Folk Tech: Life beyond tech for consumption and addiction
In Silicon Valley, software that isn’t for business and industry is called "consumer tech" or "business-to-consumer" (B2C). The name reflects how extractive systems regard relationships in purely transactional terms. It’s pretty gross! People only exist to "consume." People aren’t seen as collaborators, participants, or having their own agency.
For those of us who imagine a world where people are not pawns of big tech corporations and autocratic regimes, there's a different way of thinking about technology. We want our tools to make life easier, more connected, more meaningful, and more enjoyable, without the mindset of being managed and entertained. We want to be in relationship with people and the living world, not with predictive technology and algorithms.
To build technology to support real people living life beyond their paid work, we need to recognise that we need real alternative ecosystems of technology, not just new things built on top of existing big tech infrastructure, and not imitations of technology that was developed within the incentive structures of venture-backed corporations.
We can cultivate a collaborative environment where folks who use technology have as much power and influence as people who build technology, and develop real relationship and even solidarity among tech developers and communities who technology supports. We are not “users” that make us sound like addicts and tech into a drug that is at the centre of our existence. We are people living life. We are just regular folks.
Folk Tech is our answer to the call. Folk Tech is a movement of people and technologists working together to create new ways to support regular people to collaborate, express their creativity, practice in meaningful ways, and get to know one another. Folk Tech is decentralized, peer-to-peer, open source, and contributor-friendly. It does not harvest data or seek to own people's relationships for profit.
Let's Get Together!
Join us on October 18, where we'll be hosting a participatory design workshop, exploring different needs in people's lives, working together to brainstorm and prototype, and collaborating. You do not need technical skills, though we welcome technologists! Come help to shape the future of life in a tech-enabled world, get to know other Folk Techies, and pick up skills that uncover genuine motives and needs of fellow humans.