Dev test work for #Makinghistory application https://hamishcampbell.com/dev-test-work-for-makinghistory-application/ The logic and workflow are all based on the #OMN project and have likely a 90% overlap with the #indymediaback project
Dev test work for Makinghistory application
The #makinghistory project is a decentralized, open-source archiving and storytelling network designed to preserve and amplify grassroots histories. It’s founded on the idea that history isn’t written by the winners - it’s made by those who resist, build, and care. Using digitized collections like the CampbellFamily archive as a seed, the project invites communities to reclaim their narratives through shared, federated networks. This isn’t just another data repository - it’s a […]https://hamishcampbell.com/dev-test-work-for-makinghistory-application/
A letter from the margins of the #openweb https://hamishcampbell.com/a-letter-from-the-margins-of-the-openweb/ I am still digging #makinghistory #OMN #indymediaback #OGB
A letter from the margins of the #openweb
All the #OMN projects I’ve worked on over the years, from #OGB to #indymediaback, are not directly about social change. They are about creating the possibility of social change. A subtle, but critical difference. We don’t claim to have the answers. What we do offer are tools, networks, and processes that make it easier for people to imagine that the world can be different, and then help them to take the first step. Yet here's the mess that keeps being pushed over us. We are told this […]https://hamishcampbell.com/a-letter-from-the-margins-of-the-openweb/
Rebooting the #openweb in a good way
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 […]https://hamishcampbell.com/rebooting-the-openweb-in-a-good-way/
The development of #IndymediaBack
The reboot of #Indymedia (#IndymediaBack) is about reclaiming grassroots, open, and radical media infrastructure outside of the control of corporate platforms and #dotcons. However, the development side has stalled due to the same issues that have stalled other #openweb projects, lack of sustained coder engagement, resistance in centralized funding, and the dominance of closed silos.
The challenge is building tech that works for activists, not just developers. The original Indymedia relied on early open-source tools. This means moving beyond tech-fetishist projects that scratch a developer’s itch while ignoring real-world community.
A trust-based federated publishing network is the goal. The #OMN (Open Media Network) framework already outlines how to create syndicated media flows using #4opens. The stalled dev site at http://unite.openworlds.info needs committed developers who care about media as a movement, not just a tech experiment.
Without serious investment in #DIY, people-friendly, open-source alternatives, activists will remain trapped inside the #mainstreaming of social media platforms. The question is: can we finally push through the #geekproblem and make this happen?
What software do activists need?
The core problem for the last 20 years has been that most activists were locked into #dotcons (corporate social media silos) because open alternatives were either too difficult to use, lack network effects, or fail to meet their practical needs. With the current reboot of the #openweb with the #fedivers based on #ActivityPub has already taken a step away from this mess. Here’s what’s needed from a software development perspective to break out of this mess. Open & accessible publishing […]Rebuilding Radical, Grassroots Media
For too long, our digital spaces have been hijacked by corporate interests, turning the internet into a surveillance-driven wasteland where control, profit, and censorship push aside community, useful creativity, and communities autonomy. As a first step to reclaim our media and communication networks, we need to step away from the #mainstreaming mess and build self-organized, decentralized alternatives that resist capture. Creating and supporting decentralized codebase like the #OMN, we […]https://hamishcampbell.com/rebuilding-radical-grassroots-media/
VisionOnTV: A Lost Future of Grassroots Video
Nearly 20 years ago, we built something radical. #VisionOnTV wasn’t just another platform, it was a #4opens movement. A bold attempt to break free from corporate-controlled media and give people the tools to create and share activist-driven, alternative television. We weren’t waiting for permission; we were building the future we wanted to see. Before #YouTube became the advertising surveillance monolith it is today, we had a different vision. One where video wasn’t just disposable […]https://hamishcampbell.com/visionontv-a-lost-future-of-grassroots-video/
Trump and the tools of the old world order
An example of this is The United States Agency for International Development (#USAID) which was presented as a humanitarian force for economic and social development worldwide. However, its origins and operations paint a different much darker path, of geopolitical manoeuvring and #neoliberal hegemony over the last 40 years. Now, with the hard shift to the right, USAID is being gutted, alongside other long-standing institutions of the U.S. "liberal" global order. Origins and the Cold War […]https://hamishcampbell.com/trump-and-the-tools-of-the-old-world-order/
The left, right mess is on repeat
This is at the heart of the contradictions and confusion in the political landscape today. The liberal and left muddle, where elements of economic populism are shared across ideological divides, is something we’ve seen before, especially in the 1930s, when fascist movements co-opted working-class grievances while pushing reactionary nationalism. #Bannon, like Röhm, plays a dangerous game by mobilizing working-class anger against neoliberal "elites" but steering it toward nationalism […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-left-right-mess-is-on-repeat/
This is how we compost failure into growth, instead of repeating mistakes
We do need strong metaphors, gardens, compost, pollination, is all about creating ecosystems of hope, rather than rigid, industrialized movements that always collapse under their own weight. Instead of chasing the big factory model of change, we need 100s of small, interconnected projects, cross-pollinating, sharing what works and what doesn’t. The straitjacket of fear is real, and the left has been caught in it too, chasing purity, reacting rather than acting, and often forgetting to […]https://hamishcampbell.com/this-is-how-we-compost-failure-into-growth-instead-of-repeating-mistakes/
These aren’t pointless projects
#mainstreaming #liberalism has lost its way. For the past 20 years, many self-described liberals have spewed out bilge water disguised as "common sense." But when pressure mounts, they reveal themselves as dogmatic and intolerant, almost as if they aren't truly liberal at all. How did we end up in this mess? The #deathcult, #stupidindividualism, and the rise of #dotcons shaped the dominant version of "common sense," warping it away from collective care and into something narrow and […]For grassroots projects like #OMN, #OGB, and #indymediaback to thrive, they need exposure to mainstream resources without being consumed by them. And for the mainstream to evolve, it needs the disruptive energy of grassroots creativity. The bridge must go both ways.
