In part, the current challenges faced by the #openweb and grassroots reboot movements can be traced back to two cultural and structural problems: the influence of #fashernistas and the deeply ingrained #geekproblem. Both of these issues contribute to active blocking of meaningful change, hindering the progress needed for an openweb reboot. To walk this “native”…
Shifting the #mainstreaming to the #openweb
To make the #mainstreaming agenda more functional in an #openweb reboot, we need to address issues of inclusion, governance, and sustainable development while ensuring that the openweb embodies participatory paths. How do we do this? Strengthen community governance decentralized and transparent decision-making by createing frameworks for governance that involve more voices from the grassroots, like…
What can we do with our fashernistas?
Trying to make the #fashernistas functional in an #openweb reboot is much harder than it needs to be currently. As, we do need to harness their strengths by redirecting their focus towards #KISS sustainable and meaningful outcomes. How can we do this? Clarify Objectives, with straightforward and compelling stories that outline why the #openweb matters…
Composting the social mess to balance the change we need
In the online spaces I navigate, there’s no shortage of #fashernistas crowding the conversation, diverting focus from the native #openweb paths we urgently need to explore. They take up space and ultimately block more than they build. Then there’s the #geekproblem: while geeks get things done within narrow boundaries, they’re rigidly resistant to veering beyond…
Understanding the Hashtags: A Guide
In activism of the #openweb hashtags serve as tools to share complex ideas and social movements. On my blog, I use a hashtag story to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of our current socio-political and technological paths. Here’s a breakdown of what some of these hashtags mean: #deathcult: The pervasive influence of neoliberalism,…
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…
The Solution: Embrace the #4opens
We can’t keep repeating the same #TechShit over and over again. #TechCurn is a dead end.The #OMN is the only positive path I know forward. #Mainstreaming #fashernistas are dangerously consumptive. Our alt #fashernistas are utterly pointless. We need to disrupt social norms and make #4opens fashionable to salvage any value from these people and pull…
Understanding Current Tech Paths
The accidental #openweb reboot of the #fediverse was created and popularized by a diverse and disorganized group of progressives with meany #fashernistas, this is a #4opens “native” path and reflects the decentralized and chaotic nature of grassroots movements. This “herding cats” means that achieving consensus or coordinated action is challenging. The last 40 years have…
Change and challenge group dynamics
#fashernistas are unconscious of the dynamics of “in and out groups” that split the workings of the social change movements. Let’s look at this in our #fediverse. Firstly why? The need for feelings of importance, that feeds the need for control and exclusivity behaviour, that then stifles diversity of thought and hampers meaningful change and…
A tech story
In the #openweb of digital innovation, there is a culture revered for its ingenuity and technical prowess – the hackers of old. Yet, beneath the surface of their achievements lay a problem, one that has led to the downfall of many endeavours: the #geekproblem. In the early days, hackers were pioneers, pushing the boundaries of…
Cyril Foster Lecture 2024: On the Declining Success of Civil Resistance
Professor Erica Chenoweth will explore the puzzling decline in the success of civil resistance movements in the past decade, even as unarmed movements have become more popular worldwide. The findings have implications for the future of nonviolent alternatives to armed struggle, as well as to the ability of pro-democratic movements to defeat authoritarian challenges. Erica…
‘The Arkenstone and the Ring: wilful objects in Tolkien’s The Hobbit’
A series of seminars to commemorate the death of J. R. R. Tolkien, to be held in 2023/2024 in the University of Oxford. The talks present an introduction and further background to Tolkien’s life, work, and legacy. They have an academic approach, but they are also aimed at those who have read Tolkien’s work but…