The #OMN is a simple project

DRAFT

The #OMN is a simple project. But simplicity is deceptive, what makes it difficult for many #fashernista and #mainstreaming people is not the code, not the servers, not even the logistics.The difficulty is that the #OMN is rooted in a different path of human nature.

It isn’t designed to fit the old path of #stupidindividualism. It isn’t built to serve the greed of #dotcons. It isn’t here to bend the knee to the #deathcult.

The #OMN is designed as a transition tool, a bridge to […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-omn-is-a-simple-project/

We need an honest conversation

The current generation of activism is crap – fragmented, self-referential, lost in identity wrangles, #NGO capture, and #fashionista online posturing. What can be learned:

Affinity and Trust > Bureaucracy and Branding

The 1990s/2000s alter-globalization movement and early #Indymedia weren’t “organisations,” they were ecosystems. Small affinity groups moved fast, trusted each other, and shared infrastructure without needing a brand deck or a funder’s approval. Lesson we can learn: […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/we-need-an-honest-conversation/

The stubborn few who show up with shovels, laptops, and trust

DRAFT

In the tech world of social change and challenge, we’re living with a strange imbalance. Too often, the spaces we use and try and build are crowded with useless, self-destructive prats – people more interested in ego, control, or clout than in making anything grow. And when they do act, their “help” is so often poison: it blocks, slows, and derails.

At the same time, the number of people doing truly useful, collective, grounded work feels small. You can see this in every […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-stubborn-few-who-show-up-with-shovels-laptops-and-trust/

Individualism vs Commons: Why the Fediverse matters, and the Indieweb is legacy

The continuing, talking to legacy alt media people, sparks off clarification. The current conversation comes from the #indieweb, rooted in individualism, the digital mirror of the lone artisan, the self-sufficient homesteader, the coder as sovereign subject. This is not a critique in itself – individualism is a core driver of creativity and experimentation. But taken as the centre of gravity, it is a politics that naturally aligns with capitalism. Each person builds their site, their stack, […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/individualism-vs-commons-why-the-fediverse-matters-and-the-indieweb-is-legacy/

Looking at working with legacy media thinking – silo vs flow

Every so often I answer the out reach calls from more traditional alt/progressive media orgs, let’s look at some of the very illustrative “common sense” knock backs. The recent examples are Freedom’s reaction and Good Internet’s submission call – As their reaction is useful to illustrate the fault line of “radical publishing” in a federated media path.

Here’s a sketch of how it can (and arguably should) work if we’re serious about, #openweb, and soft-communing […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/looking-at-working-with-legacy-media-thinking-silo-vs-flow/

In tech, it is really important, to see the unit of measure

Most software today = individualist. Even “collective” tools (Fediverse servers, enterprise SaaS, etc.) are just abstractions that aggregate individuals. The default assumption is the liberal subject: the sovereign individual. The infrastructure is built for self-expression, personal feeds, private chats, me, me, me. That’s why for example, when you step into libertarian codebases like #nostr, the smell of #stupidindividualism is everywhere.Communities are treated as “groups of […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/in-tech-it-is-really-important-to-see-the-unit-of-measure/

#mainstreaming counter-cultures https://hamishcampbell.com/the-mainstreaming-of-counter-cultures/ With native participation, a strong commitment to #DIY principles, and a collective effort to preserve this native culture, it is possible to sustain and grow these spaces without losing their original path of cultural integrity.

Who are the #nastyfew?

They are the people who always rise to the top when #mainstreaming takes hold. You see them on TV, in parliament, running #NGOs, managing #dotcons tech projects.

On the surface, they don’t always look bad – in fact, they often present as competent, articulate, even charming. But scratch that surface and the pattern is clear: their drive is not shared flourishing, it’s possession and control.

This minority #nastyfew, from a historical view, today’s bourgeoisie. As Marx outlined […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/who-are-the-nastyfew/

The #KISS #OMN path is about building practical, commons-based media tools now, not later. Most of the mess - and the endless #blocking - comes from ownership and control. We sidestep that by placing a whole class of media firmly in the commons under the #4opens. This doesn’t “fix” the #mainstreaming mess overnight, but it gives us space to work before it catches up. By then, if we’ve done it right, society will have shifted toward a more open path.

This isn’t theory. If you’ve got resources, fund development. If you’re technical, code the apps and servers. If you understand UX, design for accessibility. If you do media, tell the story. The projects in the stories - from Oxford: Going with the Flow to Stalls and Code - are grounded in practical use and designed to mediate social breakdown for better outcomes. But they only work if we build them and use them in time. So let’s keep it positive, simple, and moving forward.

