'The digital commons should not be treated as an object ripe for extraction, but as an expression of “commoning” [Dulong de Rosnay and Stalder 2020]; i.e., as a manifestation of the practice of making, maintaining, and protecting shared and open resources.'

From 'Generative AI and the Future of the Digital Commons' https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2508.06470#GenAI #commons#DigitalCommons

"A web that you don’t understand is one that’s not user-driven, or driven by user utility. It’s one where people don’t have agency over the technology they depend upon, and where changes aren’t contrived to address a specific user need.

At the risk of sounding as conspiratorial as the author of the original Dead Internet Theory, I believe the emergence of this incomprehensibility was borne of deliberate decisions made by people at the very top of Big Tech. Furthermore, I believe these people are profoundly anti-person, and see people as resources to be tapped rather than collaborators within a vast, global digital ecosystem.

In many respects, I think this phenomena is down to two things: first, many of the tech products we use were founded by people who were still in the throes of youth, and became billionaires and global tech icons before their brains were even fully developed. They’ve been insulated from people from a young age, never lived a normal life, and they’ve been told — repeatedly — that they are geniuses and visionaries. While I don’t think this explanation excuses any of their behavior, I also think it goes some way into explaining the scarcely-disguised antipathy these people show for their fellow humans.
(...)
The other factor behind this phenomenon is that many of the people running these companies are former management consultants spawned from hell (read: McKinsey) and then set loose on what amounts to “essential infrastructure” for the digital age. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, is a former McKinsey consultant. Sheryl Sandberg, the former Chief Operating Officer of Facebook was one, too.

Management consultants have one job — it’s to recommend strategies to cowardly CEOs that they probably thought of themselves, but are too chicken to put their name behind themselves, that invariably screw over employees, consumers, and the planet."

https://whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-the-internet-died

#DeadInternet#Commons#DigitalCommons#OpenWeb#SocialMedia#AISlop#AI

'The digital commons should not be treated as an object ripe for extraction, but as an expression of “commoning” [Dulong de Rosnay and Stalder 2020]; i.e., as a manifestation of the practice of making, maintaining, and protecting shared and open resources.'

From 'Generative AI and the Future of the Digital Commons' https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2508.06470#GenAI #commons#DigitalCommons

"A web that you don’t understand is one that’s not user-driven, or driven by user utility. It’s one where people don’t have agency over the technology they depend upon, and where changes aren’t contrived to address a specific user need.

At the risk of sounding as conspiratorial as the author of the original Dead Internet Theory, I believe the emergence of this incomprehensibility was borne of deliberate decisions made by people at the very top of Big Tech. Furthermore, I believe these people are profoundly anti-person, and see people as resources to be tapped rather than collaborators within a vast, global digital ecosystem.

In many respects, I think this phenomena is down to two things: first, many of the tech products we use were founded by people who were still in the throes of youth, and became billionaires and global tech icons before their brains were even fully developed. They’ve been insulated from people from a young age, never lived a normal life, and they’ve been told — repeatedly — that they are geniuses and visionaries. While I don’t think this explanation excuses any of their behavior, I also think it goes some way into explaining the scarcely-disguised antipathy these people show for their fellow humans.
(...)
The other factor behind this phenomenon is that many of the people running these companies are former management consultants spawned from hell (read: McKinsey) and then set loose on what amounts to “essential infrastructure” for the digital age. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, is a former McKinsey consultant. Sheryl Sandberg, the former Chief Operating Officer of Facebook was one, too.

Management consultants have one job — it’s to recommend strategies to cowardly CEOs that they probably thought of themselves, but are too chicken to put their name behind themselves, that invariably screw over employees, consumers, and the planet."

https://whatwelost.substack.com/p/how-the-internet-died

#DeadInternet#Commons#DigitalCommons#OpenWeb#SocialMedia#AISlop#AI

Antanicus
alcinnz
Antanicus and 1 other boosted

Free software is critical infrastructure, yet its upkeep falls on volunteers while giants like Microsoft or Google profit. As with other public goods, they should fund it via a dedicated tax feeding (like roads) a European fund (EU-STF) to ensure security and digital sovereignty. Europeans shouldn’t pay so Amazon can remain a free rider.

