#open-web — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #open-web, aggregated by home.social.
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"Wikipedia is in peril.
In a world where trust in truth is crumbling, the grande dame of collective online fact-gathering is under threat on every front.
The MAGA right, with Elon Musk at the fore, is slinging accusations of political bias and antisemitism and has even questioned the site’s nonprofit status. Artificial intelligence is raiding the encyclopedia’s resources and draining attention. Repressive governments have hauled its volunteer editors into penal colonies.In Wikipedia’s 25-year history, it has never had to fight this hard.
The organization that supports the site, the Wikimedia Foundation, is increasing its lobbying budget and advertising in Times Square. It is charging companies like Google and Meta that gobble up the encyclopedia’s 65 million articles, and throttling access for certain scrapers. And it is expanding its human rights team to better protect volunteers against rising harassment, surveillance and retaliation.For an organization that holds neutrality as a cardinal rule, it is a lot of conflict, requiring Wikimedia to go on the offensive — diplomatically, of course.
So it found a diplomat: Bernadette Meehan, 50, became Wikimedia’s chief executive in January, after stints as the U.S. ambassador to Chile and at the Obama Foundation, at the State Department, at the National Security Council and on Wall Street.
In a career full of high-wire acts — helping to negotiate nuclear deals with Iran, facilitating talks with Cuba — being the custodian of one of the world’s 10 most visited websites could be Ms. Meehan’s trickiest task. The trilingual former public servant is the first with her background in the Wikimedia job, succeeding mostly women from fields like law, journalism and Planned Parenthood.
Ms. Meehan will not say Wikipedia is at war — not after she spent much of 2007 in Iraq, in an actual war zone where she witnessed “the supreme cruelty of human beings.”"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/business/media/wikipedia-ai-elon-musk.html -
"Wikipedia is in peril.
In a world where trust in truth is crumbling, the grande dame of collective online fact-gathering is under threat on every front.
The MAGA right, with Elon Musk at the fore, is slinging accusations of political bias and antisemitism and has even questioned the site’s nonprofit status. Artificial intelligence is raiding the encyclopedia’s resources and draining attention. Repressive governments have hauled its volunteer editors into penal colonies.In Wikipedia’s 25-year history, it has never had to fight this hard.
The organization that supports the site, the Wikimedia Foundation, is increasing its lobbying budget and advertising in Times Square. It is charging companies like Google and Meta that gobble up the encyclopedia’s 65 million articles, and throttling access for certain scrapers. And it is expanding its human rights team to better protect volunteers against rising harassment, surveillance and retaliation.For an organization that holds neutrality as a cardinal rule, it is a lot of conflict, requiring Wikimedia to go on the offensive — diplomatically, of course.
So it found a diplomat: Bernadette Meehan, 50, became Wikimedia’s chief executive in January, after stints as the U.S. ambassador to Chile and at the Obama Foundation, at the State Department, at the National Security Council and on Wall Street.
In a career full of high-wire acts — helping to negotiate nuclear deals with Iran, facilitating talks with Cuba — being the custodian of one of the world’s 10 most visited websites could be Ms. Meehan’s trickiest task. The trilingual former public servant is the first with her background in the Wikimedia job, succeeding mostly women from fields like law, journalism and Planned Parenthood.
Ms. Meehan will not say Wikipedia is at war — not after she spent much of 2007 in Iraq, in an actual war zone where she witnessed “the supreme cruelty of human beings.”"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/business/media/wikipedia-ai-elon-musk.html -
This week, we cover the writing layer of the fediverse: Ghost, WriteFreely, Micro.blog, Plume, WordPress, and Flipboard. Text was ActivityPub's first real workload, but these platforms didn't all arrive at federation the same way.
Ghost: a UK non-profit that funds Fedify (by @hongminhee) the framework its federation is built on. it's a publisher and a fediverse client at once, with an inbox as well as an outbox. Our newsletter is also powered by it, so @index is followable from any Mastodon app right now.
WriteFreely: one primary maintainer, Matt Baer (@matt), roughly 1,400 of 1,900+ commits, going since 2015. Funded by his own hosted product, Write.as.
Micro.blog: a Kickstarter By Manton Reese (@manton) that funded the platform before it had a single user. POSSE, native ActivityPub, and native Bluesky, no bridge.
Plume: a simple platform that also supported collaborative multi-author blogs. But no longer actively developed - it recommends WriteFreely and WordPress instead of itself.
