Why did the #openweb flower and die over the last 30 years

Published Date 2/22/16 1:17 AM Why did the thousands of open internet projects fail? despite the state, foundation, #NGO funding. The were early successful atavist tech projects, all proved to be pointless or withered with success. In all cases I would argue that the underlining failer was one of ideology, almost all projects worked against…

We face a digital cliff the open internet may be over

Published Date 2/11/16 5:30 PM Here are two views on this subject: We have Phil Windley who thinks the open internet was a historical fluke http://www.windley.com/archives/2016/02/decentralization_is_hard_maybe_too_hard.shtml here he is talking about the very real view that the internet is finished, that the commons have been enclosed by the #dotcons silos and what remains outside are…

Outline of 20 years ups and downs of grassroots activism in the UK

Published Date 11/30/15 3:38 PM In my expirence the flowering of the #indymedia networks followed by the first years of #climatecamp were the high points of activist culture. The end of climate camp was the low point of activist culture, after this the drift to #NGO and #fashionista was wide and dissipating. #Occupy was a…

What would rebooting grassroots media look like

Published Date 2/13/15 2:01 PM DRAFT Intro to the event Unconferences are called for a reason and are about a subject, generally with an idea of an outcome. Invite all the existing groups and most importantly, representatives from past groups to tell their stories and outline their ongoing projects. Invite groups from outside the activist/NGO…