“The Ring slowly but inevitably corrupted its bearer, regardless of the bearer’s initial intent. For this reason the Wise, including Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel, refused to wield it themselves, but determined instead that it should be destroyed. The corrupting power of the ring was apparently stronger on individuals more inclined to evil and selfishness: it…
Looking at the tech and organising of UK alt grassroots media
How meany sites link to another alt/grassroots media sits. From this list of 38 UK sites, only 2 link to another site. Many people find it hard to understand the underlining understandings that push projects based on flow and linking, such as #OMN and #openweb. Here is a short list of activism projects. Silo Is…
Where next for grassroots alt media
Published Date 8/7/16 6:07 PM It’s common knowledge that grassroots media is well F**ed and that #failbook and #twitter are the problem not the solution. Where can we go from here? To reboot alt-media (and play a role in rebooting the open web) we need to create an affinity group to cross the geek/political divide…
The spring OMN The river of news project
Published Date 3/15/16 4:29 PM Am not going to say anything you probably do not know in this application so will keep it short. The project has been inspired by the technical work and ideas of Dave Winer (http://scripting.com) and the practical media work and open web projects of Hamish Campbell (http://visionon.tv and http://hamishcampbell.com) The…
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…
A view and strategy for sustaining the boater lifestyle and community
Food for thought (DRAFT) A view and strategy for sustaining the boater lifestyle and community. NVDA (direct action) with a good PR team works – Sorted office occupations in conjunction with a competent media team, could knock CRT onto the defensive in a week and refocus their agenda within a month. However this is 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…
My Media
Published Date 11/17/14 3:29 PM I live in a functioning contemporary P2P media world. For a few weeks I have tried going back to the traditional media. Its an eye opener to (re)realise how narrow and right wing the progressive traditional media is. I live in a world of RSS aggregation for my “newspaper”, podcasts…