We need an effective way of communicating that all value on the #fedivers is cultural, the tech itself is a product of this #openweb culture. The #activertypub speck is an accident of this culture not being swamped become the #mainstreaming was not interested at the time
We have an increasing number of funders pouring money down the drain in #fedivers tech, when the source of the value #openweb culture that created this new “commons” is swamped by the #mainstreaming agenda.
This #fediforum thing is going to be a hardcore invisible clash of cultures, all the #fashernista who stood back from the #ActivertyPub push for the last 5 years are now flooding in, as are refugees from the encryptions mess. The language might be #fedvers BUT most of the people will not be. Let’s try and create focus, small steps.
#Mozfest Is on if you want to see posers, #fashernista and general #NGO pointless. I did sign up but when the time came to log in I could not be bothered. I do use the browser, though.
We do need to express contempt for what a lot of the assumptions and agenda (often unspoken) our #NGO and #fashernista crew push. Yes, it’s crap and pointless, so please say this, in most cases the “emperor’s” are not wearing any clothes. Express yourself, it’s needed.
The is going to be an increasing mix of #mainstreming people moving back to the #openweb we need much better tools and process to deal with the mess they bring with them as well as our own mess we have here. The is going to be a lot of prat’ish behaviour from both inside our #openweb movement and outside from the #dotcons we need a way to mediate this… as it’s obviously damage dressed up in #NGO clothing.
The problem with this negative circle is that it is self reinforcing, the prats, don’t like being pointed at as prats, and in reaction they dig deeper into prat’ish behaver. This damage is not helpful, we need fresh thinking, what do we do when “our” people act as prats. Ideas please?
#ClimateCamp was a radical grassroots direct action movement to directly challenge to raise awareness about climate change and advocate for solutions to mitigate its effects. The movement was made up of a loosely organized network of activists who used a diversity of tactics to achieve their goals. Climate Camps were established in many countries. The movement reached its peak in the late 2000s and early 2010s and had a significant impact on public debate and government policy at the time.
#Protestcamps are gatherings of activists who set up temporary camps in public spaces in order to bring attention to a cause or issue, or sometimes to push direct change. The goal of these camps is to create a #DIY direct action space where people come together, discuss, create real alternatives and demonstrate. The camps range from #fluffy peaceful gatherings to more #spiky disruptive and confrontational, depending on the nature of the issue protested and the diversity of tactics of the activists involved. Some well-known examples of protest camps include #Occupy, #ClimateCamp
#CriticalMass a decentralized activism movement started in 1992. The movement is a monthly direct action bike ride where participants gather to raise awareness, and directly challagne car culture. Critical Mass is about reclaiming public space for cyclists and to assert the right of cyclists to use the roads. The rides are a festive and celebratory, this activism as since spread to cities around the world, with similar events taking place in many countries.
I bring these movements and traditions up because using #openweb tech tools like #RSS and #ActivityPub has benefits in the context of direct action and grassroots politics.
Decentralization: RSS and ActivityPub are decentralized technologies that are not controlled by any single entity, making them resistant to censorship and control.
Interoperability: By using open standards like ActivityPub, organizations and individuals can communicate and share content with each other, regardless of the platform they use.
Transparency: The use of #openweb tools can increase transparency and accountability in the political process, allowing for greater public scrutiny and engagement.
Ownership: By using #opensource tools, individuals and organizations can own and control their data, rather than relying on proprietary services controlled by corporations.
Accessibility: By using #openweb technologies, information can be more easily accessible to those who are marginalized or excluded from the mainstream, enabling more inclusive and equitable participation in the political process.
These tools and traditions can help direct action and grassroots politics, tech is an important tool for effecting social change. Direct action refers to forms of activism that seeks to achieve a goal directly, without intermediaries, often through disruptive or confrontational means. Direct action can include strikes, sit-ins, blockades, and other forms of resistance.
Grassroots politics refers to a political movement or approaches bottom-up, rather than top-down, meaning it seeks to empower citizens to take action on political issues, rather than on traditional power structures such as political parties or government. Grassroots politics gives a voice to marginalized or underrepresented communities to create change from the ground up.
Together, grassroots direct action and offer a way for people to engage in the political process and to bring about change in a democratic and inclusive way. By taking action outside traditional political channels, activists and communities bring about change on issues that they care about.
We can see the seed of this in the #Fediverse, a #openweb decentralized social network consisting of independent, community run servers that are all compatible with each other. This allows for a more open and democratic internet experience, as people can choose to participate in online communities without relying on single centralized platforms. The Fediverse is seen as a more privacy-friendly alternative to the #dotcons, but this is a working “white lie” based on #4opens thinking.
