#makeinghistory — Public Fediverse posts

Thinking of workshops to run at “Nodes On A Web” #NOAW unconference

https://hamishcampbell.com/thinking-of-workshops-to-run-at-nodes-on-a-web-noaw-unconference/

Thinking of workshops to run at “Nodes On A Web” #NOAW unconference

https://hamishcampbell.com/thinking-of-workshops-to-run-at-nodes-on-a-web-noaw-unconference/

Thinking of workshops to run at “Nodes On A Web” #NOAW unconference

https://hamishcampbell.com/thinking-of-workshops-to-run-at-nodes-on-a-web-noaw-unconference/

Thinking of workshops to run at “Nodes On A Web” #NOAW unconference

https://hamishcampbell.com/thinking-of-workshops-to-run-at-nodes-on-a-web-noaw-unconference/

Thinking of workshops to run at “Nodes On A Web” #NOAW unconference

https://hamishcampbell.com/thinking-of-workshops-to-run-at-nodes-on-a-web-noaw-unconference/

EU tech strategy, composting the mess

https://hamishcampbell.com/eu-tech-strategy-composting-the-mess/

Why good faith is a technical requirement for #FOSS

https://hamishcampbell.com/why-good-faith-is-a-technical-requirement-for-foss/

We fucked up… and that matters because we still have agency

https://hamishcampbell.com/we-fucked-up-and-that-matters-because-we-still-have-agency/

#makeinghistory is a lightweight, federated, peer-to-peer friendly app to collect, tag, and narrate archival material (photos, flyers, docs, audio, video). Designed for activist groups, families, and grassroots collectives to own their history and weave it into living narratives.

* Archivist (Uploader)

Scan & upload material text, (images, PDFs, audio, video).

Add minimal metadata: date, place, people, tags.

* Contributor (Family / Activist Member)

Browse archive via columns (New, Recent, Thematic).

Add/edit metadata collaboratively.

Tag items (hashtags, free text).

Add contextual notes or stories.

* Story-Builder (Narrator / Researcher)

Create “Story” views: curated sequences of items.

Add explanatory text, embed links, timelines.

* Viewer (Public)

Read “Stories” or browse public archive.

Search by tag / metadata.

Comment (if enabled) via Fediverse accounts.

Without trust and working flows, there’s no value at all, no matter how secure, encrypted, or elegant the tech stack. The #OMN with #indymediaback and #makeinghistory are paths hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-with...

The OMN with indymediaback and...

Without trust and working flows, there’s no value at all, no matter how secure, encrypted, or elegant the tech stack. The #OMN with #indymediaback and #makeinghistory are paths https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-with-indymediaback-and-makeinghistory-are-paths/

The OMN with indymediaback and makeinghistory are paths

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-with-indymediaback-and-makeinghistory-are-paths/

Real world tackling the #geekproblem

With rebooting the #openweb we run headfirst into the #geekproblem, a recurring pattern where: Technically brilliant people build powerful tools …but those tools remain socially unusable …or solve only geek problems, not the needs of actual communities. It’s not malice, often it’s idealism, but it creates a dead-end culture of endless prototypes, abandoned standards, and empty tech demos. Meanwhile, the real-world crisis deepens.The work we need is bridges building, let’s try this […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/real-world-tackling-the-geekproblem/

Rise and Fall of Grassroots #OpenWeb

To understand where the #Fediverse and the #OpenSocialWeb are heading, and how not to lose our way, we need to reflect on where we’ve come from. The history of grassroots #openweb activism offers both inspiration and hard lessons.Foundations are built by real people, social movements start local, they begin with people on the margins – those directly affected by injustice – taking action with the tools they have. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, tech projects like #Indymedia were the […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/rise-and-fall-of-grassroots-openweb/

