Let’s talk about the hashtag story

Hey, changemakers! 🌍 Are you tired of shouting into the void on social media? Frustrated with the endless noise and the lack of impact? It’s time to harness the power of #hashtags to fuel a movement that can actually make a difference. And guess what? The #openweb is our playground for this revolution!

Check out The Hashtag Story https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=the+hashtag+story it’s more than just a guide; it’s a blueprint for building something big, something real. If you’re passionate about activism and ready to step up, this is your chance. This isn’t going to be an easy or comfortable path, but hey, who ever said change was easy? 💥

The #OMN (Open Media Network) path is more than a simple concept—it’s a call to action. The hashtags story can be more than just noise; they can be seeds for a movement, a way to connect, organize, and grow. But this only works if we make the commitment to turn those hashtags into something more than just digital graffiti. We need to take that extra step, turn talk into action, and make the #openweb a place for real, meaningful activism.

The #hashtags cover technology and society from a progressive view and are very simple, on a surface level, but full of complex conversations when you lift the lid and talk in the context they grow.

#deathcult = neoliberalism

#fashernista = fashion in relation to social political relations

#openweb = the original ideals of the WWW and internet culture

#closedweb = is the pre internet computer networks and the post #openweb networks, the #dotcons grow.

= the workings of FSF and open-source development with the addition of transparent process.

#encryptionists = all solutions need more encryption, this is often unthinking technological fascism.

#dotcons = the transition to for profit internet, and the social con this embodies.

#geekproblem = an old discussion on freewill and determinism, also a cultural movement, think of “two cultures” as a path to start to understand this.

#techshit = is a part of the composting metaphor, shit as a core, important, part of the ecological waist (social) cycle.

#techchurn = the technological outcome of the #geekproblem

#nothingnew = a polemical way of slowing and reversing #techcurn in a non-dogmatic way.

#OMN = open media network

#indymediaback = rebooting the dead altmedia project that was in its time the size of the #traditionalmedia on the #openweb

#OGB = open governance body

#BLOCKING = refusing to look/everting eyes/eyes closed

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They are also complex and interlocking, telling a wide story and world-view, and showing a path out of our current mess.

#deathcult is relevant because of #XR forcing us to look the truth of ecological and social decay in the eye, good to ground this in real historical experiences, think of the Irish Potato and Bengal famine.

#fahernista is about consumer capitalism, looked at as social illness.

#openweb is about building code for anachronism rather than capitalism

#dotcons are feeding social illness, we cannot keep building this sickness, the step away metaphor is a positive path away from this.

#closedweb is a form of technological slavery, we often choose.

is a tool that can be used to guide us on to the better humane path and, it gives us the power to JUDGE and thus decide, it is POWER.

#geekproblem is a group of people lost in darkness, blinded to humane light, they inbreed monsters in code #techcurn #techshit

The #geekproblem hashtag is not simply negative, it’s taking obvious “problem” out of “geek”.

The problem is obvious look at #failbook and Google both “geek” projects of domination/control, and yes you are right it’s geek culture shaped by capital in both cases.

What does #openweb geek culture look like? Looking back at early #couchsurfing and #indymedia you have healthy non “problem” examples. Look at both projects late in their decline we have strong examples of the “problem”.

#techcurn the world is full of meto projects, everyone has the same ideas, few if anyone links.

#nothingnew is a question, do we need this codeing project.

#techshit is when people do not ask this question and build it anyway agen and agen

#encryptionists are in the end way too often about artificial scarcity (web03), this is not actually needed. To be clear this is a minority need for this technology, but as a limited use case not as a dominant way of thinking, codeing. #encryptionists is about the feeling of total control that encryption gives the #geekproblem this is key because all good progressive society are based on trust, which is about giving up this desire. The problem in geek is the problem of socialization… a known geek issue 🙂 in itself is fine, am not judging. BUT this is embedded in code that shapes society, it becomes a “problem”. Good to think a bit more on this one. With power comes responsibility.

