February Recap
#SolutionsWatch & Updates
Dear friends of the Libre Solutions Network,
I wish you a fantastic March up ahead. With the challenges I’ve taken on, I’ve fallen behind on some projects. Moving forward I’m going to be focusing on some “behind the scenes” work for this Month. There are many things I would love to weigh in on, such as the Firefox drama, Apple & the UK, but I must redirect my focus. This month the plan is to put the work into continuing to refine my programming skills and experiment with building interesting software. I’d also like to give my websites a long overdue makeover, recent incremental changes haven’t been beneficial.
As of late some pressures are really beginning to hit hard, and it is taking a toll on me. Once I figure out how to survive these next two months, I’ll be able to bring a lot more focus to the table. In truth, I’m in the process of trying to rediscover what I can uniquely bring to the table when it comes to the many important conversations going on.
I know I must press on, I believe this project is crucially important for the times ahead. Governments are becoming more bold in demanding more invasive surveillance and control while corporations are becoming even more entrenched. I look forward to finding ways to contribute and collaborate with others to work towards a more free cyberspace. While many believe the cause to be lost, I am eager to see that fight until the very end. Digital Autonomy is worth striving for. We don’t have to accept tools that are imposed on and weaponized against us. A healthier connection to technology requires us to work on building a better digital future.
#SolutionsWatch
I had the pleasure and honor of appearing on The Corbett Report’s #SolutionsWatch series. To discuss my post "Internet Badasses" aren't going to stop Digital ID. It was great to speak with James and participate in one of the most important discussions of our time: “What can we actually do about things?” It’s very easy to fall prey to defeatism and forget that small consistent effort really does amount to meaningful change over time.
One of the reasons this particular interview means a lot to me is that I had the opportunity to remind people that we should be more compassionate to those doing the best they can. My biggest objection to grand “all or nothing” approaches is that the vast majority of people aren’t going to withstand endless purity spiraling. It’s a lot easier to judge others for not doing enough than to consider what we’re doing to help those who can’t. In my opinion, if we recognize the stakes that people are up against, we owe others some humility and compassion.
Building practical tools
The most important part of individuals and communities building a healthier connection to our digital experience involves building new systems with that in mind. It is not sufficient to be in permanent exodus from platform to platform while spending no time thinking of migrating to truly decentralized systems. From a research standpoint, the solutions are already there, but in practice the tooling needs to be improved significantly. Building up independent digital infrastructure while crucial, is no simple task. Software is one of the easier places to start that can yield an immense amount of change.
There are a wide variety of tools that could be remade from the ground up to be extremely censorship resistant. Instead of placing all the burden on users to navigate a maze of different systems and tools, more refined options can be introduced. We have a real chance to build up alternatives to Big Tech menticide machines and build a better cyberspace. I believe a pro-decentralization content management system is one of the ways that a small team of developers could make a massive impact with enough support.
Should we tolerate this?
One of the very things I called out near the end of my Corbett Report interview, was that there are many schemes that exist purely to fleece ‘freedom fighters’. These schemes go a long way to explain why there often isn’t much resources for genuine efforts. Whatever your political leanings are, I would recommend you reconsider ‘allies’ who promote this kind of behavior.
Open Source Totalitarianism
The UN has been hard at work leveraging open-source technology to build systems to fulfill its political goals. This has profound impacts for not just the future of open source communities and projects, but also how governments across the world take on their own ‘digital transformation’. As far as I see it, we’re currently between “a rock and a hard place” when it comes to both private and public sector technocracy.
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Micro-dosing Failure
February was a very tough month, but I made significant progress. I’m determined to push as hard as I can as I prepare for springtime. I’ve been learning a lot, and this journey really has only just begun. I must admit that this difficult challenge does tax me of a non-trivial amount of time and focus. So I hope that you’ll be patient with me while I try to strike a balance.
