Countering the death drive of platform capitalism: How to develop and maintain independent digital infrastructure?
Our digital public square is increasingly enclosed, extractive, and fragile. This roundtable confronts the "death drive" of platform capitalism—its tendency toward monopolization, data exploitation, and ecological waste—and explores the practical pathways to a more resilient future.
We will move beyond critique to focus on actionable alternatives. Central to our discussion will be the promise of sovereign protocols like ActivityPub (the foundation of the Fediverse) and Nostr, which offer a blueprint for user-centric, interoperable, and independent networks.
But is technology alone enough? True digital independence requires education and empowerment. How can we equip people with a basic understanding of the data they produce and the digital systems they use? Without this foundational literacy, true self-determination and protection in the digital realm may remain out of reach.
Join us to explore how we can build, maintain, and democratize the next generation of the web
My name is not important, but you can call me Setto. I am a half-Swiss, half-Swedish multidisciplinary artist and activist.
Adam Burns is a passionate Internet technologist, pioneer and advocate.
Zoe Romano is a craftivist, digital and fabrication strategist, lecturer focused on social innovation, women in tech, open design.
Media theorist and co-managing director of K8 Institut für strategische Ästhetik gGmbH
PhD candidate in artistic research at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (NTNU)