It is a media war and we have no media

We are living in deeply befuddling times, and neither the agendas of the #dotcons nor the noise of the #conspiracynutters is helping. In fact, they make everything worse. That’s why it’s best not to spread the chemical crap. It isn’t fertiliser. It poisons the ground. Keep media organic. #openweb.

In the Western world, almost all the wars that actually matter are now fought in the media. Yes, the disadvantaged are the immediate casualties, and much of the so-called third world will be devastated. But to those playing power games, this suffering barely registers. It’s written off as collateral damage.

The decisive battles are not fought on battlefields, they’re fought over narratives, attention, legitimacy, and memory. And right now, we have zero media distribution of our own.

For a while, #undercurrents helped mediate this gap. It gave us some leverage, some visibility, some continuity. That infrastructure is gone.

What remains is the uncomfortable truth: this is a media war, and we are fighting it without media.

That is the problem #OMN exists to address.

If you want a good progressive media you need to challenge the powerpolatics that our current individual groups are based on

Power Politics, if you are interested in a progressive alt-media, this cannot continue as a core social solutions to the majority of problems. We need a genuine consensus based approach, which cannot happen if powerpolatics is an unspoken option in social movements. We have an existing social movement to build alt media and an easey to build outcome from this dead end problem, I express this as the #4opens in a less diluted form this is expressed in the open source/freesofterwere movement that almost all the world’s tech is already based on.

The cream of our new media networks such as #navaramedia are embedded in power politics and powerfully against such movements as the #4opens by ignoring issues that do not push there powerpolatics agender.

We have smaller groups such as #reelnews who are affinity groups, “family” based #4opens. They work in the horizontal world but there output is still largely building the powerpolatics worldviews.

The are many bottom feeding NGO projects such as the #mediafund who would like to be a part of powerpolatics but try to achieve this by feeding off #4opens projects building copies of alt media to subsidies there failing funding/powerpolatics agenders.

There are a bunch of “successful” alt media projects, such as #commondreams that feed off and feed back into the “chattering classes” these are irrelevant for progressive alt-media outcomes. But they do produce content that could be a part of a progressive media network

We currently have flows of content that aggregated actually builds a strong progressive media. BUT each of these projects that support the production of this media are embedded in and do not see outside powerpolatics agenders thus we currently do not have a strong progressive alt media. The best outcome of the current alt media projects is that Navaramedia become the new guardian newspaper, look at the #powerpolatics capture that ended up.

If you want a good progressive media you need to challenge the powerpolatics that our current individual groups are based on. One such #4opens network is the #OMN what ideas do you have?

A question for fashionistas is drinking piss healthy?

A. Start a outreach stepaway from the #dotcons project and watch the old crap crubbale when you glance back. Be a part of a soughted #fashernistas movement to create social change #OMN

Q. You have been saying this over and over for the last few years and railing against the mysterious #fashernistas. And what plan did you announce this week? To start your own YouTube channel! “Physician heal thyself” seems an appropriate comment …

A. Nothing wrong in having one foot in a each camp, have been saying this for years. “Stepaway” is the strategy to try and medate the moralistic shaming that is not constructive. Am still talking about seedboxs for #peertube and the #geekproblem that stops this obviously needed, being a priority http://visionon.tv works as a video host but we have no distributed way to store the seed files… so not an option. Thus the youtube channel for #boatingeurope Of course would need one even if #peertube had seedbox’s to keep one foot in the #dotcons to offer a helping hand to people who won’t to septaway. Good to think these things through.

Ps. Am gently takeing the piss by calling it a #fashernista movement, but if you look at people’s consumption of #mainstreammedia it looks very much like people like drinking piss so maybe its not a joke?

Now that is a “shaming” thought…

Extinction Rebellion outside the filterbubble

https://youtu.be/To5tZpjkakU

https://feralculture.blog/2018/07/30/interview-with-extinction-rebellion/

If you won’t to network about this outside #failbook https://activism.openworlds.info/about or http://campaign.openworlds.info

We need to reboot our networks outside the #dotcons if they are to speak beyond the #filterbubles to wider society.