This list only touches on the meanings and subjects.

Next question, what is the story and world-view that these #hashtags embody?

Ians Campbells Eulogy 

While people are coming in  “You can’t get me, I’m part of the union” by the Strawbs….  https://youtu.be/qJYbFFFZwdE

History

Ian was born in 1936 in Gillingham, Kent then brought up in Coventry during World War 2. The day after the bombing of Coventry, his family left and spent the war with family at Campbell’s Garage, in Main Street, Pembroke. He attended East End school.

“In Pembroke during the war Ian’s grandfather shot down a German aircraft on Saint Daniel’s hill. Ian and many children from East End primary school run up to see the Germans being removed from the plane”

After the war the family went back to Coventry, where Ian went to Bablake School. He then went to Bristol University to study biology and psychology. He met Thalia in 1959 whilst working at the new outward bound school in Holne Devon. Then they went to teach in Nottingham. They had four children

Angus, tom, hamish and Lucy

Lucy remembers: Fishing with dad, harpooning sea bass off the jetty in Aberdovey and trying not to get pulled in. Towing the cutter boat back from the sea over the bar, also in Aberdovey, with the cutter boat landing on the back of our boat, a bit scary. Dad bringing me back from sea a inflatable Heineken bright yellow ball which I loved. Teaching me to swim and canoe in the outward bound school open air swimming pool, it was freezing.

Sailor

Sailing by weather forecast..need for Ian to do outdoor jobs https://youtu.be/kpJEtnpd2dM

Ian did national service in the navy where he was almost included in the military who were going to be guinea pigs in the British atom bomb tests.  At sea  he was airlifted off the ship by helicopter ( because he was a student)   His national service included visits to Malta, Italy and Norway ,,,, you might spot him as a young man in the film of the Yangtse incident. He loved ocean racing in Southampton, the  Fastnet races, and the Round Britain race. Later in life while in charge of the sailing at Aberdovey outward bounds school he was Lifeboat coxswain and in the mountain rescue team.

Poem: Sea Fever by John Masefield https://youtu.be/aH6e9_Jb4S8

Teacher

After Bristol university, Ian taught in Somerset at Brymore farm boarding school in the early 1960’s, which had been the home of John Pym the parliamentarian, Ian had replanted the mile of chestnut trees with the school pupils, alternative pink and white up the long drive. They are still there as beautiful  mature trees today.

Southampton at Itchen secondary school. master mariner’s certificate, and taught at private and public colleges in Scarborough.

“Working with the teenage pupils he organized pop concerts with many of the biggest bands of the day, this was frowned upon because the children were making too much money”

This led him to the outward bound school in Aberdovey in the 1970’s.

Activism

Ian and Thalia moved the family to Wales as a part of the healthy and flourishing alternative culture at the time. They started making banners mixing art and politics in the late 1970s; the first ones for Aberystwyth Labour Party, and a bi-lingual banner to celebrate nuclear free Wales. Over 40 years later this original banner is still being used to shore up Wales’ nuclear free status.

The hundreds of professional and community banners Ian and Thalia made together over the next 30 years became famous at the Greenham Common peace camp, in the streets and at national and international political events, conferences and exhibitions,. With Gwasg Gomer printers in Llandysul published over 100 bi-lingual colour cards and posters of banners – their own and others – for organizations. These were given and sold around the world.

“At Greenham Common, Ian, in his electioneering camper van, read out over the PA part of the Nuremberg declaration to the soldiers lined up soluting the flag in the missile base, while under the threat of arrest”

Living on the coast at Ynyslas, Borth, they made many of the banners and toured three major exhibitions in the UK and abroad –  100 years of women’s banners, the 150th exhibition of the Co-op banners and then the American ribbon exhibition. The exhibitions were hosted in city halls, city art galleries and museums during the Thatcher era. The British Council purchased two banners to tour globally.