WordPress: built-in ActivityPub (using plugin by Matthias Pfefferle - @pfefferle) plus a native AT Protocol plugin and real moderation tooling.
Flipboard: curating other people's writing rather than hosting its own.
Part 3 of the "Fediverse Beyond Mastodon" series.
#Fediverse #ActivityPub #Ghost #WriteFreely #MicroBlog #WordPress #OpenWeb #Blogging
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This week, we cover the writing layer of the fediverse: Ghost, WriteFreely, Micro.blog, Plume, WordPress, and Flipboard. Text was ActivityPub's first real workload, but these platforms didn't all arrive at federation the same way.
Ghost: a UK non-profit that funds Fedify (by @hongminhee) the framework its federation is built on. it's a publisher and a fediverse client at once, with an inbox as well as an outbox. Our newsletter is also powered by it, so @index is followable from any Mastodon app right now.
WriteFreely: one primary maintainer, Matt Baer (@matt), roughly 1,400 of 1,900+ commits, going since 2015. Funded by his own hosted product, Write.as.
Micro.blog: a Kickstarter By Manton Reese (@manton) that funded the platform before it had a single user. POSSE, native ActivityPub, and native Bluesky, no bridge.
Plume: a simple platform that also supported collaborative multi-author blogs. But no longer actively developed - it recommends WriteFreely and WordPress instead of itself.
WordPress: built-in ActivityPub (using plugin by Matthias Pfefferle - @pfefferle) plus a native AT Protocol plugin and real moderation tooling.
Flipboard: curating other people's writing rather than hosting its own.
Part 3 of the "Fediverse Beyond Mastodon" series.
#Fediverse #ActivityPub #Ghost #WriteFreely #MicroBlog #WordPress #OpenWeb #Blogging
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Eulogies for @belghast keep coming in, but that's not all you'll find in today's #DailyBlogroll from @wilhelm_arcturus, @davew, @nicole, @Blockade85, Luna, @rogeredwards, Bhagpuss, @brennanbrown, @monsterladysdiary.com and more!
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Eulogies for @belghast keep coming in, but that's not all you'll find in today's #DailyBlogroll from @wilhelm_arcturus, @davew, @nicole, @Blockade85, Luna, @rogeredwards, Bhagpuss, @brennanbrown, @monsterladysdiary.com and more!
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There’s an idea on the “fluffy” left that we must be nice to bring people into social change. There’s an idea on the “spiky” left that we need to be sharp and confront power directly to be effective.
Both contain truth. The balance is what matters. The clear failure is spending too much energy on the left fighting itself over this balance instead of focusing outward.
#BLOCKING #stupidindividualism and worship of the #deathcult all feed this internal division - don’t get stuck in it.
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There’s an idea on the “fluffy” left that we must be nice to bring people into social change. There’s an idea on the “spiky” left that we need to be sharp and confront power directly to be effective.
Both contain truth. The balance is what matters. The clear failure is spending too much energy on the left fighting itself over this balance instead of focusing outward.
#BLOCKING #stupidindividualism and worship of the #deathcult all feed this internal division - don’t get stuck in it.
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On the #geekproblem, here's one way to think about it:
This century, code is power. Coders play a role a bit like economists did in the last century - they shape the systems we live in.
But user-facing code only has power if people can and want to use it. Without good #UX, it's just #techchurn waiting to be composted.
Too many of our grassroots geeks still #BLOCK this reality, while #dotcons geeks turn good UX into a tool for serving the #deathcult.
As grassroots #DIY #openweb activists, one of our biggest jobs is to #unblock our geeks.
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On the #geekproblem, here's one way to think about it:
This century, code is power. Coders play a role a bit like economists did in the last century - they shape the systems we live in.
But user-facing code only has power if people can and want to use it. Without good #UX, it's just #techchurn waiting to be composted.
Too many of our grassroots geeks still #BLOCK this reality, while #dotcons geeks turn good UX into a tool for serving the #deathcult.
As grassroots #DIY #openweb activists, one of our biggest jobs is to #unblock our geeks.
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We're living inside a full-blown #blinded ideology: 40 years of #neoliberalism layered onto the liberal consensus. That's a powerful #BLOCK on imagining different futures.
One way to push back is to name today's "common sense" for what it is: worship of the #deathcult.
On the grassroots tech path keep it simple: #openweb vs #closedweb. Use the #4opens to judge and compost #techcrap instead of feeding the #techchurn.