You can find this wider view by searching on the #openweb http://openworlds.info

#OMN

Building alt/grassroots media networks to challenge and widen the traditional media

Our current groups doing alt/grassroots media are too limited in their idea of what media could/should be in this the is either a naivety or a dishonesty. The most successful act and think they can be #traditionalmedia” without controlling the distribution of their content in any meaningful way. This is of course not unusual, the mainstream media is continually making this same mistake. All of them rely on the #dotcons which nowadays is largely the #Failbook algorithm for the there content distribution.

Our current grassroots/alt media have websites so already have one foot in the openweb, but none of their sites prominently link in any meaningful way to each others. They do podcasting so anther foot in the open web, but all their effort for outreach is inside the #silos such as Apple iTunes etc. it’s hard to directly blame them, though we should and will, for this sorry state.

So why are we here? On the one hand we have the #fashernista embrace of the #dotcons which almost all the current crew built their careers inside. A capitalist #mainstreaming.

On the other we have the suicidal embrace of #encryptionists complexity and parallel “standardization” into a pointless/shrinking to nothingness alt-tech ghetto were our #geekproblem are and desire to stay. A liberal/libertarian #mainstreaming.

With these issues in mind I have been outreaching to these groups for the last year, and building real working openweb linking tech as part of the #OMN project. This currently is not been getting past the crew’s naivety/self-interest/career focused thinking. Fair anufe if that is as far as their imagination/aspiration goes, but this is a clear problem for working alt/progressive/left media that urgently needs to be addressed.

So our current alt/grassroots media are irrelevant to rebooting a healthy society from a technical/social point of view. Their is some good content but no realistic path for this media to be seen or spread in a way that can be affective for social change outside the controlling #dotcons

One simple and practical path to change this is a basic. To move on with the project to get alt/grassroots media producers linking to each other on the #openweb Currently they pointlessly do not do this, even though they have repeatedly stated they do over the last few years.

What action have I been taking over the last 10 years:

1) Keep private messaging them on steps they can take, this works to an extent, as last year I asked them to add more tags to their posts and they “broke” the User Interface on the #OMN codebase we are using by adding lots more – which is a good problem to have. A small step.

2) Publicly talk to them as a alt/grassroots media group in blog post and their social media – this currently has little effect.

3) Talk to them in public as producer groups – this has had a limited effect with some groups, will try this more.

4) Publicly talk to them as individual’s, this will generally get a private response and little/no action just words so far.

5) Name and shame them as groups who do not link/share with other groups in public, this might be needed for some groups, but this is a negative.

6) Name them as individuals within the producer groups and push for linking directly to them in public, name and point to the individual that this is a clear negative fail, a last stage.

It’s a shame that this escalation is needed/not working – linking is a clear path to success on the web – the right-wing blogs/producers do this, it’s a simple fail that the left/progressive do not now, and generally never have link to each other.

“Make the world you want to see” LINKING is the bases of the #openweb and a strong path to #rebooting the grassroots internet itself. Looking for helpful/happy people to crowed source the active conversation to make this happen, maybe we need a “new” alt-media content #reboot to pull the current ones onto a sustainable path, lead by example.

For this to be relevant we need working open media tech, the best example of this is mastodon/activertypub. The #OMN project uses this and is simple #4opens based on linking, it’s a “first step”.

Updated text, find our current project https://unite.openworlds.info/explore/organizations

Offering a real alternative to the dotcons world

Published Date 10/17/17 4:59 PM

This is a quite #reboot of the #openweb going on. This #4opens project has nearly 1 million users https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software) It’s one of the use it or lose it moments for life outside #failbook. It would be a bad time for progressive funders to start to prop up the #dotcons world if we don’t try to change direction, sad outcome is invertible.

A funding application to set up/boot up both an “NGO” and an “Activism” instance of Mastodon. Each could have different “terms of service” but would both talk to each other and the wider #AP networks. It’s time and not a #dotcons and works #OMN

Would need a crew of 3 people part-time for 6 months roll out then 6 months sustaining after this year the project should be self-sustaining due to low running costs. Can use patron and occasional donation drives.