Joan Baez –  Where have all the flowers gone https://youtu.be/fIPJGljUkAc

Politician

Ian was a lifelong Labour party member and trade unionist. He stood for parliament in Clwyd North Wales, 1983, and the European election, North Wales in 1984. The campaigns were made stressful with media dirty tricks and vilification and Tory/police physical violence which were endemic.

During the miners strike they made a load of banners for the labour and union movement at cost below cost

“Ian was a founder member of Arts for Labour. With the left wing TV soap opera stars, he filled the halls with banners during the party shift to New Labour, which put a stop to this.”

He was a strong Environmentalist as a part of the environmental coalition of groups in Aberystwyth, an anti-nuclear peace activist, a member of the NUT and a branch secretary of the TGWU. He attended and was a delegate to Labour and trade union conferences in the  1970’s and 1980s.

Summing up

Challenging and effective, for peace and social justice, warm, passionate, engaged and a fighter for human civil rights  correct and challenging to the end, Ian will be missed.

Now Internationale https://youtu.be/PPExpmtdMEw

A sordid story of fear and punishment, and a path to walk away from this

“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”

People are shaped by the “dominant social thinking” this should not be a radical thing to say as its obverses. People survive by deigning this, blinded to this obverse thinking. To stay blind, they #BLOCK challenges to their blindness.

Why do people choose to be blind in our sunlight world? There is a circle here, people who push #mainstreaming agenda are “reworded” and those who push agenst are “punished”. The desire to be blinded, to live bowed down and prostrate eyes turned to the darkness come from this simple reword and punishment that binds together the current social mess we sadly think is normal.

“(Men) make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”

People find meaning and build their lives in the twilight, constantly pushing away glints of light that might illuminant too strongly the social squallier and everyday cruelty there #mainstreaming has pushed out into the shadows away from them, to hide just out of the light.

The human condition has always embedded this desire/need for blindness, yes, sometimes we have rebelled, the era of the enlightenment, some fractions of the 20th century are examples, most times and most people have conformed, we have strong confirmatory today.

This is expressed in different ways in different times, in the post-modern and dogmatic liberal times we live in I find #stupidindividualism to be descriptive, a shard of light to blind the averted eyes, if people take the time to acclimatize to the gloom this illuminates they might find themselves and there “community” a path out of this mess.

The is hope here, you can take the “stupid” away from “individualism” a simple idea, though a not easy path to take #OMN

Let us tell a fabulous story of social technology

Looking at the history of socialhub you can see the history of Monocracy, Aristocracy and Feudalism in the #geekproblem

The kings left long ago or never joined, why would a “divine” touch the muddle ground. The aristocrats in their social isolation still preen their fathers and try on their inviable cloths of gold and satin, their nakedness visible to everyone but themselves and the few fear bowed sycophants that hold the imaginary cloth from the mud.

The feudalism of the peasants is ignored as long as the “users” keep signing up for accounts.

This is a fables glimpse of the ruling court we build.

The is hope you can take the “problem” from the “geek” and yes you are right to be frightened and angry this would be taking off a comforting blindfold, and yes the sunlight would hurt the eyes for a time.

We can take this path if we can take the “problem” from “geek”, a simple idea, a hard path #OGB

A conversation about money and the #openweb


A conversation with the #NGO side of social technology:

A. Just booked my place for ePIC next month in Lille. It’ll be my first time on the Eurostar!

https://epic.openrecognition.org

A decade ago, it was the first conference I went to as Mozilla’s Badges & Skills lead. Time flies.

#OpenBadges #VerifiableCredentials #ePortfolios #conference #travel

Q. these things are kinda hopelessly expensive. You have to worship the #deathcult to attend… Hard to know what to do with these two track approaches… Kinda can’t be #openweb are the any that are happening outside the temples of death #XR

Ps this is a metaphor 🙂

A. I think that’s a complicated way of saying you can’t afford to go?

Q. is a social comment about events like this, there are a lot of them. How can non #mainstreaming people get involved in #openweb events like this, a good subject for you to bring up, if you would, thanks. Ps. Not #stupidindividualism I should not have to say that.

