Create simple, meme-able, and federated content explaining:

What the #4opens are

Why they matter for trust, governance, and resilience

How they contrast with #NGO/#dotcons/closed models

Build tools and cultures they must adopt on our terms (eg. insist on #4opens to participate)

Maintain clear boundaries: invite dialogue, not colonization

It is going to be difficult to reboot the #openweb in a #4opens way, due to the culture of #blocking on both the "left" and the right. Ideas please on how to mediate this mess to make this #blocking less blocking.

A guide for staying honest and native https://hamishcampbell.com/a-guide-for-staying-honest-and-native/ That’s where projects like #OMN, the rebooted #Indymedia, and the #4opens live. Not trying to escape friction, but embracing it. Mediating it. Letting it guide us toward what’s honest, what’s native, what lasts.

A guide for staying honest and native https://hamishcampbell.com/a-guide-for-staying-honest-and-native/ That’s where projects like #OMN, the rebooted #Indymedia, and the #4opens live. Not trying to escape friction, but embracing it. Mediating it. Letting it guide us toward what’s honest, what’s native, what lasts.

But let's be honest — the #geekproblem is part of the problem, and the #NGO crowd often are the #blocking. We need more than funding. We need native, messy, radical projects. #4opens#OMN

The path I walk, and advocate for, is rooted in a few simple but powerful #KISS principles: a return to grassroots governance, a focus on community-driven technology, and the composting of failed ideas to nurture new growth. To enable this shift, we must develop tools and frameworks that uphold transparency, empower collective action, and center sustainable, open alternatives. This means pushing back against the dominant #mainstreaming narrative and embracing practical, grounded methods of building from the bottom up. You can see some of this in action at unite.openworlds.info.

I remain deeply critical of the role of #NGOs and the broader mainstreaming strategies that dilute radical potential. Too often, projects that begin with genuine grassroots energy are co-opted through institutional funding and pressure to conform. This turns them into vehicles for maintaining the status quo rather than challenging it. To reclaim our agency and resist this corruption, we need to re-center on the #4opens, prioritize collective and direct action, and build resilient alternatives to the #deathcult of neoliberalism. My critique comes from long experience with radical media and open tech — from #Indymedia and #OMN to the #Fediverse and ActivityPub. Learn more at hamishcampbell.com.

My #boatingeurope life reflects a more sustainable, #DIY lifestyle — an attempt to live "native" to the rhythms of nature rather than the chaos of the #deathcult. A decade ago, after 20 years campaigning on climate and ecological collapse, I sailed away in a literal lifeboat, escaping burnout and disillusionment. But the world is round — and I’ve since returned to re-engage with tech activism and grassroots media, because retreat alone won’t solve systemic issues. Bridging the divide between alternative cultures and the mainstream remains vital. Yet this is often blocked by both sides — the mainstream demands conformity, while alt-paths refuse to compromise. Without building bridges, we risk further stagnation. It's time to find common ground without losing our roots.

#hamishcampbell
Support on Open Collective
Boating Europe on YouTube

The path I walk, and advocate for, is rooted in a few simple but powerful #KISS principles: a return to grassroots governance, a focus on community-driven technology, and the composting of failed ideas to nurture new growth. To enable this shift, we must develop tools and frameworks that uphold transparency, empower collective action, and center sustainable, open alternatives. This means pushing back against the dominant #mainstreaming narrative and embracing practical, grounded methods of building from the bottom up. You can see some of this in action at unite.openworlds.info.

I remain deeply critical of the role of #NGOs and the broader mainstreaming strategies that dilute radical potential. Too often, projects that begin with genuine grassroots energy are co-opted through institutional funding and pressure to conform. This turns them into vehicles for maintaining the status quo rather than challenging it. To reclaim our agency and resist this corruption, we need to re-center on the #4opens, prioritize collective and direct action, and build resilient alternatives to the #deathcult of neoliberalism. My critique comes from long experience with radical media and open tech — from #Indymedia and #OMN to the #Fediverse and ActivityPub. Learn more at hamishcampbell.com.

My #boatingeurope life reflects a more sustainable, #DIY lifestyle — an attempt to live "native" to the rhythms of nature rather than the chaos of the #deathcult. A decade ago, after 20 years campaigning on climate and ecological collapse, I sailed away in a literal lifeboat, escaping burnout and disillusionment. But the world is round — and I’ve since returned to re-engage with tech activism and grassroots media, because retreat alone won’t solve systemic issues. Bridging the divide between alternative cultures and the mainstream remains vital. Yet this is often blocked by both sides — the mainstream demands conformity, while alt-paths refuse to compromise. Without building bridges, we risk further stagnation. It's time to find common ground without losing our roots.

#hamishcampbell
Support on Open Collective
Boating Europe on YouTube

Why It Matters

If metadata is the new currency, then open metadata is the new commons. Capitalism runs on closed systems — the #OMN runs on shared knowledge and decentralized trust.

This isn’t about perfect tech. It’s about:

Human-scale trust
Community autonomy
Fast, messy, democratic distribution
Real-world resilience

It’s not utopia. It’s compost — and we’ve got the shovels.

