The #4opens: For Progressive Society and Tech Change

The #4opens offers guiding principles for testing, evaluating, and promoting progressive social and tech projects. With these principles, people and communities prioritise paths of openness, collaboration, and the social good. The #4opens can be used to drive meaningful change:

1. Open Data

Open data is the foundation of transparency and accountability in technology and social initiatives. By making data freely accessible, shareable, and reusable, projects foster innovation and collaboration. Enable democratic decision-making by access to critical information. Promote public oversight of systems and institutions.

Examples: open data to track government spending and expose corruption. Monitoring environmental pollution to drive policy change. Analysing social trends to inform public planning and advocacy.

Open data provides the raw materials for progress by empowering communities to act on information.

1. Open Source

Open source. #FOSS software is the backbone of a healthy, collaborative tech ecosystem. By making source code accessible and encouraging collective development, open source, accelerates innovation by allowing everyone to improve and adapt tools. Reduces reliance on corporate monopolies and proprietary software. Empowers communities to build tools tailored to their needs.

Examples: Social platforms that challenge the dominance of tech giants, built with open source tools. Privacy-focused apps and decentralised networks. Grassroots initiatives creating bespoke solutions for their communities.

Open source means that technology can remain a public good, not a corporate commodity.

1. Open Standards

Open “industrial” standards are vital for interoperability and compatibility between diverse technologies. By avoiding lock-in with common protocols, projects promote diversity and prevent monopolistic practices, enable seamless communication across systems.

Examples: Peer-to-peer networks built on open communication protocols. Decentralised social media platforms like those in the #Fediverse that follow open standards like #ActivityPub. Open file formats that ensure data longevity and accessibility.

Open standards create the technical foundation for decentralisation and collaboration.

1. Open Process

Open process is about transparent participatory decision-making that guides the development and governance of projects. By involving stakeholders at every stage, grows trust and accountability within communities, encourage collective ownership and investment in outcomes to take democratic paths based on consensus and inclusivity.

Examples: Community-led platforms addressing social justice issues. Open governance models that empower stakeholders to make decisions. Participatory planning prioritises collective well-being over individual profit.

Open processes ensure that projects align with the values of the communities they serve.

Advancing the #4opens is more than philosophy, it’s a practical roadmap for driving progressive social and technological change. To make the #4opens actionable, we need to develop tools for evaluation and accountability. Evaluating “Nativeness”, the #4opens serve as criteria to assess how well a project aligns with the principles of the openweb. Ratings and Badges based on adherence to the #4opens criteria, allowing projects to showcase their commitment to openness. Online registries, public directories of #4opens-compliant projects to make it easy for people to discover and support them. These mechanisms make it clear which initiatives genuinely embrace openness and which, need to do better or, fall short.

Conclusion, the #4opens isn’t just about technology; it’s about values. It’s a framework for the tools and systems we build to reflect our commitment to transparency, collaboration, and collective progress. By adopting the #4opens, we take a simple step toward creating a decentralised, open, and people-centred internet that empowers people.

Let’s build a grounded future.