#Tag
#Indymediaback isn’t just a media project — it’s a reminder that we can still build our own networks, tell our own truths, and refuse the enclosures of fear and control. It’s composting the wreckage of #mainstreaming into fertile ground for new, open media gardens.
Because the web, and the world, needs a working example of what trust-based, open, collective media can be again.
We’ve tried the #dotcons way, and it’s killing both truth and community.
Because the web, and the world, needs a working example of what trust-based, open, collective media can be again.
We’ve tried the #dotcons way, and it’s killing both truth and community.
#Indymediaback isn’t just a media project — it’s a reminder that we can still build our own networks, tell our own truths, and refuse the enclosures of fear and control. It’s composting the wreckage of #mainstreaming into fertile ground for new, open media gardens.
The #OMN, #OGB, and the #indymediaback reboot aren’t nostalgia — they’re the next generation of the commons defending itself.
⁂ Article
Talking about grassroots media as a step away from the current #techshit
Hamish Campbell on the #openweb and rebooting indymedia
Hamish Campbell, a veteran of radical media for more than 30 years, argues that mainstream technology and culture are failing us. The rise of the #dotcon platforms has commodified our lives: closed silos like #Facebook and #Instagram harvest our attention and data, locking us into systems that serve profit, not people.
Attempts to build alternatives around an #encryptionist agenda have gone nowhere. As a result, the tech giants […]
⁂ Article
“Your Party” and the Fluffy/Spiky debate – a working path
Fluffy side: cautious, slow-moving, grounded in “keeping the peace” and managing optics. Classic problem: avoidance of conflict means bottlenecking decisions, blocking energy, and trying to centralise control, so things don’t blow up. Spiky side: impatient, direct, “get it done” energy. Spikiness pushes things forward, but often burns bridges, creating splits and mistrust. Neither path alone works – one stalls out, the other fragments. Their clash in the UK “Your Party”, just […]
⁂ Article
“Your Party” and the Fluffy/Spiky debate – a working path
Fluffy side: cautious, slow-moving, grounded in “keeping the peace” and managing optics. Classic problem: avoidance of conflict means bottlenecking decisions, blocking energy, and trying to centralise control, so things don’t blow up. Spiky side: impatient, direct, “get it done” energy. Spikiness pushes things forward, but often burns bridges, creating splits and mistrust. Neither path alone works – one stalls out, the other fragments. Their clash in the UK “Your Party”, just […]
Should we apply again?
Yes, not because they’ll suddenly “get it,” but because persistence itself is part of the composting, a record, a point of pressure.
Apply and simultaneously build a parallel path of community support, donations, partnerships, volunteer time. That way, the inevitable #NLnet rejection doesn’t kill all the momentum.
Shifting the blocking? Maybe translate native ideas into their language. Bureaucracies like “deliverables,” “impact metrics,” “alignment with EU digital policy.” Wrap your radical #4opens core in a frame they can recognise: resilience, digital sovereignty, anti-disinformation, democratic participation. That’s harder for them to ignore and strengthens the “native” path.
Expose the bias. Not in a bitter way, but in a constructive one: point out the repeated rejection of grassroots-native projects while funding flows to #geekproblem/NGOs. This pressure helps them re-balance (and others will maybe notice).
If you want to help, share the 3 projects ( #MakingHistory, #IndymediaBack, #OGB) in #Fediverse channels. Frame this positively: “If we want a living #openweb, we need to fund and support native projects, not just corporate/NGO clones.” make it harder for them to keep sidelining.
Should we apply again?
Yes, not because they’ll suddenly “get it,” but because persistence itself is part of the composting, a record, a point of pressure.
Apply and simultaneously build a parallel path of community support, donations, partnerships, volunteer time. That way, the inevitable #NLnet rejection doesn’t kill all the momentum.
Shifting the blocking? Maybe translate native ideas into their language. Bureaucracies like “deliverables,” “impact metrics,” “alignment with EU digital policy.” Wrap your radical #4opens core in a frame they can recognise: resilience, digital sovereignty, anti-disinformation, democratic participation. That’s harder for them to ignore and strengthens the “native” path.
Expose the bias. Not in a bitter way, but in a constructive one: point out the repeated rejection of grassroots-native projects while funding flows to #geekproblem/NGOs. This pressure helps them re-balance (and others will maybe notice).
