Composting the#techshit funding
Not surprised. This is probably the 10th time we've applied to the #NLnet / #NGI fund over the years. Just heard back: our proposals for #OGB (Open Governance Body), #indymediaback, and #MakeingHistory were not selected - again. “We are very sorry that we cannot offer you support for your good efforts.” Sure, I, appreciate the polite brush-off again. But after so many rejections for solid, urgently needed tech projects that actually fit the funding goals, it's time to name what's […]#techshit
A look at a narrow point of view
The essence of the #geekproblem is its narrow, self-referential logic. Here's a #spiky, clear and pointed way to show this in a prody way. This is about the narrow track of thinking that defines the #geekproblem in the context of an #openweb reboot: “There is no Emperor, King, or Priest in the Fediverse’s feudalism.” The illusion is that it's all flat - no power structures, just pure meritocracy. If you're already a priest or acolyte, there's no need to ask. You just do: Want a new […]https://hamishcampbell.com/a-look-at-a-narrow-point-of-view/
In the hard right path, the #nastyfew are playing the Nazi card
DRAFT In the right-wing path, the #nastyfew are starting to play the Nazi card as mess making to mix social shit - the recurring claim that Nazism was a left-wing movement, or at least contains left-wing elements as a provocative and controversial statement. Let's take a few minutes to look at the core mess pushing argument (and Its confusion) Hard right talking points: It's still “an open question” whether Hitler’s ideology was left or right. Nazis called themselves “National […]https://hamishcampbell.com/in-the-hard-right-path-the-nastyfew-are-playing-the-nazi-card/
We compost lies to build #4opens, rooted, local, horizontal networks of resistance and renewal
We are now past the point where the #mainstreaming crew have effectively given up on mediating #climatechaos. What we’re seeing now is ONLY the performance of action - flashy, expensive, technocratic distraction designed to keep business-as-usual afloat a little longer. It’s no not about preventing catastrophe, or even mediating catastrophe, what we have now is managed #PR and keeping in place elitist continuity as this small #nastyfew and their sycophants visibly retreat from the […]Composting the fiendly enemy
The #mainstreaming of the #Fediverse is happening. You can see it in many "progressive" info flows, where the chattering classes of tech - academics, #NGO staffers, consultants, and developers with foundations or startup ties - gather to shape the narrative. On the surface, this looks like success: the native grassroots #openweb is being taken seriously. But look a little deeper, and the cracks start to show. These are the #friendlyenemy - people who share some values, but whose […]What we need is useful compost layer’s for growing native projects
DRAFT The #OMN perspective is that most of what we call “green technology” under #mainstreaming and #fashernista narratives is not ecological in substance, but rather a social performance of environmentalism, pushing lies of omission and distortion. Let’s use the #4opens, #geekproblem, and broader #openweb path as a way of looking at this mess. The mess: “green” as branding, not substance Most #mainstreaming “green” technology - electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, wind […]https://hamishcampbell.com/what-we-need-is-useful-compost-layers-for-growing-native-projects/
Enclosure of the openweb
DRAFT This spirit of the early anarchist inspired internet and #WWW - sharing, remixing, collectively creating - is the heart of what we once called the #openweb. It wasn't perfect, but it was a space of possibilities, commons, where you could take what you needed and leave something behind, hyperlink by hyperlink. The tools were open - #RSS feeds, #APIs, #XMPP, #indymedia were built to bridge between ideas, not walls of monetized algorithmic sludge we have today. But the #dotcons came. […]
Ignore the #AI Mess, Build the #OMN – There Is a Path
Yes, I read the post. And yes, the despair is real. The #openweb is being bulldozed by #GenerativeAI like a forest clear-cut by machines driven not by need, but by greed, profit and power for the #nsatyfew. Yes, the #deathcult of techno-capitalism is running its script to the bitter and dead-end. And yes, I too wonder if we’ll survive this, but as you say we have a path, and it’s not new. It’s simple, it’s human, and it’s working. It’s called the #Fediverse and the next step is […]https://hamishcampbell.com/ignore-the-ai-mess-build-the-omn-there-is-a-path/
This site is full of stories https://hamishcampbell.com/stories/ Personal anecdotes and metaphors convey points to make the posts accessible and relatable, to help compost “#techshit” into fertile ground for new ideas and social change.
@Wtebbens there is a lot of mess and #techshit to compost, lots to do https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=compost
And positive alternatives to build https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=openweb
Without discomfort, we won’t challenge the roots of the system we’re still living inside
A core problem we’ve inherited from the last ten years of corporate social media, the #dotcons, is the toxic confusion of the personal and the public. Platforms like #Facebook and #Twitter blurred the lines between private conversation and public broadcasting, monetizing both as if they were the same. That mess wasn’t accidental; it was profitable. Unfortunately, we’ve reproduced this mess on the #Fediverse without properly composting it first. What does that mean? We’ve taken this […]Our liberals talking about the death of #postmodernism
https://youtu.be/B_q1RemGq3E?si=JKovTWlAXwuSysrT From decades of real-world experience - especially in activism - I've found that self-professed #Postmodernists and Western #Buddhists have been some of the most useless and damaging people I've worked with. Not an exaggeration: I could probably count the genuinely good ones on one hand. This isn't bitterness. It’s about composting a mess that has rotted for too long. Important: This isn’t a call to lurch into the collapsing right-wing […]https://hamishcampbell.com/our-liberals-talking-about-the-death-of-postmodernism/
In tech, the last 20 years have been a mess of #fashernista trends and the ongoing #geekproblem, a compost heap of broken promises and abandoned projects. It's obvious if you lift the lid and really look. The glossy hype fades fast, the rot underneath remains.
