Tag: openweb

Archiving the #openweb in a personal way

I spend a bit of time copying conversations off transient communication, microblogging, #failbook, chat etc. and archive this on my blog. I don’t tend to do “good practice” in this as I do it #DIY and don’t get paid for my time 🙂

I have two ways to “anonymize” text, if I keep the flow then I take the names out and put Q. and A. as the voices, if it’s out of the flow I just put “from the #openweb” this makes it quick and simple to archive things of value without jumping though impossible conversations each time. If people won’t credit and ask, I add it, it’s the polite thing to do.

Now if someone made code to automate credit and archiving work just as well, I would be happy to use it 🙂

Talking about grassroots media as a step away from the current #techshit

Hamish Campbell on the #openweb and rebooting indymedia

Hamish Campbell, a veteran of radical media for more than 30 years, argues that mainstream technology and culture are failing us. The rise of the #dotcon platforms has commodified our lives: closed silos like #Facebook and #Instagram harvest our attention and data, locking us into systems that serve profit, not people.

Attempts to build alternatives around an #encryptionist agenda have gone nowhere. As a result, the tech giants dominate. For Campbell, the answer lies in the #openweb – once born open, but now slowly suffocated over the past two decades. His solution is to reboot grassroots media.

Drawing on the example of Oxford #IMC, Campbell shows how a simple federated network can thrive: content is shared through trusted link flows, moderation happens collectively, and mistakes can be rolled back. Unlike the #closedweb, the beauty of the #openweb is its free-flowing links, its openness to serendipity and collaboration.

For Campbell, the #OMN project is most powerful not for what it does, but for what it refuses to do: it rejects capture, centralisation, and gatekeeping. Change begins with small, practical steps, rebooting grassroots media as a living example.

What You Can Do

In recent years, events in the US, Portugal, and Madrid have explored the idea of #rebooting #Indymedia. So far, the history of Indymedia has been told mainly by academics, often through a narrow, American lens. To truly revive it, we need to retell those stories more widely, and more honestly.

A successful reboot means returning to Indymedia’s open and serendipitous roots, not the bureaucratic, closed structures it later became. The good news is that most of the technical tools we need already exist, from federated protocols like ActivityPub to peer-to-peer networks like dat.

To keep its radical, grassroots character intact, any reboot must follow the #4opens: open data, open process, open access, and open source. These principles ensure transparency, accessibility, and trust.

If you want to get involved, search for #indymediaback or “reboot Indymedia” to find links, projects, and discussions around the #OMN.

The problem with institutions funding the social side of #openweb tech

Almost all our #geekproblem software fails because they are building “control”, where all good societies are built on “trust”. We keep making piles of #techshit because we can’t communicate about this simple understanding #techchurn one way to address this is to fund the social side of tech.

The problem which we need to solve is the institutions funding of the social side of #openweb tech, if we do this now most of this funding will feed parasite #NGO’s rather than anything useful. This is also a problem of the existing funding for coding, it pushes the #geekproblem when it funds anything outside the basics.

We have a mess because our world is messy, current funding plays little role in composting this mess.

That’s the job of people with shovels – who funds them.

Most of our software fails because it is built with a focus on “control”, rather than “trust”, which is the foundation of a good society. This leads to an endless cycle of creating useless technology that we can’t communicate about. To address this problem, we need to invest in the social side of technology.

The challenge lies in funding the social aspect of #openweb technology. Currently, most funding goes to non-governmental organizations (#NGOs) that are not always effective. Additionally, the existing funding for coding primarily focuses on the basics, which perpetuates the problem of the #geekproblem.

Our world is messy, and the current funding plays little role in cleaning up this mess. People with shovels – those who do the work – need funding to make a difference.

Thinking about why #openweb projects fail.

Many #openweb projects have failed over the years, and there are reasons, first is the challenge of sustaining a project that is built on open-source principles and relies on community involvement and collaboration. In capitalism, without a clear and consistent funding model, it can be difficult to keep projects going over the long term.

