The #OMN (Open Media Network) project is about growing these cultures back into spaces where they can once again influence the mainstream, without being captured or hollowed out by it. The #Fediverse is a living example of this process already underway, messy, imperfect, but real.

Yes, there are serious problems and contradictions. #NGO capture, the #geekproblem, and the constant pull toward centralisation are real threats. I’ve written extensively about these issues here:
https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=NGO+geekproblem

But none of this negates the core task.
Our job is not to finish the work.
Our job is to plant the seeds.

If we do this well enough — with care, openness, and trust — it becomes possible for younger generations to tend them, adapt them, and grow them into forms we cannot predict.

That, realistically, is our only hope.

The #OMN (Open Media Network) project is about growing these cultures back into spaces where they can once again influence the mainstream, without being captured or hollowed out by it. The #Fediverse is a living example of this process already underway, messy, imperfect, but real.

Yes, there are serious problems and contradictions. #NGO capture, the #geekproblem, and the constant pull toward centralisation are real threats. I’ve written extensively about these issues here:
https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=NGO+geekproblem

But none of this negates the core task.
Our job is not to finish the work.
Our job is to plant the seeds.

If we do this well enough — with care, openness, and trust — it becomes possible for younger generations to tend them, adapt them, and grow them into forms we cannot predict.

That, realistically, is our only hope.

Practical tech philosophy https://hamishcampbell.com/practical-tech-philosophy/ #OMN is not a finished answer. It is an attempt to walk this last path seriously, in practice, not just in theory.

Practical tech philosophy https://hamishcampbell.com/practical-tech-philosophy/ #OMN is not a finished answer. It is an attempt to walk this last path seriously, in practice, not just in theory.

@warmsignull OK account should be active. We had a spam attack a while back and not worked out how to mediate this, so accounts on admin approval at mo till we do. Unite is a space to build #OMN and #4opens sister projects ;)

The #openweb won’t (re)build itself. It requires us to reject the endless noise of pointless projects and focus on practical, sustainable solutions. The #OMN path, building the activist openweb infrastructure https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-path-is-building-the-openweb-infrastructure/

The #openweb won’t (re)build itself. It requires us to reject the endless noise of pointless projects and focus on practical, sustainable solutions. The #OMN path, building the activist openweb infrastructure https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-path-is-building-the-openweb-infrastructure/

How can we build bridges in tech? #W3C fits into #OMN with shared origins and intentions https://hamishcampbell.com/w3c-how-this-fits-into-omn-the-shared-origins-and-intentions/

How can we build bridges in tech? #W3C fits into #OMN with shared origins and intentions https://hamishcampbell.com/w3c-how-this-fits-into-omn-the-shared-origins-and-intentions/

@Palky55 after looking at the work we have done with #undercurrents #indymedia #ruffcuts #visionontv and now #OMN what would you suggest the path is to reboot this community of action based on #openweb and #affinity paths?

It needs to happen,

This is cultural infrastructure, not nostalgia. It's plumbing, not a platform

#OMN should not be introduced as: a solution, a network to join, a replacement for anything.

It should be introduced as: pipes, flows, tools for people already doing work

Example:

“You’re documenting housing struggles? Here’s a way to syndicate without selling your soul.”

“You’re organising climate actions? Here’s a way to publish without an algorithm.”

“You’re running a local media collective? Here’s a way to connect without central control.”

@warmsignull theoretically interesting but practically academic.

1) People need to balance work on practical tools for the present and theoretical tools for a far away world. What's totally missing is the real world tools #OMN so from a question of balance....

2) The #4opens, one is open industrial standards, what is the path to that?

Late-stage capitalism doesn’t expand by building - it expands by stripping assets. When growth fails, extraction replaces development.

Trump didn’t invent this, he just dropped the pretence. The Biden administration didn’t reverse it, they polished it.

Different language, same mess.

#Mainstreaming progressive critique wasted ten years focusing on hypocrisy, norms, and credibility. But that’s a category error.

You can’t shame a system that no longer cares about legitimacy. You can’t expose corruption when corruption is the operating model.

This is not about #Trump. It’s not about one country. It’s about a system that has replaced politics with managed extraction and calls it order.

This isn’t a lie to be debunked, it’s a bribe to be refused. And refusal only works collectively, outside the institutions that profit from the lie.

That’s the hard part, the work we need to do #OMN

The hard right know exactly what they are doing. This war isn’t a lie, it’s a bribe.

It’s a signal to power: there is loot on the table. Venezuela isn’t a talking point, it’s a payout. Oil, contracts, leverage, chaos converted into profit. That’s why it works. Not because people believe it, but because the right people benefit from it.

Once you stop assuming politics is about persuasion and start seeing it as deal-making between elitists, the behaviour makes sense. The spectacle is for the public. The offer is for insiders.

This is how the #deathcult operates: not through truth or lies, but through incentives. When extraction is the reward, outrage doesn’t stop it - it lubricates it.

If you want to resist this, stop arguing about whether the story is believable. Start asking who gets paid, who gets access, and who gets to loot. Basic grassroots journalism #OMN

That’s where the power is.

The #OMN is not trying to start something.
It's about trying to restart a social path people forgot they had.

It won’t look clean.
It won’t get permission.
It won’t feel safe.

But it will feel real.

And that’s the only soil movements ever grew in.

Human tech https://hamishcampbell.com/human-tech-omn/ #OMN is rooted in #nothingnew because systems that survive are systems people already intuitively understand.

A project like the #OMN does need to happen — and it’s harder than it should be.

We have already done this work.
#Undercurrents, #Indymedia, #Ruffcuts, #VisionOnTV weren’t theory projects - they were action media, built in lived struggle, with real risks, real trust, and real consequences.

#OMN isn’t a new idea, it’s a recomposition under worse conditions: more capture, more fear, more professionalisation, more #techshit in the way.

So the question isn’t “what’s the idea?”
It’s “how do we reboot a culture of action when trust has been eroded and replaced with fear driven safety theater?”

The #OMN is not trying to start something.
It's about trying to restart a social path people forgot they had.

It won’t look clean.
It won’t get permission.
It won’t feel safe.

But it will feel real.

And that’s the only soil movements ever grew in.

This is cultural infrastructure, not nostalgia. It's plumbing, not a platform

#OMN should not be introduced as: a solution, a network to join, a replacement for anything.

It should be introduced as: pipes, flows, tools for people already doing work

Example:

“You’re documenting housing struggles? Here’s a way to syndicate without selling your soul.”

“You’re organising climate actions? Here’s a way to publish without an algorithm.”

“You’re running a local media collective? Here’s a way to connect without central control.”

A project like the #OMN does need to happen — and it’s harder than it should be.

We have already done this work.
#Undercurrents, #Indymedia, #Ruffcuts, #VisionOnTV weren’t theory projects - they were action media, built in lived struggle, with real risks, real trust, and real consequences.

#OMN isn’t a new idea, it’s a recomposition under worse conditions: more capture, more fear, more professionalisation, more #techshit in the way.

So the question isn’t “what’s the idea?”
It’s “how do we reboot a culture of action when trust has been eroded and replaced with fear driven safety theater?”