What is happening today? #XR “Extinction Rebellion,” a global social movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience to protest against the failure of governments to take action on the climate and ecological crisis. The movement disrupts the status quo and forces political leaders to take immediate action to address the crisis. The movement was founded in the UK in 2018 and has since spread to other countries around the world, with a focus on large-scale protests and acts of civil disobedience.
#XR is a protest movement, some #fluffy people classify XR as a #spiky radical protest movement due to its tactics and goals, but others consider it more liberal because of its commitment to #fluffy non-violence. Ultimately, the classification of XR as radical or liberal depends on individuals looking at the problem, it’s a debate.
What can we do to help contemporary activism? Programming and ideology are different areas that intersect. Ideology refers to a set of beliefs, values, and assumptions that shape an understanding of the world and people’s place in it. In the context of programming, ideology comes into play when a programmer brings their often #mainstreaming values and beliefs to the coding they write and the systems they build. You can see this in the copying of the #dotcons to build the #fediverse and how this is now shaping the current #openweb reboot.
In the current mess, most real radical social change and challenge projects get bogged down in discussing invisible #postmodernism and the criticism of “isms”. This hole in our ideas of blindly following #mainstreaming ideology can make a person a “zombie” to limit the ability to think critically. The phrase #nothingnew is used to suggest that fresh thinking on old issues is needed, rather than blindly following existing dead #mainstreaming ideologies. The use of ad hominem arguments, which is a type of logical fallacy attacking individuals rather than the argument they are making, is clearly #blocking. to make this reboot work, we do need to compost this mess.
The #OMN project focuses on linking alt/grassroots media, to play a role in rebooting the #openweb and thus avoiding the #blocking by #fashernista and #geekproblem agenda. The #openweb is the internet where information and content is accessible to all, regardless of their location, device or network, and can be shared, linked, and re-used without restrictions or barriers imposed by proprietary platforms, walled gardens, or monopolistic practices.
This path needs to be often contrasted with the #closedweb or “walled garden web”, where content and data are locked behind proprietary platforms, controlled by corporations or governments, and subject to limitations, restrictions, and surveillance. The #dotcons
The hashtag story on this site is a way of using different hashtags to paint a picture of the current state of the world and the paths that can be taken to address the issues at hand. It involves defining each hashtag and how it relates to the larger narrative. Here is an example of a hashtag story:
#fashernista is about consumer capitalism and the negative impact it has on society, treating it as a social illness.
#dotcons are feeding this social illness by promoting constant consumption and exploiting users for their data.
#closedweb represents the control and manipulation of individuals by dominant companies and the rise of technological slavery.
#openweb, on the other hand, is about building code for a more equitable and sustainable internet.
#4opens is a tool that can be used to guide us on a better and more humane path, giving us the power to judge and decide.
#geekproblem is a group of people lost in darkness, blinded to humane light, who inbreed monsters in code.
The use of #techcurn, #techshit and #nothingnew highlights the need to question the necessity of certain coding projects, and to stop building them if they do not serve a valuable purpose.
#encryptionists, when focused on artificial scarcity, are a roadblock to trust, a key element of any progressive society.
#stupidindividualism is the problem of socialization, where people prioritize personal gain over the well-being of others and the community.
This hashtag story shows the current state of the world as polemical metaphors, to help us work though what we need to address in order to create a more equitable and sustainable society. It also provides a glimpse of the possible paths that can be taken to change and challenge these issues and to create a brighter future for us all.
#fashernista and the media are always a problem that is hard to do anything about. They shift the focus from the grassroots to themselves and tell #mainstreaming stories because this is what the media wants to hear.
The undercurrents that is the story drafts back into the flow and nothing is understood, no change or challenge happens.
We are sold for some ones fragile egos moment of feeling important.
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 call to action. Core to this is that the hashtags story can be more than just noise; it 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 are planted in.
#BLOCKING = refusing to look/averting eyes/eyes closed
The stroy is complex and interlocking, telling us a wide story and world-view, to show 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.
#Fashionista 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.
#4opens 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 me to 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?
The #4opens has many useful roles, one that needs highlighting now is grassroots tech projects being pushed aside by obviously parasite #NGO and #fashernista tech projects that grow from them.
Over the last 20 years, in my in-depth expirence this happens in every case
The open process makes visible this #techshit so we can compost it at source.
Use the #4opens in all your grassroots tech please.
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
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.
Worth a read to see the issue of feeding off the state and the VC poison that shapes the #fashernista ploughing over grassroots by the #deathcult These people are adding to the #techshit and shifting the focus to pointlessness, I have seen no good outcomes from their work.