Shared #hashtags are simple organising tools.
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We're living inside a full-blown #blinded ideology: 40 years of #neoliberalism layered onto the liberal consensus. That's a powerful #BLOCK on imagining different futures.
One way to push back is to name today's "common sense" for what it is: worship of the #deathcult.
On the grassroots tech path keep it simple: #openweb vs #closedweb. Use the #4opens to judge and compost #techcrap instead of feeding the #techchurn.
Shared #hashtags are simple organising tools.
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The #Fediverse is an accidental #openweb reboot, largely grown by #fashernistas. It's like herding cats to get anything done - neither good nor bad, just the reality of how it evolved.
One path beyond this mess is #OGB: grassroots, #DIY producer governance.
The other is simply to live (and die) with the mess while trying to stop people bowing to the #deathcult. Keeping the #openweb alive starts there.
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The #Fediverse is an accidental #openweb reboot, largely grown by #fashernistas. It's like herding cats to get anything done - neither good nor bad, just the reality of how it evolved.
One path beyond this mess is #OGB: grassroots, #DIY producer governance.
The other is simply to live (and die) with the mess while trying to stop people bowing to the #deathcult. Keeping the #openweb alive starts there.
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It should surprise no one that #mainstreaming institutions like the #EU struggle to imagine paths beyond the current mess. But they do have power and resources, so even a small shift toward genuinely useful work can have real impact.
The challenge is getting them to look away from the #deathcult long enough to support alternatives, We also have our own #geekproblem to overcome. That's the harder part. Ideas matter, but so do resources.
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It should surprise no one that #mainstreaming institutions like the #EU struggle to imagine paths beyond the current mess. But they do have power and resources, so even a small shift toward genuinely useful work can have real impact.
The challenge is getting them to look away from the #deathcult long enough to support alternatives, We also have our own #geekproblem to overcome. That's the harder part. Ideas matter, but so do resources.
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"In-group vs out-group" game many #fashernistas play to feel a sense of control and belonging. Sometimes it's useful. Too often it becomes #blocking instead of building.
On the #Fediverse, this tribalism creates more heat than light. The interesting question isn't how to pick a side - it's how to grow beyond the behaviour.
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"In-group vs out-group" game many #fashernistas play to feel a sense of control and belonging. Sometimes it's useful. Too often it becomes #blocking instead of building.
On the #Fediverse, this tribalism creates more heat than light. The interesting question isn't how to pick a side - it's how to grow beyond the behaviour.
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Mozilla published a Firefox roadmap outlining upcoming privacy, productivity, AI, and performance features as the browser continues losing market share. 🦊📋
Planned updates include mobile VPN, customizable shortcuts, HDR support, and optional AI tools designed to keep users in control. 🔐⚙️🔗 https://www.techspot.com/news/112803-firefox-has-ambitious-new-roadmap-browser-also-losing.html
#TechNews #Firefox #Mozilla #OpenSource #Privacy #WebBrowser #HDR #FOSS #Browser #Browsers #Performance #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #OpenWeb #Linux #VPN
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Mozilla published a Firefox roadmap outlining upcoming privacy, productivity, AI, and performance features as the browser continues losing market share. 🦊📋
Planned updates include mobile VPN, customizable shortcuts, HDR support, and optional AI tools designed to keep users in control. 🔐⚙️🔗 https://www.techspot.com/news/112803-firefox-has-ambitious-new-roadmap-browser-also-losing.html
#TechNews #Firefox #Mozilla #OpenSource #Privacy #WebBrowser #HDR #FOSS #Browser #Browsers #Performance #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #OpenWeb #Linux #VPN
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Google is testing a webcam-based reCAPTCHA that maps 21 hand landmarks for human verification, though the limited trial was quickly bypassed. ✋📷
Google says recordings are deleted after verification, while privacy questions remain and Private Access Control Tokens are proposed as an alternative. 🔐🌐#TechNews #Google #reCAPTCHA #Privacy #Biometrics #CyberSecurity #WebSecurity #OpenWeb #Technology #Authentication #Browser #AI #DigitalRights #FOSS
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Google is testing a webcam-based reCAPTCHA that maps 21 hand landmarks for human verification, though the limited trial was quickly bypassed. ✋📷
Google says recordings are deleted after verification, while privacy questions remain and Private Access Control Tokens are proposed as an alternative. 🔐🌐#TechNews #Google #reCAPTCHA #Privacy #Biometrics #CyberSecurity #WebSecurity #OpenWeb #Technology #Authentication #Browser #AI #DigitalRights #FOSS
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Which Nature Are We Growing?