Another factor is the competition from proprietary technology that is always better funded and more easily accessible to the public. This can create a challenging environment for open-source projects that struggle to keep up with the pushing of “innovation” in the tech industry.

There are also ideological differences between different groups within the open-source community that leads to conflicts and disagreements over the direction of projects. This can result in splintering and fragmentation of the community, making it difficult to achieve a shared goal.

Non “standard” #UX is a big issue as well, nice to make something you like, but better to do something the user community likes.

From @bob@epicyon.libreserver.org Irreconcilable musical differences, someone in charge of donations taking it to Vegas, becoming a parent or getting a new job, burnout, unrealistic expectations based on hegemonic BigTech systems, illness, an excess of technical debt and trolling can all result in failures of open source projects.

Most projects are one or two people with occasional driveby patches. Projects with more volunteers than that are rare exceptions. Most maintainers are not people on six-figure salaries going on slides at Google. Usually they are barely making rent.

Another factor is that often accessibility is not as good as it could be. The big companies can dedicate a department to just ensuring accessibility meets a minimum standard, but open source projects often don’t have the knowledge and are regularly criticized for accessibility problems.

From the #openweb

(https://elplatt.com/) happy to remove this link if asked

The main challenges I’ve experienced in projects I’ve been a part of:
* Tendency for potential contributors to start new projects from scratch
* Lack of communication within the user community and between users and maintainers
* Contributions driven by prestige or excitement, prioritizing new features over maintenance
* Lack of funding

It’s a good list, maybe we need a post writing up covering them all.

(This is why I work #KISS whaw that is bad behaver, lie about someone then blocked their instance. #GreatjusticeNet has blocked campaign.openworlds.info for plagiarizing fediverse content. In this post, it says “From the #openweb” in BOLD, so clearly it’s not plagiarism. But happy to remove stuff if people don’t won’t it archived)

 

Over the years, many #openweb projects have failed due to various reasons. The first challenge is to sustain a project that is built on open-source principles and relies on community involvement and collaboration. In a capitalist society, without a clear and consistent funding model, it becomes difficult to keep the project going over the long term.

Another factor is the competition from proprietary technology that is better funded and more easily accessible to the public. This creates a challenging environment for open-source projects that struggle to keep up with the “innovation” pushed by the tech industry.

Ideological differences within the open-source community leads to conflicts and disagreements over project direction, resulting in splintering and fragmentation of the community, making it challenging to achieve shared goals.

Non-standard #UX is also a significant issue, as it’s better to create something the user community likes than something just the developer likes.

Some ideas on this from the #openweb, irreconcilable musical differences, individuals in charge of donations taking it to Vegas, becoming a parent, getting a new job, burnout, unrealistic expectations based on hegemonic BigTech systems, illness, an excess of technical debt, and trolling can all result in open-source project failures.

Most projects have only one or two people, with occasional drive-by patches. Projects with more volunteers are rare exceptions, and maintainers are typically not people on six-figure salaries going on slides at Google. Usually, they barely make rent.

To sum up, the main challenges experienced in the projects that the author has been a part of include the tendency for potential contributors to start new projects from scratch, lack of communication within the user community and between users and maintainers, contributions driven by prestige or excitement, prioritizing new features over maintenance, and lack of funding.

Additionally, accessibility is often not as good as it could be, as big companies can dedicate a department to ensure accessibility meets a minimum standard, but open-source projects often lack the knowledge and are regularly criticized for accessibility problems.

In conclusion, a post covering all these challenges would be useful.

Libertarian #Fediverse “cats”

This story is about a group of libertarian #Fediverse “cats” who convinced one of the largest and most bureaucratic institutions, the European Union, to embrace decentralized and #openweb technologies. Through outreach efforts, EU-sponsored events and advocating to policy-makers, they raised awareness of the benefits of decentralized models of the internet and the positive impact this has on creating a more equitable and sustainable online environment for European citizens.

As the #Fediverse, #Mastodon, and #ActivityPub continues to rapidly grow in popularity, the #openweb cultural values at the heart of this outreach have been validated. Through continued grassroots community building and outreach efforts, radical activist have the potential to empower users and promote an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable online environment for all of us.