But they were “our” people at one time, our old friends in activism took the heathy internal stresses that were braking projects like #indymedia to feed a #fashernista vampire class, to built careers feeding on and draining grassroots corpus for 20 years.
It’s not a good look, but people like these are the gatekeepers you talk to when you talk to “power” #indymediaback
I keep hoping for a balance of good vs damage, though the shear blinded arrogance of the vertical crew keep the strong push to the damage side. What needs composting is that #NGI do not want to see this problem, so #KISS we as a community need to push back on this for a better outcome
Example, a horizontal public #BBB meeting where the organizers are the only one who have access to the share notepad space. Note in BBB this is open by default, so a moderator closed it on the assumption that this was the right thing to do. The result, all the public input is lost in the transitory chat.
Let’s look at a second example from the same meeting, the chare (who is likely lovely in person) took notes that were ONLY her agenda, ignoring the meeting input. Yes, I was non-directly rood about this. She was confused and started to try and take the agenda of the meeting badly.
Q. Should we have been silent and let her agenda and a few other #mainstreaming people been the only thing recorded in the minutes, thus the next round of funding?
A. we need to compost this crap, not add to it. Most time people do not STOP this crap process, we need to do this more.
As it said on the side of my blog for the last 10 years:
“A river that needs crossing political and tech – On the political side, there is arrogance and ignorance, on the geek side there is naivety and over complexity”
Orgs such as #NGIzero are unwitting feeding the “geek side there is naivety and over complexity” where the #mainstreaming#NGI are pushing the political side “arrogance and ignorance”
As I have been at the heart of this garden for more than 30 years, I think I have a better voice on this than most. That’s not arrogance, that’s truth 🙂
Let’s have a chat with @NGIZero about this https://unite.openworlds.info/Open-Med Of course, if we can’t have this conversation the is only the stick which likely will end increasing the mess.
I think the #EU guys find it hard to see how low our apion of the #mainstreaming mess they work in. The #EU people at these events are clearly incompetent on the subject of #openweb (and meany argue life on the planet in general) we all understand this in the grassroots.
If you wonder why grassroots people see the #mainstreaming as children. An example, due to the crap behaver of voting for piss poor politics, we have this boat land to look forward to. To call #mainstreaming incompetent is a clear understatement of the issue, talking to the wide #ngi project here.
NONE WOULD DO FEEDBACK IN PUBLIC, this is important. The #EU funding has some “terrorism” in the cliques that run it, as people are actually afread that they will lose their livelihood if they speak out about these issues.
Me am “chaotic governance” so I ignore this, but you guys maybe need to take this onboard if you have not already.
A carrot and stick approach is a good path. I see @ngizero as the carrot and us the “community” as the stick. With this leverage, we can push harder for a better balance of good/damage from the funding influx to the #openweb from the #EU
Good to remember here, I am seeing @NGIZero as the solution and not as the problem in what I am talking about #NGI
In the end, my difficulty is that I see the #openweb funding from the #EU being pushed by a “childish” point of view that is hard to respect and that it’s likely to do more damage than good, this we need to fix somehow, if anybody wants to help with child care.
Some things to think about: It’s interesting how the truly aporling behaver of vertical minded people is excused by power (majority vertical) when they act in easy to understand crap ways in horizontal situations. And on the other hand, how the horizontal people are vilified at every point often for simply pointing out how bad the vertical behaver is. We need to look at crap behaver in vertical organizers, as they often do not see themselves shiting over the preceding. Though this act comes ever so naturally to them.
You can see this with the suffrages, the hunger marches, the Spanish Civil War, the Greenham women, the miner’s strike, Corbinisam and just about anywhere you look where the two groups meet.
It’s crap that we keep letting this happen, take note I have near zero tolerances for this!
The issue around funding and its impact on grassroots and radical projects. The balance between maintaining integrity and openness while navigating external funding is a difficult one. The #4opens provide a guiding framework, but the challenge remains to implement these in ways that avoid the corruption and failure which is normal for the #NGO funding models.
Running projects on minimal funding forces a degree of focus and prioritization that can be beneficial, but, it also comes with limitations. Trust-based models, like those from the direct action movement in the 1990s, show that alternative funding approaches can work, but they require strong social structures, trust, and transparency.
Finding ways to mediate this tension between the potential of funding and the risks it brings is key. What do people think of a more formalized version of those trust-based funding models, could they work today within the #openweb or #OMN?