Today I was half joke about ducks and geese, but there's something underneath the joke if you lift the lid. After Darwin, many nineteenth-century elitists became fascinated with cataloguing nature. Too often, though, they also saw their own society reflected back at them. Hierarchy, competition, borders and domination weren't simply political arrangements any more, they were presented as "natural laws". Social Darwinism grew out of this way of thinking, using selective readings of nature to […] -
Happy Sunday! Today's #DailyBlogroll features stories by Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Cliffski, Joar, Aywren, Wes, Shintar, Warner, Tobold, @[email protected], Thomas, David and more!
westkarana.xyz
#Blogging #MMORPG #OpenWeb #ArtificialIntelligence -
Happy Sunday! Today's #DailyBlogroll features stories by Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Cliffski, Joar, Aywren, Wes, Shintar, Warner, Tobold, @[email protected], Thomas, David and more!
westkarana.xyz
#Blogging #MMORPG #OpenWeb #ArtificialIntelligence -
Happy Sunday! Today's #DailyBlogroll features stories by @davew, @wilhelm_arcturus, Cliffski, @Joar, @Aywren, Wes Fenlon, @WarnerCrocker, @zarfeblong and more!
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Happy Sunday! Today's #DailyBlogroll features stories by @davew, @wilhelm_arcturus, Cliffski, @Joar, @Aywren, Wes Fenlon, @WarnerCrocker, @zarfeblong and more!
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This is a pattern well beyond #Oxfordboaters it’s visible across the #openweb, activist organising, and politics generally. #StupidIndividualism: How We End Up Fighting Over Nothing https://hamishcampbell.com/stupid-individualism-how-we-end-up-fighting-over-nothing/
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This is a pattern well beyond #Oxfordboaters it’s visible across the #openweb, activist organising, and politics generally. #StupidIndividualism: How We End Up Fighting Over Nothing https://hamishcampbell.com/stupid-individualism-how-we-end-up-fighting-over-nothing/
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Stupid Individualism: How We End Up Fighting Over Nothing
One of the biggest problems we face isn't technology, politics or even money. It's #stupidindividualism. By this I don't mean individual freedom, freedom matters. I mean the habit of seeing every issue only through "my" immediate circumstances, with no memory of how we got here and no thought for the wider community. A small example from Oxford boaters illustrates this perfectly. The generator argument - A discussion recently started about extending generator hours beyond the long-standing […]https://hamishcampbell.com/stupid-individualism-how-we-end-up-fighting-over-nothing/
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Stupid Individualism: How We End Up Fighting Over Nothing
One of the biggest problems we face isn't technology, politics or even money. It's #stupidindividualism. By this I don't mean individual freedom, freedom matters. I mean the habit of seeing every issue only through "my" immediate circumstances, with no memory of how we got here and no thought for the wider community. A small example from Oxford boaters illustrates this perfectly. The generator argument - A discussion recently started about extending generator hours beyond the long-standing […]https://hamishcampbell.com/stupid-individualism-how-we-end-up-fighting-over-nothing/
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The #4opens are practical tools for building grassroots collaboration.
Open Data → share knowledge.
Open Source → share code.
Open Standards → make projects work together.
Open Process → build trust through transparency.The result? Less duplicated effort, more interoperability, stronger communities, and shared learning. A common path that helps projects recognise each other, collaborate, and grow outside closed corporate #dotcons platforms.
The #4opens build the trust and shared values we need to create a resilient #openweb.
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The #4opens are practical tools for building grassroots collaboration.
Open Data → share knowledge.
Open Source → share code.
Open Standards → make projects work together.
Open Process → build trust through transparency.The result? Less duplicated effort, more interoperability, stronger communities, and shared learning. A common path that helps projects recognise each other, collaborate, and grow outside closed corporate #dotcons platforms.
The #4opens build the trust and shared values we need to create a resilient #openweb.
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Things are accelerating. From the global lurch toward authoritarianism to deepening #climatechaos, it's understandable to feel overwhelmed.
The answer isn't trying to fix everything. It's staying grounded and building the social and technical infrastructure that can hold the line, nurture trust, and grow what's needed.
