There is an ongoing war for the soul of "Open-Source". We lost the battle, but we don't have to lose the war.

On Dec 3rd, @kpaxle.bsky.social and I are co-hosting a discussion with members of @scenius.bsky.social: @ranganaut.bsky.social, @erlend.sh, and Regis Chapman.

RSVP here!
luma.com/z9ivf64k

Wednesday! Join me for a Metagov Seminar with my colleague Dr. Orit Peleg from CU Boulder, a computer scientist who does the most wonderful work on self-governance among plants and insects—this is going to be glorious: luma.com/pzbp4zq1?tk=...

Stuart Lynn from CrownShy talking about some very cool digital democracy projects in Scotland and elsewhere! Nice to see Harmonica mentioned @zhiganov.bsky.social ;)

Yes, and this is why we've created CIBC: to connect builders of citizen infrastructure with local communities all around the 🌎 cibc.notion.site

basically, any truly prosocial AI agent should:
- be open source
- support BYOM (e.g. public AI or locally hosted AI)
- be enhanced by prompts & datasets provided by data co-ops
- be owned by employees or DAO members
- adhere to democratic standards (e.g. democracylevels.org)
- what else?

It's weird timing - working on tools for democratic participation while watching actual democracy crumble in real time. But that's exactly why this work matters. When the old systems fail, we need alternatives ready to go. Actual ways for ordinary citizens to govern themselves.

A proposal with policy recommendations for supporting prosocial platforms - governing tech design goes "upstream" as opposed to the "downstream" regulations that govern content. toda.org/assets/files...

As predatory markets tighten their grip and the charade of democracy is abandoned, commons will become even more indispensable. I'm thrilled to say that a significantly revised, updated edition of my book ‘Think Like a Commoner’ is now out, today! Details at thinklikeacommoner.com.

Ooh, nice write-up from Yale! Actually the "AI prototype" is called Harmonica (www.harmonica.chat) — we created a custom workspace for ENS students and built a few RAG pipelines based on MP's facilitators requirements (coming soon to our regular app!)

Emergent Avatars as a Pathway to Global Alignment

1/ Imagine a world where AI helps us align with the planet. Using Harmonica or similar tools, we can create emergent avatars—virtual representatives of stakeholders at different scales. These avatars could help us gradually achieve global alignment.

Excited to soft launch recipe.exchange - a clean, simple way to share recipes on the AT Protocol. No ads, no clutter, just recipes. Post, search, share, and like. You own your data. Still more features to come, but would love early feedback from fellow food enthusiasts! recipe.exchange

Now more than ever, we need collective care. Learn how to resist creatively with Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox for Liberation, from editors Elandria Williams, Rachel Plattus, Eli Feghali, and @ntnsndr.in. 🔗 https://buff.ly/454B00I

I'm thrilled to announce the first public release of Harmonica, you can start playing on it today 🪗
blog.harmonica.chat/we-are-offic...
We're still fixing bugs, but hopefully this early version gives an idea of what we're aiming for.