Grassroots #openweb activism has a history of rising, falling and adapting. The UK has seen waves of independent media, digital organising and networked activism - each learning from what came before.

The challenge is #rebooting an #openweb that stays native, open, decentralised, creative without becoming locked into the control systems it is trying to escape. We need pragmatic approaches that protect people while keeping spaces open for collective action.

Activism has challenges, groups can lose their original purpose when funding, institutions and professionalisation reshape their culture. Staying independent and connected to the communities that created the movement is hard - but necessary.

The last 40 years of political drift, from #neoliberalism to today’s hard rightward shift, shows the cost of failing to build strong alternatives.

The #OMN is part of this ongoing work of open media, decentralised networks and the connection between technology and social justice.

The future needs both the technical and the social - tools, culture, memory and movements.

#KISS build the commons. Keep the networks open.

#OMN #indymediaback #4opens #openweb #fediverse #commons #activism #opensource #socialjustice

Social justice movements don’t start from the top. They grow from the ground, from people and communities affected by injustice who organise, experiment and build change.

To grow these movements wider, we need spaces that allow open and unexpected connections. The #openweb and #fediverse matter because they create room for communication, outside corporate and state control.

Projects like #OMN and #indymediaback are about rebuilding these grassroots networks as commons.

History matters too. Movements need memory. If we forget past struggles, working practices and victories, every generation has to start again. Projects like #makinghistory preserve the knowledge that lets future movements learn and grow.

There is also the constant challenge of co-option. Funding and institutions slowly reshape movements, changing their culture and priorities. Staying independent is difficult - but history shows it is possible.

We need both the spiky and the fluffy paths, change comes from growing alternatives while pushing back against the systems that create the problems.

#OMN #indymediaback #4opens #openweb #fediverse #commons #activism #socialjustice

The commons and the problem of power

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-commons-and-the-problem-of-power/

The challenge now is diversity, not picking one winner. I’d argue #Mastodon is drifting in the wrong direction - not because what it is doing is wrong, but because balance matters.

Mastodon has become very good at outreach into the #mainstreaming world. That is useful, and it is a valid path. The problem is when one path becomes the whole #Fediverse.

The #openweb was never meant to be one codebase, one culture, one governance model. It grows through diversity of value.

The issue is that Mastodon is now carrying more #NGO thinking, more institutional habits, and more mainstream assumptions. That doesn’t make it bad - but it does mean it is less healthy as the only “native” path.

The answer is not attacking Mastodon. The answer is growing the wider ecosystem: more codebases, more diversity, more grassroots governance, more messy creativity.

A healthy Fediverse needs many roots, not one trunk.

#OMN #4opens #Fediverse #openweb #indymediaback #OGB

#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.

#OGB #OMN #indymediaback #4opens #openweb

Technology is never just a tool

https://hamishcampbell.com/technology-is-never-just-a-tool/

The tools we need to compost the #deathcult

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-tools-we-need-to-compost-the-deathcult/

Rainbow Culture: The Dream, the Mess and the Commons

https://hamishcampbell.com/rainbow-culture-the-dream-the-mess-and-the-commons/

The Rainbow Lesson: Building Commons Beyond the Market

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-rainbow-lesson-building-commons-beyond-the-market/