Crew
Hamish – lead fixer and Activist outreach
Sys admin – to set up the servers and keep them running
NGO Outreach – to outreach to NGO’s and get them to buy into the #openweb project.

Funding
5-7K funding for the first year. From Lush and Edgefund
This would mostly be part-time wages, with some server and outreach costs. A monthly donation would go to the development https://www.patreon.com/mastodon

The project would be organised on Github as a #4opens project as a part of an open media network.

Building alt grassroots media networks to challenge the traditional media

Published Date 7/16/17 7:30 PM

Our current groups doing alt/grassroots media are to limited in there idea of what media could/should be. The is either a naivety or a dishonesty to all the current grassroots/alt media. They act and think they can be “big media” with out controlling the distribution of there content in any real way. This is in no way unusual the mainstream media is continually making this very same mistake. All of them rely on the the #dotcons which nowadays is largely the Facebook algorithm for the there content distribution.

Our current grassroots/alt media have web sites so already have one foot in the openweb, but non of their sites prominently link in any meaningful way to each other. They do podcasts so anther foot in the open web, but all their effort for outreach is inside the #silos such as Apple itunes etc. it’s hard to directly blame them, though we should and will, for this sorry state.

So why are we here? On the one hand we have the #fashernista embrace of the #dotcons which most of the current crew built there careers inside. On the other we have the suicidal embrace of #encryptionists complexity and parallel “standardisation” into a pointless/shrinking in to nothingness alt-tech ghetto were our alt-geeks are.

With these issues in mind I have been outreaching to these groups for the last year, and building real working openweb linking tech as part of the #OMN project. This currently is not been getting far past their naivety/self interest/career focused thinking. Fair anufe if that is as far as there imagination/aspiration goes, but this is a clear problem for working alt/progressive/left media that urgently needs to be addressed. I will keep outreaching, if you wont to help with this outreach get in touch.

They link to meany alt-media crews at the end of each story which is nice, but no links on front page yet.

They have no links on the front page to alt media crews. They used to have a linking page inside there site, now I cannot find it? If anyone can find links can they send me a URL please. They are looking like going backwords to a more tredtional 20th centery view of what media is?

They have no links on the front page to other alt-media crews and I cannot find any links inside their site. They have source links in there story’s which is not much of a step. This is a clear a failer in alt/grassroots media turms. 

Fashernistas

Published Date 4/18/17 11:53 AM

I have been talking about the fashernisatas for the last few years, its an idea/group that I have been struggling to work with my whole time in the alt/grassroots. So what is a #fashernista?
A group of individuals who value/push their own individual advancement over the needs of the croup and community, generally they do not realise or see that they are doing this. This has the end effect of diluting and killing off possible alternatives and selling “grassroots” to NGO’s and corporatist agenda’s.  #fashernista taking over projects in hand with the #geekproblem has lead to endless dead-ends in all alt/grassroots tech. Most recently this has manifested in encrypt everything, bitcoin/blockchain ect. This is a dead end.

The #OMN linking project is basic tech that I have been working on for more than 10 years, in past times the has been more interesting tech/social problems in alt/grassroots media to work on so linking has taken a back seat as it’s basic stuff. At this stage, we only have the basics left. Let’s take a first step linking alt/grassroots producers, and build tools to push this into a  #rebooted #openweb to start the needed move out of the #dotcons ghetto’s. Let’s try as hard as we can to avoid #fashernisa take over of this basic #reboot. Fashernistas will set up parallel projects, raise parallel funding, push these into the traditional media and dominate the #dotcons conversation. None of this inevitable pointless #fashernista noise should distract from the basics, as it will just flash bang and fad into nothing. Keep the basics going, linking, building. In the long term the rest is noise, distraction, for the conspiracy minded it’s our very own “false flag”.

Hummm… how to spot drift into the #fashernisat agenda?

There is a strong anti-dote in the #4opens

Stalled roll out of OMN

Published Date 4/16/17 5:04 PM

How to move on with alt/grassroots media producers linking to each other? Currently the shamelessly do not do this, even though they have repeatedly stated they do over the last 5 years.

