Part of the 40 Years of Open series
We are postponing the continuation of the 40 Years of Open series to save and redirect those energies towards meaningful solidarity efforts with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We will continue this programming when it makes sense to do so. Thank you for your interest.
We are in a moment of public reckoning about the political potential of open, decentralized technology. Advocates for decentralized technology like crypto currency and openAI claim that their open, distributed structures have the potential to change not just what we do with technology but how we do it. For more than a generation, tech users have been told that a central feature of these innovations lies in the promise of their decentralized social infrastructures to change who has access to knowledge, tools, power. Yet, in the nearly 40 years of open source software since Richard Stallman invocated the Free Software Movement in 1983, disavowal of centralized decision-making in tech has largely masked right-wing suspicion of the state and its institutions. This cyberlibertarianism is not a solid foundation on which to build technology that can be safe and accessible for more than a privileged few.
This conversation will take up examples to explore crucial differences in the practices of building decentralized infrastructure. What is the difference between decentralized, autonomous, and multi-polar? How to approach scaling local, autonomous infrastructures? Speakers explore the durability of centralized power in decentralized ecosystems and offer strategies for building power otherwise.
Speakers: coming soon!