Building Alt/Grassroots Media Networks to Challenge and Widen Traditional Media

The current ecosystem of alternative and grassroots media is too narrow in its imagination of what media could, and should, be. There’s a persistent naivety or, in some cases, a self-serving dishonesty. Many of the most “successful” progressive media groups continue to mimic #traditionalmedia without understanding, or addressing, the fact that they do not control their distribution. In effect, they’re renting space in someone else’s empire.

This is not just a mistake. It’s the […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/building-alt-grassroots-media-networks-to-challenge-and-widen-traditional-media/

Challenging “liberal trolls” and #encryptionist blindness https://hamishcampbell.com/challenging-liberal-trolls-encryptionist-blindness-for-the-broader-openweb/ the path of the #openweb depends on striking a balance between openness and security, grassroots experimentation and mainstream scalability, and decentralization and coordination.

What matters and what is dangerous

https://hamishcampbell.com/what-matters-and-what-is-dangerous/

Let’s at least try to compost the mess.

We’ve wasted billions on #encryptionist fantasies, spent 20 years lost in the #dotcons, and now? The #Titcock generation is locked in algorithmic zombification, while 40 years of dead ideology still rules as “common sense.”

"What is to be done?" The answer isn’t another tech utopianism or individualist escape hatch. It’s about affinity groups, actual social movements, and using the #4opens to sort what’s worth pissing on to compost both figuratively and literally, every little bit helps the rot break down the #techshit into something useful.

#stupidindividualism is the real blocker, the key takeaway, we don’t need lone "smart" people solving things, we need movements.

The critical points between governance, activism, and the ideological underpinnings of #FOSS, #opensource, and the #openweb. The problem, governance without “politics”. #FOSS and #opensource often ignore and block politics, leading to governance models resembling feudalism where “better kings” may emerge, but the underlying structure remains inequitable. Without addressing systemic issues, projects replicate the very power imbalances they aim to escape.

A solution can be found in #4opens and #OGB, this creates a permissionless path, framework for decentralized, equitable governance. The Open Governance Body (#OGB) fosters participatory decision-making, breaking away from feudal hierarchies and cultivating more of a balance of collective ownership. The path is building together, the Open Media Network (#OMN) embodies this ethos by emphasizing “you and me” over “just me.” A core part of this path is that activist media must embrace discomfort as a catalyst for change, balancing inspiration, information, and critique to challenge the status quo.

Decentralization is a post-capitalist concept, as decentralization eliminates middlemen, undermining the foundations of capitalism. However, capitalism co-opts decentralization, selling illusions while embedding scarcity (e.g., #encryptionist projects). Recognizing and resisting this is vital to preserving the #openweb. Composting the shit, current activism often worsens the “shit pile” by pouring misaligned efforts and unclear priorities into an already broken paths. Instead, we need shovels for composting—tools and frameworks like #OMN and the #4opens to transform waste into fertile ground for radical change.

A world in flux, old paths are gone, there’s no going back, reboots are imminent—social upheavals (#Trump, #Brexit) and environmental crises signal the need for systemic transformation. The #4opens promote transparency, participation, and shared ownership. By contrast, the #4closed represent secrecy, exclusivity, control, and commodification—aligning with the #dotcons and the #deathcult’s vision of the future. Words as power, the spell of repetition, the #4opens is more than a mantra, it’s a way of embedding ethical, decentralized values into public consciousness. This “spell” counters the pervasive narratives of the #4closed and offers a tangible path for the needed transformation.

https://hamishcampbell.com/4opens-vs-4closed/

The #encryptionist mess https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/the-complexity-is-the-attraction-reflections-on-trying-to-use-crypto/

The #geekproblem pushing over #openweb agen

https://www.wired.com/story/how-blockchain-can-wrest-the-internet-from-corporations The #encryptionists are trying to pushing there flagging project over the healthy #openweb reboot.

Q. need a new hashtag? lovers of blockchain (bloccatenaphile?) are a breed unto themselves, and not likely to be as sensible as some those who are in to encryption.

how broad is your definition of #encryptionist?

A. #encryptionists my “fuckyou” thoughts started with the #indymedia network. The #geekproblem installed a self signed certificate on the domain to increase “privacy” alongside not logging ip addresses on the local server.

The “good affect” only securaty theater, the bad affect, every user received a browser pop up saying “do not trust this site” and the IP addresses could just be collected “upriver” at the ISP/switch level by the state actors who were monitoring the project

#openweb

The affect of not logging IP address locally was a rising deluge of spam and moderator burn out.

The was not democratic process on these changes, and no way to role them back or even address the issue. The project of over 100 globle news sites, with thousands of media creators and millions of users. Ossified and then died, the #dotcons soon replaced it.

#fashernistas moved on, the #openweb started to die.

The #geekproblem pushing #encryptionists agenders OVER #openweb projects.

The is a role for #encryptionists /closed but it’s on balance a smaller one than “open” is my core experience over the last 20 years.

All tech is “ideology” as code, we need to talk about this #4opens

People often destroy things they love, not from hate, more from possession

This is the #fahernista view of the 20-year-old #OMN project, it is full of teenage focus https://anagora.org/distributed-cooperative-organisation and might be interesting if it LINKED, but it does not, flight and scatter to the wind, more to compost.

http://disco.coop/manifesto/ This is the #fahernista view of an #encryptionist project of the 20-year-old #OMN project, it is full of teenage focus and might be interesting if it LINKED, but it does not, flight and scatter to the wind, more to compost.

https://two.compost.digital/ This is the #NGO #fahernista view of the 20-year-old #OMN project, it is full of teenage focus and might be interesting if it LINKED, but it does not, flight and scatter to the wind, more to compost.