How #mainstreaming can meaningfully fund grassroots movements, they get the value from
One of the biggest tensions in the fight to build an alternative, sustainable future is the relationship between mainstream resources and grassroots projects. The reality is stark: grassroots movements need resources to survive and thrive, yet the very act of receiving funding, if they can access it at all, drags them into the suffocating grip of #mainstreaming culture, where the radical edges that make them valuable are dulled and destroyed. So how can conscious mainstream actors support […]Fear, hope, and #climatechaos
The path we are on, climate change, mainstream politics, and fear reveals a troubling pattern: in times of crisis, like #climatechaos, mainstream politics instinctively shifts to the right. It’s essential to understand the underlying role of fear in pushing this drift. Fear is a powerful political motivator. Right-wing ideologies thrive on it, whether the fear stems from economic instability, cultural change, or national security threats. In the current path of accelerating climate […]The #fashernistas poisoned the well of alt-media
This has been going on for ten years, at many steps, I meet defeatism and negativity. It’s frustrating, especially now, when the mainstream is visibly stepping away from the #dotcons and looking for a place to land. We should be building that landing space, but instead, we’re tangled in the wreckage of failed ideas and cynical inertia. Yes, stupid fashionable ideas have failed again and again, but that doesn’t mean the basics no longer work. The #openweb grew from simple, powerful […]https://hamishcampbell.com/the-fashernistas-poisoned-the-well-of-alt-media/
In a world tangled in #mainstreaming noise and digital enclosures the #OMN is a tool to compost the rot and nurture new growth. It’s not just about building tech; it’s about building trust, collective power, and vibrant grassroots communities.
The mess we face is real. Years of bad faith, disempowerment, and corporate gatekeeping have left people burnt out, isolated, and cynical. But what if we could turn that decay into rich soil? What if we could shovel through the wreckage, expose the rot to air and light, and use it to grow something wild and beautiful?
OMN is that shovel. A simple set of tools, publish, subscribe, moderate, rollback, edit, that lets people reclaim control over their digital lives. It’s a #DIY, trust-based, human-moderated space where communities can shape their own narratives, free from the manipulation of #dotcons. It’s messy, it’s organic, and it works.
The path won’t be easy. When we push back against #mainstreaming, bad faith will come at us. But our good faith, our care for each other, our belief in collective power, is both our shield and our guiding light. OMN isn’t just a platform; it’s a shared practice of making and remaking the world together, learning from past movements, and carrying forward what works.
This is an invitation. To pick up the shovel. To join a crew willing to do the hard work of turning shit into soil. To build a resilient, people-powered network where ideas can sprout, grow, and intertwine into a thriving ecosystem of change and challenge.
Let’s make history, not as a monument to what was, but as a living, breathing forest of what could be.
Open Media Network (#OMN) is a Tool for Change and Challenge, Composting the Mess
In activism and grassroots media, you inevitably face an ongoing, unpleasant truth: when pushing against #mainstreaming and the inertia of the #deathcult, bad faith comes at you like a storm. Your best, and often only, defence is to hold onto your good faith. But good faith alone isn’t enough, we need shared tools to compost the rot, turn the muck of broken movements and failed tech utopias into fertile soil where new paths can grow. That’s where the Open Media Network comes in. The […]“Compost tending” the fabric of #openweb
Let's look at what makes sense: it’s about collective dynamics, not individual blame. The focus is on mapping the social landscape, understanding the patterns of dysfunction, and then figuring out how to break through those blockages. The idea of switching between #spiky and #fluffy approaches as needed is powerful, rejecting rigid ideology in favour of practical, responsive action. Making the #blocking visible is essential. So much of the stagnation in #openweb and activist spaces comes […]https://hamishcampbell.com/compost-tending-the-fabric-of-openweb/