If you want to help, share the 3 projects ( #MakingHistory, #IndymediaBack, #OGB) in #Fediverse channels. Frame this positively: “If we want a living #openweb, we need to fund and support native projects, not just corporate/NGO clones.” make it harder for them to keep sidelining.
If you would like and example of what real #DIY activist grassroots media looks like https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/climatecamp/
We need to reboot this project #indymediaback#OMN#Fediverse
⁂ Article
The stubborn few who show up with shovels, laptops, and trust
In the tech world of social change and challenge, we’re living with a strange imbalance. Too often, the spaces we use and try and build are crowded with useless, self-destructive prats – people more interested in ego, control, and clout than in making anything grow from the roots. And when they do very rearly act, their “help” is often poison: it blocks, slows, and derails.
At the same time, the number of people doing truly useful, collective, grounded work feels small. You can see […]
⁂ Article
The stubborn few who show up with shovels, laptops, and trust
In the tech world of social change and challenge, we’re living with a strange imbalance. Too often, the spaces we use and try and build are crowded with useless, self-destructive prats – people more interested in ego, control, and clout than in making anything grow from the roots. And when they do very rearly act, their “help” is often poison: it blocks, slows, and derails.
At the same time, the number of people doing truly useful, collective, grounded work feels small. You can see […]
⁂ Article
In tech, it is really important, to see the unit of measure
Most software today = individualist. Even “collective” tools (Fediverse servers, enterprise SaaS, etc.) are just abstractions that aggregate individuals. The default assumption is the liberal subject: the sovereign individual. The infrastructure is built for self-expression, personal feeds, private chats, me, me, me. That’s why for example, when you step into libertarian codebases like #nostr, the smell of #stupidindividualism is everywhere.Communities are treated as “groups of […]
⁂ Article
Looking at working with legacy media thinking – silo vs flow
Every so often I answer the out reach calls from more traditional alt/progressive media orgs, let’s look at some of the very illustrative “common sense” knock backs. The recent examples are Freedom’s reaction and Good Internet’s submission call – As their reaction is useful to illustrate the fault line of “radical publishing” in a federated media path.
Here’s a sketch of how it can (and arguably should) work if we’re serious about, #openweb, and soft-communing […]
⁂ Article
Looking at working with legacy media thinking – silo vs flow
Every so often I answer the out reach calls from more traditional alt/progressive media orgs, let’s look at some of the very illustrative “common sense” knock backs. The recent examples are Freedom’s reaction and Good Internet’s submission call – As their reaction is useful to illustrate the fault line of “radical publishing” in a federated media path.
Here’s a sketch of how it can (and arguably should) work if we’re serious about, #openweb, and soft-communing […]
⁂ Article
In tech, it is really important, to see the unit of measure
Most software today = individualist. Even “collective” tools (Fediverse servers, enterprise SaaS, etc.) are just abstractions that aggregate individuals. The default assumption is the liberal subject: the sovereign individual. The infrastructure is built for self-expression, personal feeds, private chats, me, me, me. That’s why for example, when you step into libertarian codebases like #nostr, the smell of #stupidindividualism is everywhere.Communities are treated as “groups of […]
⁂ Article
The real blockages in activist tech
It’s not just the tech, we’ve had working #FOSS tools, protocols, and infrastructure for decades. What kills movements is social, it’s the politics. Fractionalism – ideological vanguards fighting to capture and control. Authoritarian “protection” – censorship framed as security, silencing criticism. Shrinking ghettos – small groups defining themselves by exclusion, not expansion.
On the so-called radical paths, whether Trotskyist, Stalinist, or anarchist, the pattern is the […]
⁂ Article
The real blockages in activist tech
It’s not just the tech, we’ve had working #FOSS tools, protocols, and infrastructure for decades. What kills movements is social, it’s the politics. Fractionalism – ideological vanguards fighting to capture and control. Authoritarian “protection” – censorship framed as security, silencing criticism. Shrinking ghettos – small groups defining themselves by exclusion, not expansion.
On the so-called radical paths, whether Trotskyist, Stalinist, or anarchist, the pattern is the […]
⁂ Article
The OMN with indymediaback and makeinghistory are paths
Most of the mess, and most of the #blocking, comes down to the same old story – ownership and control. Who holds the keys? Who decides? Who gets locked out? Instead of wrestling in that cage, the #OMN takes a simpler path: we walk away.
We put a class of media into the commons, governed openly through the #4opens: open data, open process, open source, and open standards. That means no one can close it down, hoard it, or fence it off for profit. The value comes from the shared pool, not from […]
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