#openweb
These are public posts tagged with #openweb. You can interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
Emissary.dev presents itself as a promising low-code platform that might potentially expedite prototyping for the #OMN projects. It’s emphasis on ease of use and integration with various #openweb social APIs which is the path we need to take for rapid development without getting bogged down in initial complexities.
Potential benefits, rapid prototyping, the low-code approach allows for quick iterations and testing of ideas, which is crucial in the early stages of project development. Open Source Foundation, providing the flexibility to modify and adapt the codebase as needed. This openness also means that, if necessary, a custom backend could be developed in the future without starting from scratch. The is some developer engagement, Ben Pate, appears to be actively engaged with the community, responding to issues on #GitHub and expressing a desire to support #openweb paths.
Things to consider are the monetization plans with a freemium model in the future. While this is not uncommon, it’s important to consider how this might affect the project’s long term independence and sustainability. Then there is the background of the developer, which includes work in the self-help industry. While this isn’t inherently negative, it’s worth considering how this experience might influence the platform’s direction and priorities. All this questions the codebase long-term viability for “native” #openweb use, as relying on a third-party platform always carries some risk. We do need to assess whether Emissary.dev’s development trajectory aligns with the long-term goals of the #OMN project.
Next steps are technical evaluation, a review of Emissary.dev’s codebase to assess its quality, security practices, and suitability for the project’s needs. Will reaching out to Ben for a video discussion to better understand his vision for the platform and how it might align with the #OMN project’s paths. Pilot testing, if initial assessments are positive, proceed with a small-scale pilot to test capabilities in a soft roll-out environment.
Looking for feedback on this.
By focusing, we can make a tangible difference in the #openweb space and reduce the noise of pointless #techchurn that waste time, focus and resources. The pushing of doomed projects https://hamishcampbell.com/the-pushing-of-doomed-projects/
AI Crawlers Are Harming #Wikimedia, Bringing #OpenSource Sites To Their Knees, And Putting The #OpenWeb At Risk - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/10/ai-crawlers-are-harming-wikimedia-bringing-open-source-sites-to-their-knees-and-putting-the-open-web-at-risk/ more bad stuff from #ai
The current rapid advances in generative AI are built…
TechdirtThe #OMN path is about building the activist #openweb infrastructure https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-path-is-building-the-openweb-infrastructure/ The future of the #openweb is in our hands. Dig deep, embrace trust, and start building.
The #openweb needs to remain a space for radical inclusion and self-determination, free from corporate and state control. We need real shifts to things that matter in #openweb tech dev https://hamishcampbell.com/we-need-balance-in-the-continuing-support-for-mess-and-a-real-shift-to-things-that-matter-in-openweb-tech/
Almost all our posting in the #openweb and in the #dotcons in response to #mainstreaming news is noise. It’s reactive, fragmented, performative. We scroll, we rage, we boost, we dunk, but we don’t build. Sometimes, someone posts something thoughtful, something deep, meaningful. But it vanishes in the churn. The system is designed this way.
Even on our #openweb, where we have more autonomy, we are mirroring this spectacle path, feeding it attention, reposting its narratives, amplifying its framing. In the mess of this world, our timelines become echo chambers of secondhand despair and outrage. In short, we’re still speaking their language, on their terms, with their tools.
Why? Because we haven’t (re)built a place for real signal yet. The #OMN (Open Media Network), is a push to shift this dynamic. It’s not about broadcasting noise slightly more ethically. It’s about creating new spaces entirely, where the roots of stories matter more than the spin, where the focus is on shared compost rather than hot takes, where people and community are producers, and where signal isn’t just a flash, but a ongoing process.
The current state of the web, especially under the domination of the #dotcons, is colonized communication. It rewards (stupid)individualism, immediacy, virality. It buries context, nuance, history. It’s a structure that #blocks liberation because it’s built to sell alienation back to us, one like or scroll, on click at a time.
Even the current #openweb reboot, for all its potential, reproduces these patterns, because we carry them with us. We don’t just need alternatives in name, we need alternative cultures, processes, and values. We need to compost the mess, the #techshit, and grow new paths from the decay. That’s what the #OMN is seeded to do.
But let’s be honest, we’re not there yet. And we won’t get there unless we start collectively focusing on building signal, not just yelling about the noise. The tools need to be #KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), the governance needs to be transparent, trust-based, and the tech has to get out of the way, not be the centre. This requires stepping away from the #geekproblem, the cult of control, complexity, and abstraction, and towards living, messy, grassroots cultures that prioritize access, action, and accountability.
The mainstream is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. That collapse is not the revolution. What grows next is.
#OMN #OGB #4opens #openweb #geekproblem #deathcult #nothingnew #buildalternatives #grassroots #trustbasedgovernance
There’s a “normal” dangerous illusion still clinging to liberal democracies: that we’re in a time of political turbulence, but the foundations remain intact. That, somehow, we’ll “course correct.” But this need to be seen as blinded thinking.
