Mastodawn

Compost “digital sovereignty”, build working commons

The #KISS secret about the noise in “digital sovereignty” is very simple - Ignore most of this branding and build commons tech instead. That’s the path, not another layer of management, another funding bureaucracy for a glossy strategy document. Not another NGO conference circuit explaining why nothing can happen without another round of funding. Just build working commons. This matters because much of the #EU “digital sovereignty” conversation is simply more churn inside the same […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/just-build-working-commons/

#OMN (Open Media Network)May 11

People ask why the articles are hard to follow without background, it’s a fair point

People ask why the articles are hard to follow without background, it's a fair point, but a distraction as these are not stand-alone hot takes, they are all a part of a long flowing story about how we got into this mess and how we might get out of it. So, focus, please share this and the other posts if we’re going to recover focus and direction on the #openweb path. What happened over the last ten years on the Fediverse wasn’t random. It was a slow drift away from the native path that […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/people-ask-why-the-articles-are-hard-to-follow-without-background-its-a-fair-point/

#OMN (Open Media Network)May 4

The #encryptionist detour

Let’s look back to before the #Fediverse, to be honest about the last two decades of #openweb failure, for a long time we got pulled off the path. Not only by enemies, but by a mix of fear, fashion, and half-understood technical “solutions” that felt right to fearful people at the time. The rise of the dogmatic, blinded #encryptionist mindset came out of real conditions of mass surveillance revelations (Snowden era), common sense #neoliberal distrust of states and corporations and the […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-encryptionist-detour/

#OMN (Open Media Network)Apr 27

#OMN Grounding (the roots as a story)

#techchurn is the endless cycle of adopting new platforms, tools, and technologies - not because they solve any real problems, but because novelty is mistaken for progress. It burns community trust, institutional memory, and activist energy, while leaving the underlying #nastyfew power structures untouched.https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=techchurn The #OMN uses #stupidindividualism to describe the culturally manufactured habit of prioritising personal gain and self-interest over collective […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/omn-grounding-the-roots-as-a-story/

#OMN Grounding (the roots as a story) – #OMN (Open Media Network)

witchescauldron Apr 27

#techshit is about the accumulated layers of profit-driven digital infrastructure that isolates rather than connects people - surveillance dressed up as user experience, complexity that serves power rather than communities, and the replacement of any human solidarity with hollow technological substitutes.

https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=techshit

Search Results for “techshit” – #OMN (Open Media Network)

witchescauldron Apr 27

#reboot is the necessary reset of the #openweb - stepping away from the dead ends of #techshit and #dotcons to rebuild digital infrastructure on human-centred, trust-based foundations, using tools like #activitypub and the #fediverse, guided by the #4opens.

https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=reboot

Search Results for “reboot” – #OMN (Open Media Network)

#OMN (Open Media Network)Apr 8

Why you should help

The internet's public square is privatised, algorithmically controlled for "engagement" over any idea of truth, and placed under the control of a handful of American corporations with no accountability to European citizens or values. The #Fediverse is the most credible existing alternative - but it lacks the shared infrastructure to function as a native commons for news and media. #OMN builds that infrastructure: trust-based, community-controlled, transparent, reversible, and owned by nobody. […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/why-you-should-help/

Why you should help – #OMN (Open Media Network)

#OMN (Open Media Network)Apr 2

Why do we keep bringing this up?

If we want a better web, we have to stop pretending this is just about “bad tech companies doing bad things.” Of course, they are-that’s what capitalist incentives produce. The real question is: what are we doing differently? That means accepting some uncomfortable truths. The better path will be less convenient, at least at first. We will have to socially support things that used to look free on the #dotcons. Because the cost we didn’t want to face is simple: the #openweb was always […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/why-do-i-keep-bringing-this-up/

hamish campbell Apr 2

@_elena Sadly, it isn’t - and it’s painfully visible. @evan called this right from the start, and he was right on this.

This is #techshit, spreading a miasma over the #openweb. And when it inevitably fails, the rotting stink will linger, making it even harder for people to take the step they need to take.

hamish campbell Apr 2

@NicelyManifest @_elena @laurenshof

It’s a growing mess, and we’re the ones left to compost it. There’s too much #techshit, and it ends up making everything stink. Why would anyone want to use the #openweb if it smells that bad?

We’ve seen this before - the #encryptionists and the whole #blockchain mess. And now there’s a big overlap with #bluesky.