/Story+-+Oxford%3A+Going+with+The+Flow.-
https://unite.openworlds.info/Open-Media-Network/openwebgovernancebody/wiki/Out+reach+short+story+-+Stalls+and+Code.-
As you can see, the projects are designed to mediate the current social disintegration for better outcomes.
They ONLY work if we build them and use them in time, so best to be positive rather than negative.
#KISS #OMN
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@yianiris @info
For https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=wordpress+ it can be used as a part of this path, the #AP plugin makes this quite easy.
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