A. My opinion is that you can’t have your cake and eat it? You can’t live outside the mainstream, throw rocks at it, and then complain when it doesn’t accommodate you?

Q. yep, I have spent my whole life outside the #mainstreaming, much of it building up and working on #openweb projects and content. Do you not find what you just said cruel and dismissive? Good to think on this and hopefully bring it up at the event. Not picking on you here, or attacking you, social commentary is not a bad thing on the #openweb

A. Social commentary is not what you’re doing here. You’re just replying to me to reinforce your worldview. So no, I don’t think I’m being cruel and dismissive. Perhaps you should think about your theory of change about how you’re going to build a constituency of people to change the world? It’s certaintly not by being a reply-guy 🙄

Q. dismissive and curl second time. Now this is just being a prat “It’s certainly not by being a reply-guy” OK, please have a think about how to bring the #openweb away from the current #mainstreaming that events like this embody (due to cost) as we are heading for social/environmental disaster fast, the is no good outcome from the #deathcult we all worship, we do need a working #openweb for a better outcome.

A. So you reply to me with the #deathcult hashtag after I share excitement about going to an event? And I’m being unreasonable? I’ve never had a positive interaction with you, Hamish. You might wear that as a badge of honour, but I’ve finally realised it’s time to mute you. Good luck.

Q. OK, please have a think about how to bring the #openweb away from the current #mainstreaming that events like this embody (due to cost) as we are heading for social/environmental disaster fast, the is no good outcome from the #deathcult we all worship, we do need a working #openweb for a better outcome.

Have 2 #openweb videos to make

Have 2 videos scripts to do:

* The #OGB why, what, were

* The hashtag story, using all the tags to show the current mess and paths auta it. While defining each tag. This is a challenge.

The script needs to end up as something like this https://visionon.tv/w/jqTdss1qrdk4yEZiQsnMU3

So looking for a list of bullet points for subjects and then quotes to drop in the rest can be made up on camera.

Who is up for helping with this on the wiki  https://unite.openworlds.info/​

Ask the question of what needs fixing.

Open-Source Security: How Digital Infrastructure Is Built on a House of Cards – Lawfare” https://www.lawfareblog.com/open-source-security-how-digital-infrastructure-built-house-cards

Can you see the underlining problem assumptions in this #mainstreaming agenda? Pushing ideas to “protect the commons” almost always ends up distorting the commons, there is a history in nature to this.

As the article says in a round about way, the problem is the irresponsible failure of the market mechanisms that try and exploit the commons. There is a long history to this.

Now ask the question of what needs fixing?

Talking about the mess we are in

Q. Let’s just STOP worshipping the #deathcult as a first step away from this mess.

We’re living in an age of permanent crisis – let’s stop planning for a ‘return to normal’ | Economics | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/22/economic-models-environmental-crises-fantasy-stable-growth-global-heating

A. I agree that there is no “return to normal”, just as history did not end with the fall of the Berlin wall.

If we mean to be carriers of change, we also need better framing than talking about cults, clans or dynasties. Although they exist, these are not really the main problem and over-simplification leads to non-solution fixes which don’t really fix anything.

Whether we like it or not, we are trapped in the capitalist machine, and cannot easily just step aside from it. Not unless we can buy an island. But even that would be another non-solution.

Material changes are required, and that means people doing things, like re-forestation. Accompanying that will also need to be ideological change, because ideas follow from actions. Changing ideology is not just a question of ceasing to worship a charismatic individual.

Q. the hashtags are metaphors for existing, well-defined terns.

#deathcult is neoliberalism 21st century (or classic liberalism 19th century).

They add emotion and focus to dry academic ideas. And sadly they are descriptive.