#OMN #4opens #metadata #trustnetworks #openweb #decentralization #anarchism#DIYtech #postcapitalism#foss

What Should We Do With Metadata? A Post-Capitalist Path via #OMN

We’re in a global metadata arms race — and most people don’t even know the stakes.

Here’s the current battlefield:

Capitalism wants metadata privatized — hoarded by #dotcons to manipulate markets and politics. This power now controls the state. Welcome back, fascism.

Authoritarianism (like China’s digital state) wants metadata centralized — state-controlled to command capitalism itself. The command economy returns, just digitized.

Liberalism wants metadata individualized — a libertarian dream of sovereign users and self-determined markets, it still leans into myths of meritocracy and fails to balance collective power.

But what if we chose a fourth path?

Anarchism, grounded in voluntary association, mutual aid, and decentralization — this is the path #OMN walks. Using #4opens, we’re attempting a #KISS trust-based, commons-driven model for metadata.

The current media system is stacked against us. It’s rigged, exclusive, and hostile to alternatives.

That’s why we need the Open Media Network.

Because without an open, trust-based infrastructure for communication and coordination, we’re just shouting into silos.

Let’s build something different.
Let’s make history — together.

#OMN #4opens #metadata #trustnetworks #openweb #anarchism #postcapitalism #decentralization#DIYtech #commons #grassroots#foss #geekproblem #dotcons#KISS

The current media system is stacked against us. It’s rigged, exclusive, and hostile to alternatives.

That’s why we need the Open Media Network.

Because without an open, trust-based infrastructure for communication and coordination, we’re just shouting into silos.

Let’s build something different.
Let’s make history — together.

#OMN #4opens #metadata #trustnetworks #openweb #anarchism #postcapitalism #decentralization#DIYtech #commons #grassroots#foss #geekproblem #dotcons#KISS

What Should We Do With Metadata? A Post-Capitalist Path via #OMN

We’re in a global metadata arms race — and most people don’t even know the stakes.

Here’s the current battlefield:

Capitalism wants metadata privatized — hoarded by #dotcons to manipulate markets and politics. This power now controls the state. Welcome back, fascism.

Authoritarianism (like China’s digital state) wants metadata centralized — state-controlled to command capitalism itself. The command economy returns, just digitized.

Liberalism wants metadata individualized — a libertarian dream of sovereign users and self-determined markets, it still leans into myths of meritocracy and fails to balance collective power.

But what if we chose a fourth path?

Anarchism, grounded in voluntary association, mutual aid, and decentralization — this is the path #OMN walks. Using #4opens, we’re attempting a #KISS trust-based, commons-driven model for metadata.

Why It Matters

If metadata is the new currency, then open metadata is the new commons. Capitalism runs on closed systems — the #OMN runs on shared knowledge and decentralized trust.

This isn’t about perfect tech. It’s about:

Human-scale trust
Community autonomy
Fast, messy, democratic distribution
Real-world resilience

It’s not utopia. It’s compost — and we’ve got the shovels.

#OMN #4opens #metadata #trustnetworks #openweb #decentralization #anarchism#DIYtech #postcapitalism#foss

Yes, these standards won’t come from technology alone. They emerge from the social use of tech — from community, practice, and shared need.

The code is nothing without people. The protocol withers without participation. So we’re not just “building tech.”
We’re growing community – and that community gives the tech meaning, reach, and power. It’s a symbiotic process. One cannot succeed without the other.

If you treat it only as a technical project, you’ll fail. If you treat it only as a social process, you’ll stall. We must hold both. This balance is where new paths open — where change becomes possible.

This is why we say a technological project, can only come out of a community project. Let’s build it together. #openweb#OMN

Yes, these standards won’t come from technology alone. They emerge from the social use of tech — from community, practice, and shared need.

The code is nothing without people. The protocol withers without participation. So we’re not just “building tech.”
We’re growing community – and that community gives the tech meaning, reach, and power. It’s a symbiotic process. One cannot succeed without the other.

If you treat it only as a technical project, you’ll fail. If you treat it only as a social process, you’ll stall. We must hold both. This balance is where new paths open — where change becomes possible.

This is why we say a technological project, can only come out of a community project. Let’s build it together. #openweb#OMN

That’s the filter we need to apply — especially as we face burnout, co-option, and the churn of #fashernista tech that solves nothing. Grassroots Radical Media: A #4opens Path https://hamishcampbell.com/grassroots-radical-media-a-4opens-path/

That’s the filter we need to apply — especially as we face burnout, co-option, and the churn of #fashernista tech that solves nothing. Grassroots Radical Media: A #4opens Path https://hamishcampbell.com/grassroots-radical-media-a-4opens-path/

Dealing with #mainstreaming folks can be exhausting — not because of bad intent, but because of the incompetence, paranoia, and trauma baked in by 40 years of head-down devotion to a #deathcult system.

We need better social paths to mediate this mess.Compassion, yes — but also clarity, boundaries, and collective care.
#openweb #4opens#OMN#NothingNew#SocialChange

We used to have heathy alt culture https://hamishcampbell.com/we-used-to-have-heathy-alt-culture/#Indymedia consisted of hundreds of websites and local collectives, each with their own focus and editorial policies, but all sharing radical #4opens and PGA hallmarks working.