Hope not hate, in tech

Reflecting on the last 40 years, it’s clear that the trajectory toward #climatechaos has been pushed by the entrenchment of corporate power and increasing capital-driven approach to global challenges. This era, the “neoliberal” era, normalized policies that favoured deregulation, privatization, and financialization. This shift didn’t just allow corporations to thrive; it redefined our social priorities, … Continue reading Hope not hate, in tech

Blavatnik Book Talks: The Forever Crisis

This is my reaction from the talk, have not read the book. In The Forever Crisis, the author presents complex systems thinking as a framework for addressing the world’s intractable challenges at the level of global governance. The book critiques the traditional top-down approaches pushed by powerful institutions like the #UN, highlighting how these solutions … Continue reading Blavatnik Book Talks: The Forever Crisis

We need to compost the current culture of lying

“We don’t need to talk about the climate, we don’t need to talk about change. What we need to talk about is power and criminality and evil.” Lying as a tool for blocking change has become the pervasive issue, especially when people use it to protect the status quo and avoid facing uncomfortable truths. This … Continue reading We need to compost the current culture of lying

Community is the power we have

I understand people’s frustration. We’ve been working for decades at the forefront of social and environmental activism, particularly in the realm of tech, aiming to create change through initiatives like the #4opens and the #OMN. It’s clear that we’re addressing serious, fundamental issues—especially around how the #openweb has been captured by corporate interests with people’s … Continue reading Community is the power we have

Navigating the Postmodern Confusion and the Case for Common Sense

From a left-wing perspective, identity politics and class-based politics feel like competing ideologies. Identity politics focus on individual identities (race, gender, sexuality, etc.), while leftist movements emphasize collective struggle against class-based oppression under capitalism and neoliberalism. Both approaches aim to address inequality but through different paths. For the #geekproblem we can view them like competing … Continue reading Navigating the Postmodern Confusion and the Case for Common Sense

What do I think?

The path I am advocating is rooted in a few core principles: a return to grassroots governance, prioritizing community-driven technology, and composting failed ideas for new growth. To enable this, we need to develop tools and frameworks that uphold transparency, empower collective action, and keep the focus on sustainable, open alternatives. https://unite.openworlds.info I believe to … Continue reading What do I think?

A practical path to balance the current “governance” mess in #FOSS

To build consensus processes in #FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), we need to apply principles from radical activism, embracing messy democracy and affinity group organization: For example, in FOSS, we could implement a process where a proposal only moves forward if it gains a basic level of support (likes or votes), and participants have … Continue reading A practical path to balance the current “governance” mess in #FOSS

Recognizing the Failure of the Center

A crucial question, that speaks to the frustration many people feel toward the ongoing crises—political, environmental, social—that is not only the failure of the center but also the collapse of the system itself. The center, blindly sees itself as a space of compromise and stability, but has been propped up for decades by a neoliberal … Continue reading Recognizing the Failure of the Center

The victim card in activism

In the liberal #mainstreaming that spills over into activism, there’s a pervasive and damaging cycle in activist and alternative communities that we need to recognize and break, the victimhood narrative. This is not about dismissing genuine struggles or the real problems we face (and let’s be clear, we all have these in abundance on alternative … Continue reading The victim card in activism

The path out of this mess is in part social tech, we need to build this path

The current path of distraction’s and #stupidindividualism push the cycle of pointless noise that is feeding into our inability to focus on real change. People are busy, swept up in these distractions, and pointless pursuits to be the change and challenge they need to be. It’s a cycle of complacency with a bad outcome. Agitation, … Continue reading The path out of this mess is in part social tech, we need to build this path

Corporate presence in the Fediverse?

The announcement from the #SocialWebFoundation is a corporate vision rather than something native, grassroots or revolutionary. Describing people as “users” who follow “influencers and brands” is a social mess, the commercialized, top-down paths that clash with the #4opens of collaboration, activism, and mutual aid path we build. On its current path this is a delusional … Continue reading Corporate presence in the Fediverse?