What is obvious is that we’re actually experiencing is regime change, not in some distant land, but right here in the West. And it’s not coming from tanks or coups, but through the ballot box, boardrooms, social media algorithms, and #NGO “common sense”. It’s a sometimes hard sometimes soft, systemic shift rightward, authoritarian, nationalistic, and wrapped in the aesthetics of democracy.
From the U.S. to the UK, the EU to Australia, this right-on-right push is becoming the new normal. Neoliberal “centrism” no longer holds the centre, it’s morphing, accommodating and enabling hard-right politics, law-and-order, border control, national identity, anti-progress, pro-surveillance, anti-labour. This is the #deathcult adapting to survive.
The #mainstreaming left is either co-opted, defanged, or fragmented. The radical left, where it exists, is distracted, performative, and lost in a fog of internal squabbles. Meanwhile, the far-right is disciplined, funded, and in motion. They’re winning not just in elections, but in narrative, shaping what is possible, what is sayable, and what is unthinkable.
The mainstream was never a neutral space, it’s a battleground, and we are losing it. Every time we dismiss a new policy as “just politics,” or think this is just another swing of the pendulum, we miss the simple truth that a new regime is consolidating, one that sees rights, justice, and truth as obstacles, not goals.
We need to name this clearly. We need to organize outside the institutions, because those institutions were never neutral. The work is not just advocacy or lobbying, it’s resistance and reconstruction. We need to rebuild from the bottom up. Projects like the #OGB, the #OMN, and a rebooted #Indymedia are small seeds. But they matter. Because if we don’t grow our own ecosystems, we’ll be forced to live under theirs.
This is not alarmism. It’s the world as it is. Let’s not wait for the full lock-in before we act, please.
#regimechange #rightshift #geekproblem #openweb #deathcult #grassroots #buildalternatives #OGB #OMN
Our history of involvement in #EU digital outreach and policy meetings has made one thing starkly clear, our #openweb is deeply entangled in the process of #mainstreaming, a messy, often co-optive dynamic where grassroots voices are softened, diluted, and redirected into bureaucracy, then in the end they are simply #blocked. Yes, while there is value in taking part, it’s also a wake-up call.
The push to shape digital paths from above is strong. But without active grassroots alternatives, there will be no balance that is needed. The building of a so-called “commons” is reshaped to fit into #NGO boxes, filled with #dotcons-friendly language, and stripped of any radical potential. This is why our #openweb projects now matter more than ever.
At the heart of this approach must be #KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) in both technology and user experience. We don’t need more convoluted tools or platforms weighed down by geek prestige. We need simple, effective frameworks and networks that allow users-as-producers to build the social complexity on their own terms. Complexity should come from people, not code.
And this brings us to the elephant in the room, the #geekproblem. Our own grassroots digital spaces are still shaped by a narrow, deterministic culture that lacks wider social understanding. In the path we need to be on, we cannot code our way to liberation if the ideology behind the code is warped, and currently, it is. As we often say: all code is ideology solidified, and it has real social effects.
Right now, way too much of that ideology stems from the #deathcult, hidden behind kind words, progressive branding, and empty buzzwords. This disconnect between stated values and real-world outcomes is dangerous, and disturbingly common.
This is why we’re pushing the #OGB, an online Open Governance Body for the #fediverse and beyond. Built around the #4opens and grounded in social paths, the OGB is designed to be a real voice for grassroots communities. It’s an open project, a no-permissions outreach tool, use it if you find value in it.
We’re currently looking for funding support and collaborators, particularly developers who are attracted to this vision. If you have links, networks, or skills to offer, get in touch.
The time is urgent. The mainstreaming machine is rolling forward. Let’s compost the #techshit, reclaim our spaces, and grow better from the bottom up.
More on this: http://hamishcampbell.com
#OGB #openweb #KISS #4opens #DIY #EU #geekproblem #commons #fediverse
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The rise of #fascism and the #openweb response hamishcampbell.com/the-rise-of-... The seeds of this change and challenge are already in our hands. The question is whether we have the courage to plant them.
The rise of #fascism and the #...
The rise of #fascism and the #openweb response https://hamishcampbell.com/the-rise-of-neofascism-and-the-need-for-a-openweb-response/ The seeds of this change and challenge are already in our hands. The question is whether we have the courage to plant them.
The last 20 years of alt-tech is a graveyard of well-meaning platforms that failed because they forgot one thing, the humans. Rebooting the #openweb in a good way https://hamishcampbell.com/rebooting-the-openweb-in-a-good-way/
The last 20 years of alt-tech is a graveyard of well-meaning platforms that failed because they forgot one thing, the humans. Rebooting the #openweb in a good way hamishcampbell.com/rebooting-th...
Rebooting the #openweb in a go...
