In the 1990s, I became one of those anarchist hackers who wanted to disrupt institutions and redistribute power. So is that still my goal? Sort of.
Since then, I've seen plenty of institutional disruption, leading to even more extreme concentrations of power. I've come to realise that although institutions like corporations are designed to sharpen power divides, institutions can also be designed to limit the application of power, and make it more transparent and accountable.
(1/?)
The institutions I raged against in the nineties, and continue to do so today, are what we could call Platform Institutions;
* Religious platforms, which concentrate control over the means of large-scale sense-making
* Corporate platforms, over the means of large-scale production and distribution
* State platforms, over the means of large-scale decision-making
Social media platforms are a combo of the first 2, and if their owners have their way, they'll also take over the third.
(2/?)
So what's the alternative to this Snowcrash dystopia?
In the 90s, I thought it had to be the abolition of all institutions. Pulling people into purely peer-to-peer networks, slowly starving institutions of the humans labour and attention they need to operate.
At the very end of 90s, I got involved with the Global Network of Independent Media Centers, and helped to launch the Aotearoa Indymedia. Over time, I realised these too were institutions; what we might call Network Institutions.
(3/?)
So some questions for discussion;
* What are other examples of Network Institutions, past or present?
* how can we distinguish clearly between Platform Institutions (power aggregators) and Network Institutions (power distributors)? Which is Wikipedia, for example, or WikiLeaks?
* how can we design and establish more Network Institutions?
* how can we protect them from destruction, neglect (eg most of Indymedia), or corruption into Platform Institutions (eg OSI)
(4/4)
I write a paper back in my school days that roman roads were an early network system.
I stand by that thesis.