The liberal majority, typically positioned between activism and power, has been to side with the “#mainstreaming” paths, which, while sometimes not as overtly destructive as corporate power, clearly lack the willingness to disrupt the status quo. Hope not hate, in tech https://hamishcampbell.com/hope-not-hate-in-tech/

Security comes from community rather than technological control

It turns out that what hackers yearn for is not raw power but security – not just the technical kind, but an emotional security that is harder to admit to, so it gets dressed up in the language and posture of technology.

Because many in these paths and spaces operate with narrow social and political horizons, shaped by individualist tech culture, a distrust of messy collective life, and little grounding in movement history, their insecurity rarely finds healthy expression. Instead, it gets […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/security-comes-from-community-rather-than-technological-control/

Compost the Chancers: How Careerists Kill Horizontal Tech Movements

It happens every time. A fresh grassroots project kicks off, chaotic, joyful, full of promise. The code is rough, the conversations messy, but the energy is real. People come together not for money or prestige, but because something needs doing and no one else will do it.

Then, they arrive, the careerists, the chancers, the opportunists who talk a good game of “community” and “values” while quietly positioning themselves for influence, funding, reputation. You know these people, they […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/compost-the-chancers-how-careerists-kill-horizontal-tech-movements/

A guide for staying honest and native

The #Fediverse is a big step, a good first step. But in the wider path, we have still lost the thread when it comes to weaving tech that walks off the beaten track. Most #mainstreaming energy, and much #NGO outreach, still goes into reinforcing the same ruts in the ground, paths that lead toward centralization, enclosure, and obedience to capital. Tech infrastructure that doesn’t follow these well-worn routes – that builds new directions – is starved of support and often treated as an oddity, […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/a-guide-for-staying-honest-and-native/

We Don’t Need More Liberal Techno-Utopianism

There’s a lot of fluff floating around these days. Take books like Abundance — dressed up as bold new visions, but really just more of the same old liberal centrism with a shiny, tech-friendly finish. They flirt with Marx at the end, but only to dress up in borrowed credibility. At heart, it’s not socialist, it’s a manifesto to reassure the #mainstreaming chattering class that everything will be OK if we innovate harder and manage smarter. This is blinded feel-good “supply-side […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/we-dont-need-more-liberal-techno-utopianism/

And yes, we do have a problem with apathy and Laissez-faire “common sense” that lets this cycle repeat. Signal, Noise, and the Mess of #Mainstreaming https://hamishcampbell.com/signal-noise-and-the-mess-of-mainstreaming/

If you need a definition of the #geekproblem its putting the social side of tech outside of tech. It's the behaver of child putting is head in the sand and saying I can't hear you.

And this is strong #mainstreaming #blocking of any working alt paths in tech. It's a problem, a #geekproblem that we do need to talk about.

Why #NGO and fluffy #openweb tech events should include radical real grassroots projects

Let’s be blunt, “inclusive” tech/#NGO events talk about change but don’t platform the people doing the hard, messy work of building this path. This is a real problem, rooted in comfort, control, and careerism.

Radical grassroots projects like the Open Media Network (#OMN) exist precisely to challenge the #mainstreaming mess, not to dress it up. We aren’t here to repeat feel-good slogans and deliver polished #PR. We’re here to offer lived solutions grounded in the #4opens and decades of […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/why-ngo-and-fluffy-openweb-tech-events-should-include-radical-real-grassroots-projects/

Understanding the #nastyfew: human parasites in the era of #climatechaos and social breakdown

In this accelerating collapse – where #climatechaos spirals and #neoliberalism guts the very idea of society – we urgently need to confront a painful truth: it’s simple, the #nastyfew are a parasite class. And that this class feeds on the very foundations of well-being, survival, and joy that the majority of the global population desperately needs. They are the ones who keep the engines of destruction humming, not out of necessity, but out of greed and fear of irrelevance. These people and […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/understanding-the-nastyfew-human-parasites-in-the-era-of-climatechaos-and-social-breakdown/

W3C How this fits into #OMN the Shared Origins and Intentions

Both the W3C statement and the #OMN recognize that the early web was built with open sharing, decentralization, and public good in mind. The #W3C calls for a web “respectful of all participants,” which aligns with the #OMN goal of building an open media infrastructure based on the #4opens: open data, open source, open standards, and open process.

Where this W3C #mainstreamin alt path falls short (and why #OMN matters). The W3C vision speaks of “taking responsibility” and “addressing the […]

https://hamishcampbell.com/w3c-how-this-fits-into-omn-the-shared-origins-and-intentions/