We start with the assumption that 90-100% of funding on this subject is simply pored down the drain, most of it into pointless NGO projects and #fashernista individuals “careers”. The best#openweb funders I have found recently https://nlnet.nl/ who have money from NGI Zero which is from the EU
* https://unite.openworlds.info/Open-Media-Network/Open-Media-Network/wiki Simple #OMN is a standards based political software framework to build #KISS and #4opens grassroots semantic web of trust links and flows. We do this by outlining a human understandable workflow and then building apps for real-world use. We are agnostic on the underling technology and programming as long as it is #4opens based.
The verticals are unthinking in their hierarchies, which turns the “value” of horizontals into a negative thing. Meanwhile, the horizontals despise the “power” plays of the verticals and take every measure to block their outcomes.
The world, however, is one of balance. Both perspectives have roles and shifting values depending on the problems we collectively need to address.
For those pushing #BLOCKING — a few sips to quench your thirst:
The conversations sparked by these flows are what truly matter. Grassroots structures grow from this collective perspective, feeding into shared social knowledge. The #hashtags act as a net, gathering working groups ready to embrace change and challenge.
In the end, all change and challenge are practical. People who only talk without action are naturally carried to the side streams, mingling until they either join the flow of practical work or fade away.
Yes, in your arrogance, you might call this arrogance — and from a different perspective, you might be right… but still blind. If you’re from the same perspective, I’d say nuts and nutters are only useful as part of a balanced diet. Maybe meditate on that before cracking more nuts. (I’m still refining that metaphor.)
If you enjoy playing games, you can spot the word magic in the #hashtags. If you’re more practical, you can translate them into traditional definitions — for example, #deathcult = neoliberalism, #dotcons = the boom-and-bust cycles of the dotcom era, #fashernista = someone fashionable in any subject. It’s not complex at this level.
The complexity lies in the perspective that weaves these elements into a coherent story. Yes, this storytelling could be seen as arrogance — if you choose to view it that way. But that judgment itself makes you a “nut” from the very perspective you critique.
Can use different ideas, am starting with left/right. If you would like to use a different agenda please open a new page and go for it.
We start with the assumption that 90-100% of funding on this subject is simply pored down the drain, most of it into pointless NGO projects and #fashernista individuals “careers” in this first look am using very basic definitions.
Right-wing is motivated by Fear/control
Left-wing is motivated by Trust/open
Center – liberal/social democracy agenda
NGO – pointlessness, nobody uses it.
Going to start with the best#openweb funders I have found recently https://nlnet.nl/ who have money from NGI Zero which is from the EU
This is DIY feel free to add to this draft, just add your view as Right/Left/Center/NGO before the project and if it’s different to the other view’s maybe add a short text why in brackets.
Thinking
The world has shifted hard to the right in the last 10 years, it has dragged the “left” in reaction to this move. The is little what you would traditionally call left.
What is left is in “reaction” to the right, thus is reaction/conservatism, which is a right agenda.
There is a bind/blind/blocking here that we have to work to overcome.
This thread is shovel and composting.
Q. For example, they’ve labelled Disroot as right-wing. Why? Because in their opinion all encryption stuff is motivated by fear/control, which are the tools of the right wing, so it must be right-wing… :/
A. This should be obvious – Disroot is about “Fear/control” yes you can say you are doing this for left agenda which is obviously true. BUT the “motivation” is right wing and not left wing which is what am looking at, it’s based on “Fear/control”
Q. “we want encryption since it guarantees certain freedoms/rights, like the right to communicate privately.”
A. Fear leading to the need for control – this is an obvious right-wing path. Not saying it’s a bad thing in the shit heap we live in 🙂 What would a leftwing path, based on open/trust look like?
Q. But it’s got nothing to do with the right wing. Just because you want to keep all projects in several categories doesn’t justify labeling Disroot, a team of dedicated people who work very hard to provide others with privacy-respecting services, as Right-wing…
A. We are looking at these projects from basic *political* viewpoints in this meany, encryption projects are about “conserving” a right or #blocking a problem. These are both negative conservative agenda.
“Generally, the left-wing is characterized by an emphasis on “ideas such as freedom, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism” while the right-wing is characterized by an emphasis on “notions such as authority, hierarchy, order, duty, tradition, reaction and nationalism”
It’s interesting to look at the world in different ways.
End thoughts
Am hoping that people are starting to see that there are almost no left-wing tech funding, yes the is funding using right-wing agendas to push back at right-wing problems. BUT actual projects funded to push left-wing agenda are rare.
Of course there is a huge amount of NGO #pouring money down the drain, this is normal. Here am looking at the BEST progressive tech funding I can find, they do good work, so it’s not an attack please.