Much of what we call "innovation" ended up as #techshit - rushed, bloated, short-sighted code that needs serious composting if we’re going to grow anything real. #Openweb dreams have been buried under a #dotcons landfill.
The real challenge now isn’t just pointing at the pile (fun as that can be), it's handing the next generation proper shovels - real tools, real critical thinking, real spaces for building rooted, resilient, open tech.
A hopeful note: some #fashernistas are starting to apologize and acknowledge the mess. That's good compost material too. Let's keep composting. Let's keep planting.
We stopped critiquing. We stopped questioning. We let the rot build up, hoping it would turn into something useful on its own. Instead, we got layers of #techshit, digital infrastructure that isolates instead of connects, surveillance wrapped in UX design, and a generation seduced by #stupidindividualism on the #dotcons. Tech became the default priesthood, and any challenge to its orthodoxy was treated as luddite heresy. Meanwhile, real mutual aid got rebranded as tip jars and GoFundMe links, stripped of its radical solidarity. We’ve been too afraid to call this out, too fragmented to organize, too polite to fight. Well, fuck polite. It's time to get messy.
Messy language feeds back into our culture
The #blocking of current action, the constant stalls, confusion, and fragmentation, has a lot to do with the mess our language makes. And the deeper issue is how this messy language feeds back into our culture, which then loops back to make the language even murkier. It’s a feedback loop that clouds meaning, erodes trust, and paralyses collective action. The last 40 years of postmodernism and neo-liberalism have made this worse. #Postmodernism chipped away at the idea of shared reality, […]https://hamishcampbell.com/messy-language-feeds-back-into-our-culture/
Finding a path in a messy world
Let’s get this out of the way, most new tech projects are pointless. That’s not an insult, it’s a cultural symptom. People are pushing things not because they’re useful, but because they can. And when every shovel is used to dig holes in sand, we’re not building anything, we’re flailing. From this experience, let’s build culture, not just code, because here's the hard truth, we’re losing the reboot of the #openweb by failing to nurture it. Yes, #mainstreaming people are […]The #OMN is not a product — It’s a path you walk
The #OMN project is #DIY, it only works if we build it together. This isn’t a startup pitch. It’s not a platform that magically appears out of nowhere to fix everything. It’s not a product to consume, it’s a path you walk. The direction is participatory, not passive. You don’t get to sit back and clap… or boo from the sidelines. If you do, the system won’t collapse, but it sure as hell won’t grow. Let’s be direct, there is no saviour coder, no NGO white knight, no […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-is-not-a-product-its-a-path-you-walk/
The #OMN project is #DIY, it only works if communities of people actually build it. This isn’t a path of passive consumption; it’s a participatory direction. If people choose to sit on their hands, or act the prat and critique from the sidelines, the system doesn’t collapse… but it doesn’t grow either.
That said, even if the building doesn’t happen right away, there’s still deep value in the memory, the documents, the ideas, the patterns. It’s compost for future builders. If we can’t get our act together now, the next group will dig it up, learn from it, and build better.
Right now, for me, #makinghistory archiving project is a still-doable foundation, a living memory layer that gives us something solid to stand on. Without memory, we spin in circles around the same old #techshit heap, repeating mistakes, retelling the same half-lost stories, and falling into the same traps. That’s not progress, it’s rot.
We’re now working on bootstrapping this archive project as the first step. If we don’t remember soon, many of us, and our histories, will be lost in the storm of #climatechaos. In the end, if we don’t build, we don’t change.
@rooftopjaxx @hamishcampbell @MediaActivist
Ah, the cockerel crows and the full moon glows, a fine moment to scratch at the compost pile.
You’re right, most are merrily skipping through walled gardens, hashtagging selfies and feeding the #dotcons. But seeds don’t need mass attention, they just do need rich compost. That’s what we need to build. Slow, damp, a bit smelly, but fertile.
The #sheeple and not my flock, they belong to the algorithmic shepherds. We’re feeding the stray goats and curious crows.
You don’t convert people by preaching. You do it by making better paths, ones they choose when the old ones crumble. We don’t sell the #openweb like snake oil — we show it, live in it, fix it when it breaks, and compost the crap. It’s #DIY, not #drm
As for silos and skips, good compost needs oxygen, not airtight boxes. So yeah, a messy open pile — full of half-rotten ideas, posts, drama, even the occasional troll turd.
We trust in tools not gatekeepers, the #4opens are the shovels, rakes, and sieves. The people bring the scraps, and over time, it breaks down into something usable.
No army of mods, no paywalls, simple trust, process, and a lot of patience. Think rural anarchism, not startup governance.
On scaling... Ah, the eternal #techshit question, "Does it scale?" That’s the wrong frame. Nature doesn’t scale, it sprawls.
We’re not building an empire. We’re nurturing a network. Think mycelium, not megastructure.
The #OMN isn’t about numbers. It’s about resilience and agency. If it sprouts in some cracks, the monoculture breaks. And yes, nettles welcome
The #Kolektivas, the #fashernista paradoxes, the semi-anarchic infighting, it all goes in the pile. Break it down, stir it up, give it time…
And what do you get? Fluffy, fertile humus — ready for new growth. That’s the cycle. That’s the plan.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/european-industry-big-win-germany-france-both-support-sovereign-eu-based-tech-infrastructure/ Now we need clear thinking and process not to tern this into #fahernista #techshit, how not to simply poor the resources down the drain. One some part of this is affective grassroots atavism to compost the mess as it spreads from the centre, to feed the seedling that do sprout. https://hamishcampbell.com/?s=EU+funding
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