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#geekproblem

6 posts4 participants0 posts today
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Hamish Campbell

News, the signal-to-noise mess

Almost all our posting in the #openweb and in the #dotcons in response to #mainstreaming news is noise. It’s reactive, fragmented, performative. We scroll, we rage, we boost, we dunk, but we don’t build. Sometimes, someone posts something thoughtful, something deep, meaningful. But it vanishes in the churn. The system is designed this way. Even on our #openweb, where we have more autonomy, we are mirroring this spectacle path, feeding it attention, reposting its narratives, amplifying […]

hamishcampbell.com/news-the-si

#blocks#buildalternatives#deathcult
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Hamish Campbell

Regime change in the west

There’s a "normal" dangerous illusion still clinging to liberal democracies: that we’re in a time of political turbulence, but the foundations remain intact. That, somehow, we’ll "course correct." But this need to be seen as blinded thinking. What is obvious is that we’re actually experiencing is regime change, not in some distant land, but right here in the West. And it’s not coming from tanks or coups, but through the ballot box, boardrooms, social media algorithms, and #NGO […]

hamishcampbell.com/regime-chan

hamishcampbell.comRegime change in the west – Hamish Campbell
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#buildalternatives#deathcult#geekproblem
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Hamish Campbell

Mainstreaming: Building Grassroots Balance

Our history of involvement in #EU digital outreach and policy meetings has made one thing starkly clear, our #openweb is deeply entangled in the process of #mainstreaming, a messy, often co-optive dynamic where grassroots voices are softened, diluted, and redirected into bureaucracy, then in the end they are simply #blocked. Yes, while there is value in taking part, it's also a wake-up call. The push to shape digital paths from above is strong. But without active grassroots alternatives, […]

hamishcampbell.com/mainstreami

hamishcampbell.comMainstreaming: Building Grassroots Balance – Hamish Campbell
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#blocked#commons#deathcult
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Hamish Campbell

Rebooting the #openweb in a good way

The #Fediverse exists, and more than that, it’s alive and kicking. Sure, it might be a messy, chaotic, a bit fragmented, and yes, still niche. But let’s not underplay it, this is the healthiest corners of the internet we’ve got. Tens of million accounts, hundreds of thousands active people, sometimes talking about how we build our digital spaces from the bottom up. Yep, there are the cat videos, the #fluffys and the #spikys. But also an in-group debate is bubbling away about who […]

hamishcampbell.com/rebooting-t

#activitypub#alttech#decentralisation
Public
Hamish Campbell

A sharp take

In the end, all social action happens through generalized talk, categories, metaphors, shorthand. That’s how language works. But we live in a cultural amnesia where this is forgotten, mistaken for “common sense.” The #OMN embraces this messy, human space, while the #geekproblem seeks rigid machine-like CONTROL. They’re often technically right, but socially intolerant. We, by contrast, are often technically wrong, but humanly right. What we need is a bridge between these approaches, […]

hamishcampbell.com/a-sharp-tak

hamishcampbell.comA sharp take – Hamish Campbell
More from Hamish Campbell
#blocking#geekproblem#omn
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Hamish Campbell

From #GeekProblem to #OMN Solutions

Not for the first time, and certainly not the last, we hit the same wall: misunderstanding and misdirection. The #geekproblem isn't just about bad code or poor decisions, it’s about an unhealthy, almost inhuman obsession with control. Where we are now is the federated model, which is a useful half step, a half-measure? Federation is an interesting paradox, as it panders to control, offering people their own little digital kingdoms. It dilutes control, spreading authority so thinly that […]

hamishcampbell.com/from-geekpr

#deathcult#dotcons#geekproblem
Public
Hamish Campbell

The Failure of #Mainstreaming – What Comes Next?

It should be painfully obvious by now that all the current #mainstreaming paths have failed. Whether we look at politics, technology, media, or activism, the same patterns emerge, co-option, stagnation, and eventual collapse under their own mess and contradictions. The valid question isn’t whether mainstreaming has failed, it has. The real question is: What do we do about it? This applies just as much to our efforts to reboot the #openweb as it does to broader struggles in the "real […]

hamishcampbell.com/the-failure

#diyculture#geekproblem#mainstreaming
Public
Hamish Campbell

A guest post – The Mess of the Current #OpenWeb Path: A User’s Experience

Setting up a #Mastodon account to move away from supremacist platforms like #Twitter, #Threads, #Bluesky, and #LinkedIn felt like the right step. But almost immediately, I ran into one of the core failures of the so-called #openweb—drastic post length limits, artificial restrictions, and a general lack of usability. At first glance, Mastodon appears no different from the mainstream platforms it’s supposed to replace. With the post lengths, why are we still replicating big tech […]

hamishcampbell.com/a-guest-pos

hamishcampbell.comA guest post – The Mess of the Current #OpenWeb Path: A User’s Experience – Hamish Campbell
More from Hamish Campbell
#bluesky#fediverse#geekproblem
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witchescauldron

The issue with #FOSS tech development

The failure of many #FOSS projects is a failure to move from theory to practice. The issue is that developers work in isolation, disconnected from grassroots needs, and get lost in perfectionism rather than delivering functional prototypes.

