#FOSS governance is digital #feudalism - coders as gatekeepers, projects organised around personal authority.
The lesson from history is simple, never trust a king, even a well-meaning one.
The #meta problem is that we keep repeating old power patterns inside new technology. The libertarian “just fork it” answer feels increasingly pointless in this stage of the mess. We need better collective governance, not just more individual exit routes.
Technology is never just a tool
Let's be clear on the background mess, before the personal attacks start, this is not about individuals. It is about patterns, systems and ideas. The danger is that criticism becomes an #adHominem argument - “you just dislike this because…” - instead of looking at the actual structures being discussed. The point I am making is that parts of dead #postmodern thinking have ended up embedded inside #neoliberal culture: fragmentation, individual identity, endless discourse and difficulty […]
The tools we need to compost the #deathcult
The current mess and tragedy is that the tools we need most are often the first things that stressed, messy, #elitist systems defund, discredit, and dismantle. Why? Because these tools threaten the psychological certainty that people cling to when the world feels unstable. The ability to sit with uncertainty, to question assumptions, to admit complexity. These are not weaknesses, they are survival tools. Yes, this is a mess we need to compost, the #nothingnew path to work on this is about […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-tools-we-need-to-compost-the-deathcult/
Rainbow Culture: The Dream, the Mess and the Commons
The first thing many people notice about a Rainbow Gathering is what is "missing". There are no ticket booths, no commercial stages, no vendors selling branded experiences, no cash registers. Thousands of people gather in a forest to create temporary villages and cities to share food, build kitchens, make music, care for each other and then disappear again. The absence of money can seem like a strange fantasy, but the deeper story is that it is not a just a rule, the refusal of commerce was […]https://hamishcampbell.com/rainbow-culture-the-dream-the-mess-and-the-commons/
The Rainbow Lesson: Building Commons Beyond the Market
One of the things missing from conversations about rebuilding radical networks is that we defult to looking first at the technology. The #OMN question is different - What are the social systems that allow alternatives to survive? A useful example comes from the history of the Rainbow Gatherings. To an outsider, the strangest thing about a Rainbow Gathering is likely the hippies, the second is the absence of money. Thousands of people gather in forests, share food, organise care, create […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-rainbow-lesson-building-commons-beyond-the-market/
There is some talk about recreating radical media networks.
Before we reboot #indymedia or build new altmedia networks, we need some simple, clear understandings of why they failed before.
And I use “simple” and “understandings” deliberately - not “the answer” or one single explanation.
Because the different views of why #indymedia and altmedia failed are not a side issue. They are part of why they failed.
Different groups saw different problems:
Was it technology?
Was it governance?
Was it burnout?
Was it funding?
Was it culture?
Was it the wider shift to the #dotcons?
A reboot cannot ignore tensions. It has to create a bridge between the different lessons, otherwise we rebuild the same problems.
The goal is not to recreate the past.
The goal is to take the useful seeds, compost the failures, and grow something that fits the next phase of the #openweb.
Q: No comments is the way to go, but the concern is that the same moderation fights will just move into the editorial work?
A: The answer is to distribute the editorial process and build the collective on trust.
If publishing power is spread out, there is less of a single gate to fight over.
The mistake is the path of solve social problems by adding more rules, more controls, more moderation systems - creating more sticks for people to pick up and hit each other with.
A healthy #indymedia path needs shared responsibility, open processes and trust between contributors.
The aim is not to control the commons.
The aim is to grow one.
When Technologists Forget the Warning
The thing about #techbro culture is that some of the most #elitists people grew up loving stories that warned us about the #techshit they are building. They read the dystopias, watched the films, they understood the dangers of unchecked capital, concentrated power, surveillance, artificial intelligence, inequality, and corporate control. Then many of them decided “Great idea. Let’s build it.” as the #geekproblem made them think they knew better. This is what our #fashionista class call […]https://hamishcampbell.com/when-technology-forgets-the-warning/
Rethinking Grassroots Tech Funding
Building beyond the #deathcult - Our current model of #tech funding and developer agendas is not neutral. The way we fund technology shapes the kind of technology we build. For the last 20 years, the dominant tech culture has followed the same path: venture capital growth platform monopolies extraction of attention and data endless scaling short-term metrics private ownership of public infrastructure This has produced #techshit - technology built because it can make money, not because […]https://hamishcampbell.com/rethinking-grassroots-tech-funding/
In the era of #climatechaos, people #blocking social change in tech are not just slowing things down - they are helping maintain systems that are driving social and ecological breakdown.
The question is - what do we build instead?
Different paths already exist. #4opens #openweb #OGB #indymediaback #OMN are examples of social tech trying to move away from the failures of #mainstreaming and towards more open, collective ways of organising.
The challenge is mediation: separating signal from noise, building alternatives, and creating space for change.
Take a moment. Think. Then act.
Don’t become part of the blockage. Thanks.
witchescauldron
#OMN (Open Media Network)