“the crew gathered around #SocialHub worked remarkably well for a while, organising good gathering, conferences and very useful outreach of #ActivityPub to the #EU that seeded much of the current #mainstreaming. But yes, it was always small and under utilised due to the strong forces of #stupidindividalisam that we need to balance. Ideas?“ From grassroots…
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…
The West’s Climate-Catastrophe is “native” to the mess we are in
Why do we still worship the #DeathCult? As we stand on the precipice of onrushing #climatechaos and spreading social break down, it should be clear that much of the world remains on the path of what we usefully call the DeathCult—a term to describe the pervasive, destructive ideology that prioritizes power, wealth, and control over…
State Funding of #FOSS and Open Source: Is it a Good Idea or a Bad Idea?
The questioning over state funding of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open-source initiatives revolves around invisible ideological debates about benefits and drawbacks. Let’s look at this from a few specific examples: #NLnet, #NGI, and the European Union (#EU), to understanding the implications and effectiveness of this funding path. The is some democratization as…
Slogan for #openweb: “Technology’s job is to hold the trust in place”
Definitions can be loose; making things overly rigid is a #Geekproblem that fosters conflict.This is why the #4opens is about interpretation and judgment. The #Fediverse is a vibrant and active #openweb project, currently one of the healthiest “native” parts of this path. Some “native” examples we are working on: Principles for #OGB (Open Governance Body)…
The European Union: A “spiky” view
As a first step, it’s enlightening to look at the origins of the EU, in post-World War II. The US emerged relatively unscathed and wealthy, where much of the rest of the western world was in ruins. For the USA action was needed to maintain allies and markets against the growing Soviet “threat”, the solution…
#EU bureaucracy in tech funding
Tackling the challenges of bureaucracy and #mainstreaming inertia. We need to try and jump the hurdles within tech communities with for example the current pouring down the drain of tech funding provided by #NGI (Next Generation Internet). It is an obvious path we need to get right soon: Addressing bureaucratic inertia (and native corruption) in…
A European Future
Changing the European Union (#EU) to be more competent and progressive on social and tech issues requires concerted effort and engagement from all the stakeholders, including activists, citizens, civil society organizations (#NGO), policymakers, and Eurocrats. I outline some #fluffy strategies for driving change within the EU: Overall, changing the EU to be more competent and…
#climatechaos requires a radical approach
The Seven Stages of climate denial: 1. It’s not real2. It’s not us3. It’s not that bad4. We have time 5. It’s too expensive to fix6. Here’s a fake solution7. It’s too late: you should have warned us earlier Trolls use all of these stages to deny the reality of #climatechange With this in mind, it’s…
Revisiting the ActivityPub foundation idea
There are a few views on this issue, the “common sense” #NGO path, an example Presenting Fedi Foundation: Empowerment for SocialHub community 1 And the more “nativist” openweb path What would a fediverse “governance” body look like? And then we have the #geekproblem path, which has been pushing the fep process the last 2 years,…
The mission of the NGI is to re-imagine and re-engineer the Internet
We ask that #NGI use “native” approaches and tools at future #openweb events “The mission of the NGI is to re-imagine and re-engineer the Internet… Committed to open source (both hardware and software) and open data… Build an Internet of Trust, empowering end-users… the concept of the Digital Commons, which is particularly crucial for Europe,…
NGI Zero open source funding talks about the @sovtechfund
NGI Zero open source funding The @sovtechfund is offering grants to people who contribute to a sustainable open source ecosystem. Grants go up to €300,000 per application and cover three main topics: 1. Improve FOSS Developer Tooling 2. Securing FOSS Software Production 3. FOSS Infrastructure Documentation With this program, the Sovereign Tech Fund seeks to…