The #geekproblem dominates, many coders prioritize control, abstract debates, or self-contained experiments over practical, usable tools for real-world communities. This is why projects stall: they are not built with activists in mind. Meanwhile, centralized platforms continue to consolidate power, because they offer simple, accessible, and functional solutions, despite their deep flaws.

To break this cycle, we need:
* Practical iteration—build rough, working solutions rather than endless theorizing.
* #4opens culture—embrace open process, standards, and real collaboration.
* Bridging solutions—tech that activists can actually use, not just developer-driven experiments.
* Funding models beyond #NGO traps—so projects remain independent and sustainable.

The fight for the #openweb is not only about resisting #dotcons but creating alternatives people can and will use. Can we move beyond abstraction and actually make history?

Public
witchescauldron

Development - Next Steps for #OGB

The #OGB (Open Governance Body) is a native #openweb project to enable decentralized, transparent governance for grassroots media and activist networks. However, like many open projects, it faces significant development roadblocks.

Currently, the challenge is moving beyond theory into implementation. The stalled dev work at unite.openworlds.info highlights the common issue: lack of dedicated developer focus. The problem isn’t just writing code; it’s building a bridge between activist needs and functional, people-friendly tools. The #geekproblem looms large, developers work in isolation, disconnected from real-world social movements, or they get caught in perfectionism instead of delivering working prototypes.

What #OGB needs is practical iteration: a rough, working proof of concept, rather than endlessly debating the ideal model. The project requires coders willing to work openly, embracing the #4opens (open source, open standards, open process, open data). The biggest blocker? A culture that prioritizes control over collaboration.

Open Media NetworkOpen Media NetworkOrganisation for and example of "rebooting" Independent Media Centre's
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witchescauldron

The development of #IndymediaBack

The reboot of #Indymedia (#IndymediaBack) is about reclaiming grassroots, open, and radical media infrastructure outside of the control of corporate platforms and #dotcons. However, the development side has stalled due to the same issues that have stalled other #openweb projects, lack of sustained coder engagement, resistance in centralized funding, and the dominance of closed silos.

The challenge is building tech that works for activists, not just developers. The original Indymedia relied on early open-source tools. This means moving beyond tech-fetishist projects that scratch a developer’s itch while ignoring real-world community.

A trust-based federated publishing network is the goal. The #OMN (Open Media Network) framework already outlines how to create syndicated media flows using #4opens. The stalled dev site at unite.openworlds.info needs committed developers who care about media as a movement, not just a tech experiment.

Without serious investment in #DIY, people-friendly, open-source alternatives, activists will remain trapped inside the #mainstreaming of social media platforms. The question is: can we finally push through the #geekproblem and make this happen?

Open Media NetworkOpen Media NetworkOrganisation for and example of "rebooting" Independent Media Centre's
Public
Hamish Campbell

The #GeekProblem: Why Open Development Is Stuck in a Dead End

It’s no sin to have to submit to the #dotcons overlords—we all do it, whether we like it or not. Just recently, I found myself installing that vile spyware known as #WeChat because this was the only way to talk to the people I needed to talk to. That bitter swipe to hide the app from view brought a momentary sense of agency, but the reality remains: we are still too often failing at building out the #openweb that normal people find useful The fundamental question is: why? It's too […]

hamishcampbell.com/the-geekpro

hamishcampbell.comThe #GeekProblem: Why Open Development Is Stuck in a Dead End – Hamish Campbell
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#dotcons#geekproblem#neoliberal
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Hamish Campbell

The #NGO mess is hard blocking

We need to talk, again, about how the #NGO world pushes HARD BLOCKING over the native #openweb paths we need to take. This isn’t some new issue; we’ve been having the same conversation for years. And yet, here we are, watching the same bad behaver and the same mistakes repeating, only now, with the #mainstreaming flooding in, with more funding and institutional interference. The simple antidote to this incompetence? Listen. Think. And stop blocking. Seriously, it’s not that […]

hamishcampbell.com/the-ngo-mes

hamishcampbell.comThe #NGO mess is hard blocking – Hamish Campbell
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#blocking#diy#doocracy
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Hamish Campbell

The #geekproblem is too often soft blocking change and challenge in tech

The #geekproblem has been an ongoing issue in the development of radical and open internet paths. This is particularly evident in the influx of #mainstreaming users into the #Fediverse, bringing with them behaviors that, for us #openweb natives, are easy to recognize as part'ish, a mix of good intentions and ingrained habits that common sense uphold the status quo. Our response needs to be one of patience, hand-holding rather than outright biting, because if we want real change, we need to […]

hamishcampbell.com/the-geekpro

hamishcampbell.comThe #geekproblem is too often soft blocking change and challenge in tech – Hamish Campbell
More from Hamish Campbell
#closedweb#deathcult#doocracy
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