1) Keep private messaging them on steps they can take, this works to an extent, as asked them to add more tags to their posts and they “broke” the User Interface on the #OMN software we are using by adding lots more – which is a good problem to have 🙂

2) Publicly talk to them as a alt/grassroots media group in blog post and their social media – this currently has little affect.

3) Talk to them in public as producer groups – this has had a limited affect with some of the groups, will try this more.

4) Public talk to them as individual’s, this will generally get a private response and little action just words so far.

5) Name them as groups who do not link/share in public, this might be needed for some of the groups.

6) Name them as individuals within the producer groups and push for linking directly to them in public, name and point to the individual that this is a clear #fail a last stage.

Its a shame that this escalation is needed – linking is a clear path to success on the web – the right-wing blogs/producers do this, its a blank faced #fail that the left/progressive do not now and generally never have.

“Make the world you wont to see” LINKING is a strong path to this.

Looking for helpful/happy people to crowed source the active conversation to make this happen.

Lets start with these groups.

NovaraMedia

The Canary

Reel Media

Real News

How to do ethical aggregation and news flow displays

Published Date 2/15/17 12:13 PM

The is an issue of fast flowing (lower quality) news sites dominating over slower flowing (quality) sites on short 5/10 story sidebars on the #OMN

To get round this the are a number of options:

  1. We only show one item (the latest) from each feed in embed RSS feed flows. This will mean that some content is “skipped” on high flow sites and some stays around for longer in low flow sites.

But for this to work in nodes (sites/hubs) with lots of source feeds we will need a rolling group RSS polling update system say 5 or 10 feeds at a time, divided into the total polling time frame.

So a site has 30 feeds polling ones per hour than it will divide this into 3 groups of 10 feeds and pole these in turns ever 20 min so that the feeds are undated ones per hour but in 3 different groups so that the is a turn over of content for the feed for option 1) to maximize slower site flows getting linked to in the #OMN

  1. A second option that we do now on the node dispay iis we randomize the content in site flow feeds, this will give a wider view of older content and will even out faster/slower feed flows to bring diversity. But you wont get time based “news”.

  2. What we do now, we show content in liner order, however due to the way that RSS polling works the updates will be in groups and faster updating sites will dominate over slower updating sites. This is far from satisfactory, as it rewords sites that “game” the system by scatter gun publishing publishing lower quality content.

http://omn.openworlds.info

Power Politics of the undead left

Published Date 2/1/17 2:07 PM

I have found memories of fighting the Power Politics of the “undead left” during the London Social Forum many years ago – lots of knotted strings of organic garlic around the top “taking the power table” to highlight the uncomfortable “undead left´s” grasping for power.

Then the ad hock crew taking away the top table altogether during the lunch break and arranging all the chairs in a circle. Their faces were a delight, coming back after lunch and it kinda/might have worked… but the splits of “not thought of here” took over and the undead were permissioned to take back the space at the next meeting.

The ESF movement faded and now is a shadow – no alt was built.

The use of cultural myths and traditions will mediate and disempower “power politics” but it’s a chicken and an egg to get these embedded in groups that are already ensnared in “power politics”.

The rainbow gatherings used to work this way till they were “disrupted” by the digital shift and capture by the #dotcons now the gatherings themselves are broken due in part by being organized through #failbook

The #OMN could fail from the same issue. The myths and traditions are in place PGA and #4opens. But the project does not have deep roots to weather the inrush of success. And on the other hand will likely not last the slow growth needed for the roots to dig deep.

Starting/Doing the “Risistence Expo project is unsettling for the same resion.

Were is value online

Published Date 1/12/17 6:24 PM

Its interesting to think for a moment about how widely posts on the #openweb and #failbook are seen. On #failbook an average post on my time line might be seen/read by 10 people and a dog, a good shared post a few hundred people. On my blog an average post would be a few hundred people and a good post 10,000’s of people maybe more. its easy to forget that #failbook is a #dotcon in real terms not just in idealogical arguments. The value is on the #openweb – how have people forgotten this?

EC “Cos convenience and the software works”

Yep thats why am pushing the #OMN so the is a space to do something about this.