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Things are accelerating. From the global lurch toward authoritarianism to deepening #climatechaos, it's understandable to feel overwhelmed.
The answer isn't trying to fix everything. It's staying grounded and building the social and technical infrastructure that can hold the line, nurture trust, and grow what's needed.
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There’s a lot of pointlessness in the world. Open up any space and it tends to flood in.
Meanwhile, what we call “meaning” is often just noise that holds for a moment before it fades.
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There’s a lot of pointlessness in the world. Open up any space and it tends to flood in.
Meanwhile, what we call “meaning” is often just noise that holds for a moment before it fades.
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If you see the political spectrum as a question of social instincts, the right tends towards fear and control, while the left tends towards trust and openness.
Which makes you wonder... where is the "left" in mainstream US politics?
Maybe the debate is happening inside a much narrower space than people like to admit.
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If you see the political spectrum as a question of social instincts, the right tends towards fear and control, while the left tends towards trust and openness.
Which makes you wonder... where is the "left" in mainstream US politics?
Maybe the debate is happening inside a much narrower space than people like to admit.
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Best not to keep feeding the churn. It's #KISS #openweb and #closedweb. The rest is #fashernista guff that'll need composting when the next buzzwords arrive in a year or two.
Keep it simple. #KISS
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Best not to keep feeding the churn. It's #KISS #openweb and #closedweb. The rest is #fashernista guff that'll need composting when the next buzzwords arrive in a year or two.
Keep it simple. #KISS
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We need to start calling pointless things pointless. In the era of #climatechaos, too many people are still on their knees worshipping the #deathcult instead of facing reality.
If the idea of saying this out loud fills you with fear, ask yourself: what is your head bowed to?
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We need to start calling pointless things pointless. In the era of #climatechaos, too many people are still on their knees worshipping the #deathcult instead of facing reality.
If the idea of saying this out loud fills you with fear, ask yourself: what is your head bowed to?
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The #fashernistas need to get off their knees and start calling out pointless things.
Pick up the #4opens as a shovel. There's a mountain of #techshit that needs composting before anything healthy can grow.
In the era of #climatechaos, too many people are still kneeling before the #deathcult. If this idea fills you with fear, ask yourself: who or what is your head bowed to?
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The #fashernistas need to get off their knees and start calling out pointless things.
Pick up the #4opens as a shovel. There's a mountain of #techshit that needs composting before anything healthy can grow.
In the era of #climatechaos, too many people are still kneeling before the #deathcult. If this idea fills you with fear, ask yourself: who or what is your head bowed to?
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All thinking is critique. If you're not looking for faults, you're probably not looking at the thing at all.
Don't be afraid of the mess. Pick up the #4opens and start gardening #techshit. There's plenty of compost to plant seeds of hope in this era of #climatechaos.
Lift your head. Look around. See what's really growing.
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All thinking is critique. If you're not looking for faults, you're probably not looking at the thing at all.
Don't be afraid of the mess. Pick up the #4opens and start gardening #techshit. There's plenty of compost to plant seeds of hope in this era of #climatechaos.
Lift your head. Look around. See what's really growing.
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The language we use isn't neutral. Most #mainstreaming terms carry assumptions about hierarchy, control, competition and #deathcult "common sense". If we keep speaking normal language, we keep reinforcing the normal worldview.
If you want progressive outcomes, start by questioning the words you're using. Different language opens up different possibilities.
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The language we use isn't neutral. Most #mainstreaming terms carry assumptions about hierarchy, control, competition and #deathcult "common sense". If we keep speaking normal language, we keep reinforcing the normal worldview.
If you want progressive outcomes, start by questioning the words you're using. Different language opens up different possibilities.
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#OMN needs your help. All our projects are grassroots, #DIY efforts to rebuild the #openweb. If you have time, skills, or know someone who does, we'd love to hear from you.
We're looking for people interested in web development, hosting, sysadmin, documentation, testing, outreach, and community building. Every contribution helps.
Let's build public-first media and infrastructure together. #4opens #FOSS #Fediverse #Grassroots
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#OMN needs your help. All our projects are grassroots, #DIY efforts to rebuild the #openweb. If you have time, skills, or know someone who does, we'd love to hear from you.
We're looking for people interested in web development, hosting, sysadmin, documentation, testing, outreach, and community building. Every contribution helps.
Let's build public-first media and infrastructure together. #4opens #FOSS #Fediverse #Grassroots