Seems to me in my thinking about blogging and the web, I’ve come full circle to stuff I wrote in 2003-2006. New is a stronger sense of urgency, and extending the same ideas to any technology and method, not just the open web.
@frank stronger sense of urgency, now that the negative impact of web silos is visible (wasn't visible in 2005). Any technology/method: that the principles of the open web (free to use, alter, tinker, control, trust by you/your group) also apply to other techs (for instance energy production, blockchain, biohacking, open source hardware, cheap computing hardware, algorithms, IoT sensors and actuators) and methods (p2p, community building, socia media usage/production, group facilitation etc.). Only then are they truly empowering, otherwise you're just the person it is 'done to'.
@frank additional sense of urgency: despair by large groups in the face of massive change, and the lack of people feeling any ability to act themselves. Finding an ability to act (in open tech) is a way to lower the appeal of populist/strong-man movements.
@jeremycherfas anecdotal/hunch mostly. The despair I encounter with various people here in NL certainly centers around feeling powerless in the face of change and sensing rules/institutions not addressing such change. And from the other side, where ability to act is found, the enormous energy it creates. See www.zylstra.org/blog/2018... where I talked about this in relation to some projects I worked on.