We Center People – NOT COMPUTERs or THE NETWORK
Human PART FIRST —> Then Technologies
There is no technology to fix the human condition. We are complex multifaceted beings. This means that technological solutions should include multifaceted outcomes.
We want to cultivate technologies that center the needs of community not just the networked individual. We actively step away from the current paradigms of most of Web 2.0 that are based on the networked “individual” framed as a masculine and young way to be or engage with others. It is rooted in white male culture of disconnection, insensitivity and projection of self without relationship to others while engaging in public spaces with others.
We must fund the development of human skills to build out this infrastructure and the creation of tools for those with human and tech skills to use and prioritize the human presence. The advocacy and teaching of these skills to those who build these systems is critical and can not be ignored or sidelined. There is a concerted effort to remove social signals and identifiers while embedding social norms into products.The refusal to be inclusive in tech design and the inner-growth work required to produce products that addresses both the good and bad of potential outcomes.
Open Standards are more important than Open Source (although we love open source). We must be engaged with the development of the open standards and protocols that will shape the future of how humans are represented online and the tools for communities to connect and interact.
This a long game and this effort is a not a short term gesture but a serious effort at shaping the culture of the social-technologies of the future.
We believe in RELATEDNESS.