Shaping technology to empower people and building to their needs is core to create an inclusive and democratic digital environment. We need technology that prioritizes people and customization first:

  1. User-Centric Design: Technology should be designed with the people in mind, focusing on usability, accessibility, and flexibility. This means involving people in the design process and incorporating their feedback to create technology meets real needs, process and preferences.
  2. Open Source and Open Standards: Embracing principles promotes transparency, interoperability, and people’s control. By making source code freely available and adhering to open standards, developers empower people to modify and customize the technology they are building according to wider social requirements.
  3. Decentralization: Moving away from centralized platforms and embracing decentralized architectures fosters community and resilience in the digital ecosystem. Decentralized technologies empower people to have control over their digital lives and communities, stepping away from reliance on large corporations and promoting a more democratic online environment.
  4. Education and Empowerment: Educating people about technology and creating tools and resources to shape and customize to their needs is essential. By fostering digital literacy, people can understand and thus take control of their digital experiences, to create a more informed and engaged user base.
  5. Community Engagement: Engaging with communities and building collaboration and thus co-creation leads to the development of technology that reflects the diverse needs and perspectives of people. By building inclusive and participatory processes, developers can ensure that technology serves the interests of the community.

In the context of the #Fediverse and #openweb reboot, prioritizing these principles helps to steer the development of technology towards a more community-centric and empowering direction of real use. By stepping away from the #dotcons tech that pre-shapes people’s behaviour and embracing a more participatory and inclusive approach, we build a digital ecosystem that serves the needs of people.

#KISS is a good start on this path.