#OpenSource#TaxTheTechGiants#DigitalCommons#EUSTF#PublicGoods#FLOSS #CyberResilience #linux #kde #fsfe #gnome#FOSS#EU

🚀 OFE Publishes Landmark Study Calling on Funding Europe’s Open Digital Infrastructure through an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF)

Our new report urges creation of an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF) to fix chronic underfunding of open source technologies – the backbone of Europe’s digital sovereignty, cybersecurity, and competitiveness.

🔗 Check it out: eu-stf.openforumeurope.org

🔗 Check out our summary: https://openforumeurope.org/ofe-launches-landmark-study-calling-for-an-eu-sovereign-tech-fund-to-secure-europes-digital-future/

#OpenSource#DigitalSovereignty#EU

Free software is critical infrastructure, yet its upkeep falls on volunteers while giants like Microsoft or Google profit. As with other public goods, they should fund it via a dedicated tax feeding (like roads) a European fund (EU-STF) to ensure security and digital sovereignty. Europeans shouldn’t pay so Amazon can remain a free rider.

#OpenSource#TaxTheTechGiants#DigitalCommons#EUSTF#PublicGoods#FLOSS #CyberResilience #linux #kde #fsfe #gnome#FOSS#EU

After the Code of Conduct and the Mediation process, the Cooperative Development Guidelines now have a Governance Document that can be used by any Organization/Foundation/Collective/Community/Project that wants to have a governance based on participatory, equity and permacomputing/accessibility principles.

Its time for us to finally start building participatory digital commons, that are developed by the community and for the community and the Governance document is part 1 of doing just that. (Decision making and Structure will follow after this).

I am also excited to announce that @queerspark has also been listed as a collective that adopted pieces of the Cooperative Development Guidelines.

https://codeberg.org/msavoritias/Cooperative_Development_Guidelines/src/branch/main/Foundation/Governance

#xmpp #jabber #permacomputing #diversity #governance#DigitalCommons

After the Code of Conduct and the Mediation process, the Cooperative Development Guidelines now have a Governance Document that can be used by any Organization/Foundation/Collective/Community/Project that wants to have a governance based on participatory, equity and permacomputing/accessibility principles.

Its time for us to finally start building participatory digital commons, that are developed by the community and for the community and the Governance document is part 1 of doing just that. (Decision making and Structure will follow after this).

I am also excited to announce that @queerspark has also been listed as a collective that adopted pieces of the Cooperative Development Guidelines.

https://codeberg.org/msavoritias/Cooperative_Development_Guidelines/src/branch/main/Foundation/Governance

#xmpp #jabber #permacomputing #diversity #governance#DigitalCommons

Is the concept of Digital Commons still relevant or just too vague?

@cnrs Centre Internet et Société recently released an in-depth study via @NGICommons exploring how digital resources are shared and governed in Europe today. 📘

With interviews and case studies
please read this sharp analysis here: https://commons.ngi.eu/2025/06/26/active-communities-of-commoners-and-relevant-commons/
#DigitalCommons#Commons

Thank you @valerian

@openfuture @OpenForumEurope
@martelinnovate
@linuxfoundation

Is the concept of Digital Commons still relevant or just too vague?

@cnrs Centre Internet et Société recently released an in-depth study via @NGICommons exploring how digital resources are shared and governed in Europe today. 📘

With interviews and case studies
please read this sharp analysis here: https://commons.ngi.eu/2025/06/26/active-communities-of-commoners-and-relevant-commons/
#DigitalCommons#Commons

Thank you @valerian

@openfuture @OpenForumEurope
@martelinnovate
@linuxfoundation