Please help tell this real life story https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/eu-outreach-if-we-dont-tell-our-story-am-not-sure-who-will/2950

 

A little about #openweb projects, the Fediverse

The Federated Web, or #Fediverse, is a decentralized #openweb project that allows people to communicate and share content across different servers.

* Decentralization: In a centralized platform, all data is stored and controlled by a single entity, which can lead to issues such as censorship, data breaches, and loss of control over data. In a half decentralized network like the Fediverse, no single entity controls all the network or the data.

* Privacy: Fediverse platforms generally place a strong emphasis on privacy and security, this is always a white lie, as it’s a #4opens project.

* Freedom of expression: In the Fediverse, there is no centralized authority that can censor content, so people have greater freedom of expression and can express themselves with less fear of censorship.

* Control over data: In the Fediverse, users have some control over their data and can choose to move it from one platform to another if they choose to do so.

* Customization: Fediverse platforms can be customized to suit the needs and preferences of uses, allowing for a more community infrastructure use.

Why European Social Democracy for some people is a path to a just and sustainable future

For decades, European social democracy has stood as a counterweight to the relentless logic of capitalism, proving that societies can thrive when they prioritize people and planet over profit. Yet in recent years, these ideals have been swept away by the rise of #neoliberalism and the slow creep of corporate capture. For some people it’s worth revisited the core principles, not as relics of a bygone era, but as seeds for the future? Let’s look at potential benefits of this approach, and why reclaiming its best elements might be help in rebuilding our world in the face of #climatechaos and growing inequality.

Reduced income inequality by challenging the hoarders of wealth, Social democracy actively fights against the extreme wealth inequality that fuels the #deathcult path of capitalism. By implementing progressive taxation on the ultra-rich and corporations, wealth redistribution to fund public services and social programs, outs limits on wealth accumulation to prevent runaway hoarding. This old #mainstreaming path treats wealth not as a private treasure, but as a collective resource. It challenges the idea that billionaires should exist at all while millions live in poverty, and asserts that the role of the state is to level the playing field, not deepen the divides.

Improved standard of living, a life of dignity for all, not only trying to mitigate suffering, this works to actively uplift people’s quality of life through: Universal healthcare that prioritizes public well-being over profit. Free or affordable education as a path to empowerment. Robust public services like transport, libraries, and childcare. By ensuring everyone has access to the essentials for a good life, social democracy shows that collective care leads to individual flourishing. It breaks the narrative that people must “earn” the right to exist and replaces it with the belief that dignity is a human right.

Stronger safety nets with protection from capitalist precarity, where markets rule, people are left vulnerable to constant boom-and-bust cycles. Social democracy disrupts this instability by creating social safety nets that catch people when they fall. Unemployment benefits to prevent destitution during job loss, Disability and sickness support for those unable to work, Public pensions to ensure people can retire in dignity. These policies directly challenge the capitalist threat that without endless labour, people deserve to suffer. Instead, they affirm the belief that societies are strongest when no one is left behind.

Greater economic security with power to the workers, social democracy strengthens workers’ rights and provides economic stability: Job protections & fair dismissal laws, living wage policies tied to actual living costs, Support for unions & collective bargaining. This redistribution of power away from corporate greed towards the workers who actually produce value is a radical shift from the top-down hierarchies of capitalism. It proves that economies don’t need to run on exploitation, they can be collaborative systems where workers share in the prosperity they create.

Increased political representation by reclaiming democracy, deepened democracy where people have a real say in how their societies function through, proportional representation to ensure every vote counts, publicly funded elections to reduce corporate influence, citizen assemblies and referenda for direct democracy. This expands democracy beyond just voting every few years, empowering people to shape the decisions that shape and impact their lives. It challenges the idea that politics is the domain of #nastyfew elitists and replaces it with the radical belief that people can and should govern themselves.