Oxford: Going with The Flow

https://hamishcampbell.com/oxford-going-with-the-flow/

Telling Our Stories: Activist History and the Parasites of #Mainstreaming

All activist history is soaked in struggle, not just against the oppressive systems we set out to confront, but also internally, against the deep currents of sectarianism that fracture our own movements. The history of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp offers a vivid example. The colour-coded gates, yellow, red, blue, were more than navigation markers. They were flags of ideology, staking claims in this radical space, spreading stories. This was strength. It was a reflection of our […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/telling-our-stories-activist-history-and-the-parasites-of-mainstreaming/

The wall of funding silence

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-wall-of-funding-silence/

Composting the#techshit funding

https://hamishcampbell.com/composting-thetechshit-funding/

#NLnet #NGI Not surprising - think this is the nearly ten applications we have put into this fund over the last years.

"we have identified the projects we will be further investigating for the February 2025 NGI0 Commons Fund open call. I'm sorry to have to inform you that your project "Open Governance Body #OGB" (2025-02-032), "#indymediaback" (2025-02-036) and "#Makeinghistory" (2025-02-040) unfortunately were not among those selected.

Again, we are very sorry that we cannot offer you support for your good efforts. We hope you are not discouraged, and are able to secure funding elsewhere .

And do trust that we have your funding need and the outline of your project in the back of our head from now on, and so we might come back to you if an opportunity arises (unless you asked us to destroy your contact details in the application form, in which case we will do so)."

Well, let's keep applying for these native #openweb projects. But looks like the is no #mainstreaming support for alt activism tech - we have to do this our selves you can support this work here https://opencollective.com/open-media-network

Dev test work for Makinghistory application

https://hamishcampbell.com/dev-test-work-for-makinghistory-application/

The development side of #MakingHistory

Building radical alternatives is not just about ideas—it’s about infrastructure. The #makeinghistory project is grounded in the messy, often frustrating work of creating tools that actually function for real communities. We’ve spent decades watching #dotcons centralize power while open projects stumble due to lack of focus, infighting, or simply being too obscure for everyday use.

#Makinghistory means stepping outside the cycle of dead-end open-source projects that never reach real people. We need bridging solutions, funding models outside the #NGO trap, and devs who understand grassroots needs. It’s not about innovation for its own sake, it’s about making the #openweb function better as a lived alternative.

This is where the real fight is. Not in reaction, not in abstraction, but in building tools people can and will use.

What software do activists need?

https://hamishcampbell.com/what-software-do-activists-need/

Thinking about data and metadata

https://hamishcampbell.com/thinking-about-data-and-metadata/

#makinghistory an example workflow

https://hamishcampbell.com/makinghistory-an-example-workflow/

“Compost tending” the fabric of #openweb

https://hamishcampbell.com/compost-tending-the-fabric-of-openweb/

#NLnet #EU #NGI #NGIzero With the hard shift to the right in USA tech, we need to balance this, we can't keep being "nurtural" we never were, let's try to be the balance this time please with funding flows.

Have spent a lot of time over the last 5 years applying for funding for native #openweb projects, the problem seams to be that at #NLnet and the wider #EU they don't have anyone who is competent to judge #FOSS projects in this area https://hamishcampbell.com my question for this round, is, has this changed?

Acknowledgement of your proposal #Makeinghistory

Acknowledgement of your proposal #indymediaback

Acknowledgement of your proposal Open Governance Body #OGB

The web wasn’t built by solo tech geniuses, finance firms, or flashy luminaries making illusionary promises. It was built by the time, energy, and collective action of millions of grassroots people working together.

This same collective effort is what will push us into the next era of the #openweb.
For the last 20 years we’re been stuck in the closed, corporate-controlled internet of the #dotcons. This is still a shift towards a more #closedweb which is concerning—it goes against everything the web was meant to be.

If we want the #openweb path to grow, we need to embrace the #4opens as tool of collaboration and decentralisation. And by working together on "native" projects like #OMN #IndyMediaBack #OGB #makeinghistory

Application 2025-02-040 #Makeinghistory received hamishcampbell.com/application-... MakingHistory amplifies the voices of grassroots actors and create a sustainable foundation for decentralized storytelling, aligned with the wider OMN and Fediverse vision #KISS

Application 2025-02-040 Makein...

