People, Process, and the Myth of Difficulty

What we are doing at #Oxfordboaters is simple, that’s the uncomfortable truth for people who see this as to complex. The core idea - people coming together around shared concerns, communicating openly, and acting collectively - is about as old as human society. There’s nothing technically complex about it, nothing conceptually obscure. Yet in practice, it feels almost impossible. So where does this friction come from? It’s not the goal, it’s not even the surface the process, most of […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/people-process-and-the-myth-of-difficulty/

Closed systems protect individuals, but they rarely build movements

People fight against or/and ignore the #KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach in tech because simplicity exposes power. Complexity, jargon, and process give cover - they make control look like competence. When paths are simple and transparent, everyone can see who’s blocking, who’s hoarding, who’s acting in bad faith. Many “experts” and institutions are emotionally and professionally invested in keeping things complicated; simplicity threatens their authority, their funding, and […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/closed-systems-protect-individuals-but-they-rarely-build-movements/

The #dotcons, #mainstreaming, and Build to Walk Away

Three years ago I was trying to explain something simple in language liberals might actually hear. They talk about “platform capitalism.” Fine. But I’ve been calling it the #dotcons for 20 years - because that’s what it is - a con. The last 30 years of tech hasn’t just drifted into this mess. It’s been shaped, step by step, enclosure by enclosure, into systems designed to extract value from us. What we now call the internet is, in large part, a machine built to manipulate, […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-dotcons-mainstreaming-and-build-and-walk-away/

Why we can't keep organizing inside the #dotcons is basic stuff https://theintercept.com/2026/04/14/facebook-instagram-antifa-censor/

Toward Healthier Digital Public Spaces: A Cultural and Structural Challenge

From a practical perspective, the challenges in digital and social technology are not technical, they are cultural. This may seem obvious, but it is often overlooked in policy and implementation. At a basic level, there are two broad approaches to handling disagreement and complexity in online spaces: Exclusion-focused approaches (e.g. blocking, filtering, silencing), which reduce immediate friction but reinforce fragmentation and polarisation. Engagement approaches (e.g. dialogue, […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/toward-healthier-digital-public-spaces-a-cultural-and-structural-challenge/

Beyond Blocking: Building Trust Infrastructure for the Open Web

A Policy Case for Commons-Based Moderation in the Fediverse The problem with the current approach The normal response to harmful content and behaviour on federated social platforms today is the block. Instance administrators block other instances. Users block other users. Communities build blocklists and share them. This is understandable - it is the tool available - but it is not a solution. It is, at best, a temporary containment strategy. Blocking is the digital equivalent of closing […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/beyond-blocking-building-trust-infrastructure-for-the-open-web/

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/

Refuse false clarity: the #dotcons sell certainty and simplicity. The #openweb is different, it’s about holding complexity without collapsing into control.

So how do we mediate this fear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcm-tOGiva0 Who would have though this would sum up our needed path for the #Oxfordboaters and the #fedivers? You would have to be an #asshole to unthinkingly disagree with what we are doing and pretty wise to thinkingly disagree with the path. Which one are you? So why are we in such a mess? Because people are acting from fear. Not always consciously, not always honestly - but fear is the driver. Fear of losing control. Fear of losing status. Fear of […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/so-how-do-we-mediate-this-fear/