Environmental protection by defending the future from #climatechaos. Social democracy recognizes that the health of the planet is inseparable from the well-being of people. That’s why this path champions investment in renewable energy & public green infrastructure, strict environmental regulations & corporate accountability, sustainable development policies that balance human and ecological needs. Rather than treating nature as a resource to be exploited, this path sees the environment as a common inheritance that must be preserved for future generations. It directly challenges the short-termism of capitalism, which sacrifices the future for the sake of immediate profits.

Investment in public goods for the collective good, instead of pouring public money into private profit machines, social democracy reinvests in the public commons through infrastructure development for sustainable transport and energy, public research & innovation for collective progress, cultural and community spaces to foster connection and creativity. This long-term public investment shows that societies thrive when they share resources, not when they sell them off to the highest bidder. It dismantles the myth that privatization is more “efficient”, and proves that public ownership can build lasting prosperity.

What this means for radical media and the #openweb, The principles of solidarity, collective ownership, and democratic control, overlap the values that grassroots projects like the #OMN and #indymediaback embody. But instead of waiting for governments to catch up, we can start building these systems and paths now. Decentralized media platforms to break corporate control of information, open-source technologies governed by communities, not corporations, digital commons where people can share, learn, and organize freely.

The #4opens already provide the blueprint for a more democratic and sustainable digital ecosystem. It’s an easy path that by combining the best aspects of the older #mainstreaming social democracy with the “new” power of decentralized tech, we can bypass broken #deathcult institutions and start creating the future from the ground up. The old story of social democracy showed us a path, now it’s time to take it further http://hamishcampbell.com

#SocialDemocracy #WorkersRights #PublicGood #ClimateJustice #OpenWeb #ReclaimTheFuture

 

Please share this #openweb project widly thanks

The #OGB is focused on decentralized and autonomous models of governance for the #fediverse and #openweb groups. It aims to resist the imposition of traditional top down power structures and promote social change and challenge by involving community members in decision-making and empowering them to shape their “producer” communities.

The project will leverage existing open-source technologies and the #fediverse infrastructure, and will balance structure and flexibility to promote creativity, innovation, and sustainability. The project has three main subjects of discussion: 1) the tradition of working activist grassroots organizing, 2) the use of technological federation and ActivityPub, and 3) original thinking for grassroots #openweb producer governance. The project is bound by the #4opens and #PGA principles and will be conducted using #KISS online tools.

#ActivityPub is a protocol for decentralized social networking that is based on #openweb standards. It provides client and server APIs for creating, exchanging, and receiving content, as well as notifications and other activities. The protocol uses the #ActivityStreams vocabulary and defines key concepts such as Actors (profiles), Objects (content), Inbox, and Outbox to facilitate communication and interaction between users in a decentralized network.

Story about our EU outreach

Mastodon is a free, #4opens, decentralized microblogging platform that is part of the #Fediverse.

The outreach of these technologies to the European Union started as a way to promote alternative models of the internet that were more inclusive, equitable, and empowering for users. The EU was seen as a natural fit due to its commitment to promoting human rights, privacy, and data protection online.

The outreach effort focused on raising awareness of the benefits of decentralized and #openweb models of the internet and how these technologies could be used to create a more equitable and sustainable “native” European online environment. The libertarian “cats” of the #fediverse participating in EU-sponsored events, such as hackathons and tech conferences, as well as engaging with policy-makers and stakeholders through direct outreach and advocacy campaigns.

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/search?expanded=true&q=EU+workshop

NEED a hashtag link to this outreach.

As the outreach effort continued, a minority of people in the #EU became interested in these technologies and began to adopt them in a soft rollout of “official” services. The Fediverse and Mastodon rapidly grew in popularity due to the #twittermigration, attracting a diverse and vibrant community of users from across the EU. This growth helped to validate the importance of decentralized and autonomous European model of the internet.

Today, ActivityPub, Fediverse, and Mastodon continue to be important players in the EU’s efforts to promote a more decentralized and autonomous internet. Through continued grassroots outreach and community-building efforts, these technologies can empower users and citizens to create a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable online environment for all.