Application 2025-02-040 #Makeinghistory received https://hamishcampbell.com/application-2025-02-040-makeinghistory-received/ By nurturing a collaborative and inclusive ecosystem, MakingHistory amplifies the voices of grassroots actors and create a sustainable foundation for decentralized storytelling, aligned with the wider OMN and Fediverse vision #KISS

We need a metaphor-rich vision for planting “gardens of hope” instead of falling into the trap of fear-based ideologies, as this “trust” path offers a profound way to rethink activism. By moving away from the factory-like, large-scale approaches that dominated much of the 20th century, we can focus on advocating for small, vibrant, community-focused projects that feed not just political outcomes but the spirit and imagination of those involved. This nurturing of hope, rather than a reactionary stance based on fear, can be a powerful antidote to both right-wing and left-wing stagnation.

How to escape the “straitjacket of fear” a first step is recognizing fear-based cycles. This is currently the dominate social path of contemporary politics, both right and left operates on fear. Understanding this cycle and making it more visible is the first step toward composting this mess we live in on the #mainstreaming path. Activist movements as well do fall into reactionary patterns, continuously responding to crises rather than building positive alternatives.

There is a central role for grassroots media: Librarians, historians, and grassroots media makers are essential for documenting, archiving, and telling the stories of hope that are often forgotten. This is critical for escaping the activist memory hole. Curating and sharing the successes of past movements, we provide the building blocks for new projects. The #OMN has a project for this, #makeinghistory, a tool to create open archives, digital networks, and libraries dedicated to past and present activist movements. These archives can focus on what worked and why, so future movements can learn from them.

With these tools we can start to composting failures, particularly those based on fear, which then become the compost that nourishes future projects. Rather than seeing these failures as losses, they become resources that fertilize new growth. A practical step for this is encouraging transparency in activist circles about what didn’t work, and build spaces for reflection and critique.

Gardens instead of factories, a shift from large, impersonal systems to smaller, community-based, human-scale networks and projects. These gardens are not just metaphorical, they represent real, localized efforts to create change to challenge the current mess. Let’s focus on launching many small projects rather than one big, one path. Use tools like the #4opens to encourage unity in this diversity, experimentation at the grassroots level, where communities can grow organically and learn from each other. These “gardens” could be physical spaces, like urban farms or community centers, or they could be digital networks fostering open dialogue and collaboration. We can use technological federation to scale horizontally, as we know this works after the last 5 years of the #fediverse.

The is a core role for storytelling as nourishment, in these gardens, the stories we tell are as important as the physical outcomes. Stories inspire, sustain, and spread hope. Media bees, buzzing around and pollinating, represent the crucial role of communication in activism (#indymediaback). Let’s make storytelling central to every project. Whether through podcasts, blogs, social media, or video, ensure that every small success is documented and shared. This is basic linking to spread a culture of hope.

Pests as balance, just as gardens need a balance of insects and pests, movements need their challenges to stay healthy. This means embracing the struggles and pushback that inevitably comes, without letting them derail the movement. Accept conflict as part of the process. Instead of viewing internal or external challenges as wholly negative, see them as opportunities to strengthen the movement and build its resilience.

Planting 100s of gardens, rather than trying to create one monolithic left-wing solution, advocate for planting hundreds of small projects. This is a native path to build a body of knolage, myths, traditions and lessons about what works and what doesn’t. This decentralized approach aligns with the creation of affinity groups and grassroots organizing. Let’s focus on diversity in both method and scale. Some might be focused on local food production, others on tech solutions, media, or community care. The key is to document and share what works in each context. So we can start to build the common bridges that we need to hold us together during the onrush crises.

