Good morning all, from a sunny Martinique this morning.
I’ve been going over some old writing as a sort of therapeutic exercise or as an exercise in self-harm. I haven’t worked out which it is yet!
Anyway, I came across something I wrote two years ago, almost exactly to the day. It is a half-baked manifesto for building community in the Caribbean around tech and society.
My participation in a fairly moribund forum on tech in the Caribbean motivated it.
If you know me well, you know that this is one of my least favourite times of the year. It’s complicated, so I’ll spare you the details. But It does seem to be tradition for blogs and newsletters to do a retrospective of the, soon to be over, year. It’s possibly something inherited from the traditional media industry. And whilst I’m not really a fan of this tradition —you can call me a miserable git for detesting the Spotify-like “wrapped” emails that have been invading and polluting my inbox and general use of apps.
It’s a reasonably short one today. I’m progressing on what I promised to write up but haven’t been able to finish as yet. Soon come.
As I write this (Monday afternoon), the first official day of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has wrapped up. I say this as I am neither attending in-person nor following live virtually. This might seem a little odd for someone who is building more connections and work related to the field of Internet Governance.
There are times when I start writing these articles, and I suddenly think to myself, oh shit. I think I have bitten off more than I can chew. This is one of those moments, and against my better judgment, I have decided to try to get through it. Bear with me.
I have so many thoughts floating around that empty space balanced above my neck. And I have so many fleeting side conversations, some more in-depth and others that come to me during the day.
In this week’s discussion, I’m returning to the subject of Internet Governance and how the Internet is starting to become a weapon in International games of control and manipulation.
Last week, I changed how I link to articles I’ve read to make them more obvious and provide a better link for you to read them. As a bonus, I think it looks better. I hope you do, too.
If you’ve been reading my writing for a while, you know that I have become evermore involved in Internet Governance, and I have even put myself out there to be part of the process that, in a small way, provides the guidance, structure and tools to run the Internet as an open, transparent and fair tool for all to use.