The #Fediverse exists, and more than that, it’s alive and kicking. Sure, it might be a messy, chaotic, a bit fragmented, and yes, still niche. But let’s not underplay it, this is the healthiest corners of the internet we’ve got. Tens of million accounts, hundreds of thousands active people, sometimes talking about how we build our digital spaces from the bottom up.
Yep, there are the cat videos, the #fluffys and the #spikys. But also an in-group debate is bubbling away about who speaks for the Fediverse? What defines it? Is it the standard #ActivityPub that binds us only technically? Or is the value in the community that’s formed it, the living web of relationships, servers, instances, and admins making this work day-in-day-out?
Truth is, it’s both. #activitypub without community is just code. Community without #activitypub is just another silo waiting to collapse. They are not the same, but they are inseparable. To build something real, we need to nurture both the tech and the people.
What works in the #Fediverse is decentralisation with purpose, it works because it resists centralisation. It gives people choices, want a cat picture, instance? A political instance? A hyper-local or themed space? You install and build it, and people might come. This is #DIY grassroots digital culture in motion.
Standards support this growth, #ActivityPub, like #RSS before, may not be perfect, but it’s open, extensible, and functional. It allows platforms and networks to talk to one another. This is a real #4opens foundation for collaboration, not control. That’s the kind of architecture we need in the #openweb reboot.
What doesn’t currently work: Over-reliance on hard blocking as a solution, with the common approach to problems is too often to block, users, instances, entire classes of servers like the #dotcons. While this kinda makes sense in the short term, it’s not a long-term strategy. It’s the digital equivalent of putting your head in the sand. You’re not solving the problem, you’re just not looking at it any more
This tends to feed the “Cave Mentality” where some corners of the Fediverse are in defensive mode, retreating into smaller and smaller bubbles, avoiding engagement, trying to build perfection behind walls. But hiding from the mess doesn’t clean it up. If the #openweb becomes too closed, it dies from within. Openness is a value, not just a setting.
This is in part due to a lack of collective strategy, yes we’ve got the passion. We’ve got the tools. What we’re missing is a shared direction. Too much reinventing the wheel. Too many forks without purpose. Not enough joining the dots. A thousand flowers bloom, but the garden needs tending. #nothingnew is a basic tool about this, then the use of the #4opens, we need to make the #Fediverse and every layer of the #openweb, measurably open. That means: Open Data: accessible and remixable content. Open Source: transparent and forkable codebases. Open Standards: like #ActivityPub, that let different platforms interconnect. Open Process: decision-making in public, with participation and accountability.
The #4opens framework is a guide, not to perfection, but to direction. It’s a map toward trust, decentralisation, and sustainability. On this path, we need to build culture, not just code. Healthy communities don’t just appear, they’re built. Instead of only building features, let’s also build norms. Encourage welcome messages, transparent moderation, shared spaces for discussion. Moderation is labour, support it, reward it, decentralise it.
To build community, don’t shy away from engagement. It’s tempting to block and move on. But sometimes, the hard work is worth it, call things out, talk things through, escalate when needed, but don’t disengage by default. We need active participation, not digital ghost towns. If we want the #Fediverse to grow, we need to build bridges, not walls. Let’s weave human trust networks to foster spaces that are porous, where new people can enter, learn, contribute, and stay. This is the work of social federation, which is just as important as technical federation.
There is a bigger picture if you are interested and look, the #OMN and the Open Media Network project is a vision and collective path for this kind of social architecture. It’s a federated network of media hubs, rooted in community, powered by open standards, and guided by human trust. It doesn’t seek control, it offers #KISS tools to build trust, add value, and create meaningful networks from the ground up.
On this “native” path, rather than rejecting “bad actors” by exclusion, we build systems that surface good actors through collective tagging, trusted feeds, and editorial flows. Moderation becomes a feature, not a bug. This could be a next step in a human-centric Fediverse.
Final thought, let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. The last 20 years of alt-tech is a graveyard of well-meaning platforms that failed because they forgot one thing, the humans. The #geekproblem has been building “perfect” systems with no one in them. That’s not the #openweb we want. We need less abstraction, more interaction. Less control, more cooperation. And above all, we need to recognise that openness requires work, but it also delivers freedom. So yes, the Fediverse exists. It’s healthy. But it can and needs to be more. Let’s stop hiding. Let’s start building. Together.
#Fediverse #OMN #4opens #OpenWeb #IndymediaBack #SocialTechnology #AltTech #Decentralisation #FOSS #MakeHistory #ActivityPub #OGB #SocialCoding
The #openweb can be the seedbed of a new culture, if we accept that growth is messy, slow, and unpredictable. Why are our #fashernistas so poisonous? https://hamishcampbell.com/why-are-fashernistas-so-poisoning/
Criticizing the #dotcons and pointing to #FOSS copies as a solution is a simple first step. Why grassroots hosting and the #openweb matter https://hamishcampbell.com/why-grassroots-hosting-and-the-openweb-matter/
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