Think #XR and #climatechaos in the 21st century, or the Irish potato famine in the 19th century.

I am assuming people can understand this, it’s #KISS so kinda bad if they find it confused.

I talk about #fashernista in other toots, just look up following fashion and apply it to social issues/power to understand this.

Agen it’s #KISS and you would have to be very dim or dogmatic not to understand it.

I can go on for all the hashtags if you like. Together, they tell a story, that has power only if you and others like you start to use them.

DIY grassroots power is NOT doing what you like, all power is social, you are powerless till you move on this.

It’s interesting you talk about an Island as that is EXACTLY what I have been doing the last 10 years, a DIY boat life outside the norms and for the last 5 years outside the laws that affect everyday life. As you say, this is not a real alternative, but it can be a way of nurturing real alternatives… If people stop being #stupidindividualism for a moment to build change/challenge power, always only IF

Now that IF is the hard bit, keep it #KISS

Q. Living on the water may be a solution for some people. Especially in the Netherlands and other low areas, which are at risk of being wiped out by future sea rise.

A. aha am talking in metaphors living on a boat is replying to your island metaphor, to say done that, understand, need to do more 🙂

You need to talk to the metaphors otherwise this is little actual dialogue… humm this should be #KISS, and it is, I find it hard to understand why it is so hard?

Let’s try, the boat is picking up your point about “buy an island” am saying I bought an island and agree with you, then moving conversation on.

I also reply to your part about cults etc.

If you can understand Python i think you can understand some simple metaphors… am not going to insult you by suggesting how you can do this your bright anufe to work it out IF you try, notice the capitals that echoes back to a few paragraphs up.

Change and challange to compost the piles of techshit

Anyone interested in doing a sexy site for the #4opens think people need “official” look and feel to make use of this powerful tool to fight the #techshit #techcurn and help to reboot the #openweb

Basically we need this on a nicely designed page with a bit of polish on the text unite.openworlds.info/Open-Med

Then link back to the wiki for full humane use space.

4opensOpen Media Network

This is needed as a “common sense” existing path out of pointless #techchurn to give our lost #fahernistas something real to work for/to/on.

The #4opens is simply the foundation of open-source development “socialized” for change/challenge.

We need this to escape the #techshit

Q. I think we need a 5th open: #openAccess. If you have the #4opens, but the project is jailed in the #walledGarden of #gitlab.com (which blocks some people from participation), the 4 opens are hindered by reduced/suppressed participation. E.g. some people cannot (or will not) file bug reports. So, can we get #5opens?

A. The #4opens is only designed to deal with 95% of the #techshit the rest is open to our creativity. Am interested in a #4opens review of GitHub

What we are likely to find is that GitHub is still inside the world of open source development, this is both good and bad, good in the sense of Microsoft moving away from its closed source roots, bad in the sense that they are doing it in the attempt to co-opt and extinguish.

The #4opens are not a way of keeping them out, but they are a way of mediating and stopping the extinguish bit when used as a tool to aggressively block that move.

It would help to think about society rather than individuals – for diversity as a healthy path. As long as they have opendata and open “Industrial” standards, you can move your work in and out… Openprocess makes easier as the documentation can be created to help people do this.

The open licence keeps you in control of your work, while promoting social use

Am interested in how #openacess adds over the other #4opens as I think you end up with “open access” from the outcome of the first 4 can we think about this?

Was thinking about this when reading other tweets and the #4opens gives you open access already, so we don’t need a 5th open #KISS

Good to have a chance to think these things though, thanks for the question.

The fediverse is an “accidental” openweb reboot

The #fediverse is an “accidental” #openweb reboot by the #fashernistas, so it’s herding cats to get anything done, not a bad thing, not a good thing It’s what it is.

One way to move away from this mess is #OGB grassroots #DIY producer governance.

Otherwise, live (and die) with the mess, and try to stop people bowing down and praying to the #deathcult is a step to keep the #openweb in place.