This strategy avoids the trap of overwhelming scale that can easily lead to burnout or co-option by #mainstreaming forces. The goal is not domination but the cultivation of many efforts that, collectively, lead to significant change. This approach is more sustainable, more adaptable, and more rooted in human connections and hope.

https://hamishcampbell.com/not-domination-the-cultivation-of-many-efforts-collectively-lead-to-significant-change/

#4opens #fediverse #indymediaback #mainstreaming #makeinghistory #OMN

https://freefediverse.org/index.php/Essays A useful historical flow, we need #makeinghistory in our movements or your "creativity" is dust for composting.

The patriarchs of the early #openweb

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-patriarchs-of-the-early-openweb/

A lot of our public discourse has reached the stage where it might be worth thinking about it as a mental health issue, and that after the “common sense” worshipping of the #deathcult for 40 years, this becomes escalating hard to mediate. This post is about a summing up of this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/foss/comments/1e5vhif/crisis_of_governance_in_foss_medieval_politics/ on Reddit where I posted the text of one of a blog posts on #FOSS and the need to move away from medieval governance.

The is very little if any constructive dialogue, instead we have #blocking, simply ignoring, participants selectively address certain points while neglecting others. This creates an incomplete dialogue and fails to engage with the actual scope of the argument. Example: If someone ignores the historical context and current challenges within FOSS governance structures, they miss why the proposed changes are necessary. Belittling involves dismissing or undermining arguments or concerns, which shuts down dialogue and discourage participation. Example: Dismissing the discussion of governance in FOSS as “unreadable” or “spammy” without engaging with the substance or argument. Nitpicking, focusing on minor details and errors rather than engaging with the main points, derails the conversation and prevent meaningful discussion. Example: focusing on correcting typos or minor factual errors without addressing the argument for the need for governance changes in FOSS projects. StrawMan, misrepresenting the argument to make it easier to attack, distorts the discussion and leads to unproductive debate. Example: Suggesting that advocating for more structured governance in FOSS is equivalent to demanding strict corporate-like control, which misrepresents the argument for more democratic and community-driven governance.

Reasons for these messy behaviours: Ideological Differences: People have strong beliefs about what is “common sense” and react defensively to suggestions that change/challenge this. This misunderstanding grows the lack of understanding of the historical context and the specifics of the proposed changes that feedbacks misinformed critiques that that keeps building resistance to change. Yes, change is uncomfortable, and people resist it by dismissing or undermining new paths, ideas please? Communication Style: The style of communication can be off-putting and confusing for in and out groups, leading to reactions that focus on form rather than addressing any substance.

Why this matters: There is a crisis of governance in #FOSS, Aristocratic Hierarchies and Monarchical Leadership pushes the concentration of power among a few maintainers and leaders, this lowers community building and buy in. Medieval Governance structures are medieval political systems, It’s obviously unfit for the modern world, let’s look at why we have this mess: #Neoliberal individualism and its failures, #stupidindividualism breeds the focus on individualism, which undermines collaboration and community-driven efforts in FOSS. This fixation with market-driven development rather than community needs result on one hand in less innovative and user-friendly software, and on the other in #dotcons control and exploitation. Feeding the #techchurn and #geekproblem insular and exclusionary culture.

Addressing issues of ignoring, belittling, nitpicking, and straw man arguments push back productive dialogue. Solutions to this current path, democratizing decision-making, the path of transparent and inclusive governance models like the #OGB to build community-concentric approaches, like #indymediaback and #makeinghistory. To make this work, let’s try shifting to focus on to community needs over individuals ambition and market demands. Cultivate an inclusive culture that values diverse perspectives and considers different social, cultural, and economic paths.

https://hamishcampbell.com/bad-conversations-in-foss-and-tech/

#blocking #deathcult #dotcons #FOSS #geekproblem #indymediaback #makeinghistory #neoliberal #OGB #stupidindividualism #techchurn

Historically, #mainstreaming politics has a tendency to shift to the right during times of crisis

https://hamishcampbell.com/historically-mainstream-politics-has-exhibited-a-tendency-to-shift-towards-the-right-during-times-of-crisis/

User Story #makeinghistory

https://hamishcampbell.com/user-story-makeinghistory/