I don't understand the prevalent techno-pessimism. Today, technological empowerment is at the greatest level ever in human history. Our computers can run @debian, our phones can run @GrapheneOS and @fdroidorg, our TVs can run @Kodi, we can turn to @wikipedia for vast troves of human knowledge, we can explore the world using @openstreetmap, and we can communicate privately using @matrix or publicly using @Mastodon.
Of course, not everyone is using these great tools. But that's nothing but Kantian self-imposed immaturity.
#opensource #debian #grapheneos #fdroid #kodi #wikipedia #openstreetmap #matrix #mastodon
@hweimer I think the missing component in your perspective is the large personal and social costs involved in making all those things happen.
The people who have burned out or who we have otherwise lost, as a consequence of various factors relating to power and agency over technology; abusers, bad governance, the fundamental power differential vs. tech corps, and so on.
Most of these initiatives exist *in spite of* immense social forces acting against them, and people frequently pay for them with their personal and/or community health, which is not a sustainable approach in the long term.
I think that is where the techno-pessimism is coming from; the knowledge that we are going to lose these things in the not-so-far future if something doesn't change about the larger power differentials involved.
@hweimer I have been involved in some of these projects and no, they are certainly not sustainable, especially with a worsening political and social environment.
@joepie91 Call me cynical, but worsening political and social environments have historically delivered a boost to open solutions. Open source software saw a big boost after Microsoft became Too Big to Regulate. Similarly, the Fediverse saw its biggest influx of new users shortly after Musk took over Twitter.
@hweimer I'm sure it looks that way from a user perspective, but from the perspective of the people actually building these things, it frequently just happens out of desperation, with all the psychological toll that that involves.
Don't mistake popularity or scale for sustainability.
@joepie91 Most of the projects I have mentioned exist for much longer than a decade, so I'd say that's more sustainable than pretty much everything else in the IT industry. Once you've reached a critical point, sustainability is no longer a major concern and such projects don't disappear, at least not without a proper replacement. That's the beauty of open source: We can only add to it, but never take anything away from what we already have.
I'd say that these power differentials that you mention were even worse in the past, yet still all these awesome projects have managed to thrive and even new ones have emerged.