Category: Uncategorized

Read Protocol Cooperativism?: Platform Cooperativism by Matthew Slater (Platform Cooperativism)

To break down capitalism, coops should focus on shared protocols, not platform coops that replicate platform capitalist systems.

Interesting argument that we should view protocols as the digital means of production, more so than platforms. And that ‘protocol cooperatives’ will do more to break down capitalism than platform coops will. I think the main argument being that platform coops are inherently centralised, and that as far as challenging capital goes, we should be striving for decentralised architectures. I think the argument being we should have coops that interoperate on top of a shared protocol; not one coop that dominates an entire market with a platform.

Relates somewhat to the Statebook article, which argued that the state would serve us better if it focused on building and promoting shared protocols, not on building a Facebook alternative.

Read Beyond “Taming” the Tech Giants by Wendy Liu (New Socialist)

To truly challenge the power of the tech giants, we need more than better regulation. We need class struggle.

If neoliberalism is a class project, then Silicon Valley is the industrial manifestation of neoliberalism applied to technology. Silicon Valley is a class project. To abolish it needs large structural transformation. We need to change the balance of class forces, tipping it away from capital and in favour of labour. Worker organisation from below, with a change in conception of what a tech worker is. Start taking lucrative technologies out of the capital-accumulation process.

“Tackling the problem at the root requires that we *abolish* Silicon Valley.”

https://newsocialist.org.uk/beyond-taming-the-tech-giants/

Mastodon web interface has pretty nice keyboard shortcuts. Press ? to see what they are.

That said, at the moment I think I prefer Brutaldon and Tridactyl for keyboard-oriented fediversing. Think I’ve just gone off the idea of toots rolling in unannounced. I find it a bit distracting.

Can anyone recommend either Vim Vixen or Tridactyl Firefox plugins? I used to use Pentadactyl all the time until it went kaput with Firefox Quantum. Hankering to get back to Vim bindings in the browser and both of these extensions look pretty well maintained.

#vim #firefox

What’s are some good intro to electronics projects? Something hands-on that teaches you some basics and you make something fun (and maybe even practical…). Massive bonus points for things that involve buying as little new stuff as possible – ideally you can salvage a bunch of the components and parts you need out of stuff you can buy second hand, or out of broken things.
Read Disrupting the climate by Duncan McCann (neweconomics.org)

Digital technology has an impact on climate change in three distinct ways – all of which we need to radically change if we want a chance of preventing climate chaos.

Digital technology’s effect on the environment.

It uses a lot of raw materials; produces a lot of CO2 in manufacture; and the ‘cloud’ uses a vast amount of energy in use.

“What we really need is a whole new way of thinking about digital technology. In a world focused on ownership driven by conspicuous consumption, in the thralls of a digital revolution, we have created a sprawling global beast that might consume our society as well as ever greater amounts of energy and resources.”

Things we should do: use materials more efficiently; make things more repairable; use renewable energy.

I’d probably also add ‘abolish capitalism’ to the list.

https://neweconomics.org/2018/11/disrupting-the-climate