UPDATE: the cats who made this happen scattered and the fallow up did not happen.

Talking about the #indymediaback project

Q. A few comments on your excellent video.

Your page layout is driven by desktop. Nowadays, people think mobile first.

The rollback: an interesting idea.

A. Yep it’s the #nothingnew part of the project, the original IMC was ripped apart buy internal arguments and bad process, so we are rebooting the project before this happened so making minimal changes outa the box of UX and process, the needed changes can then come FROM “consensus” of the fresh crew running the rebooted instances.

The mobile expirence is swipe sideways to each of the menu items as columns. This is a reasonable compromise, as the original project had no mobile interface.

This is an example https://indymedia.hs2rebellion.earth/users/news you have to click past the SSL error to see the site, on mobile a single column interface, but the swiping is not implemented, so you have to click on the menu at the top. This test site is a RSS/AP aggregator #indymediaback

Q. Well, that is interesting. Seeing something is so much more impressive than just a video. What is the software platform? What web server are you using?
It is pretty easy to do https.
Is anyone actually using the software?

A. sadly, the 2-year working project was killed off by covid just as we were going to start the outreach at protest camps. The codebase is now abandoned, was based on epycion, but dev on this folk is now stopped/blocked.

What we had is a good expirence though, Imagen if the swiping worked. The RSS and AP side works for input, the AP output does not work, none of the tagging was implemented on these rollout test sites, we are still running 3 but needs a committed crew to restart #indymediaback

Was 6 months work for 3 people to put this working code together #DIY and a wider collective to do the work on the text and process to bring the original #indymeda back in the spirit of #nothingnew but the stress of dev and covid broke this as we were getting close to test rollout, been dormant since then.

We need to chose a new codebase and find a coding crew, most of the hard work is done, all the existing design, process and outreach text is in place to push this out agen as the “news” part of the #fediverse

But its another year of nonpaid #openweb work… phwww… fighting agenst the pointlessness of the #mainstreaming is a hard sell, even though it’s blatantly and obviously needed.

A look at the recent history of radical grassroots activism

#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

DRAFT

By working together and finding working solutions, we can build a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable #openweb for all

The #SocialHub and the #fediverse do not have to conform to traditional hierarchies and power structures. Instead, they have the potential to create new models of governance and organization that empower communities and promote social change. To achieve this, it is important to resist the urge to impose liberal “common sense” solutions that align with existing power structures, and instead use social code to build a new kind of society that is native to the #fediverse and #openweb

#OGB project involves developing a more decentralized and autonomous model of governance, where control is distributed among community members rather than being centralized in the hands of a few individuals and organizations. This can be achieved by leveraging existing open-source technologies and building on existing #fediverse infrastructure.

It is important to find a balance between structure and flexibility in an organization. A rigid, inflexible structure stifles creativity and innovation, while too much chaos can lead to confusion and inefficiency. By building in a level of messiness and embracing change and unpredictability, organizations can become more adaptive and resilient. Additionally, involving community members in decision-making and allowing them to shape their digital spaces creates a sense of belonging and empowerment, leading to more effective and sustainable outcomes.

By working together and finding working solutions, we can build a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable #openweb for all.

The #OGB has 3 subjects to talk about. 1) tradition of working activist grassroots organizing 2) the use of technological federation, ActivityPub and the Fediverse traditions to scale. 3) original thinking, bringing these together for grassroots #openweb producer governance, this part needs lots of input.

Then is the #offtopic threads from #mainstreming dogmas and “common sense”. I try to keep this separate, as it’s mostly not relevant, and always quickly turns to trolling, sadly.

Working on outreach text for the #OGB I would have much of the process and text defined by the template, only the functions hardcoded as sliding open/closed. IE. the code is a tool, the template a culture.

All bound by the #4opens and #PGA of course.

This good path is partly why our text is a mess… Not a bad thing if we have “good will” a real source of pain if we do not. We do not.

Project link https://unite.openworlds.info/Open-Media-Network/openwebgovernancebody