Cables of Resistance

This past weekend, I went to the Cables of Resistance conference in Berlin. Framed as "resistance against big tech", I assumed it would be a tech conference. But I was wrong. In a very good way!

I was there with one of my partners in crime from data.coop, hoping to spread the word about community self hosting.

Of course we were not the only tech people showing up. But there was a large part of what seemed like academic people with a background in social studies, people involved in labour and union work and – of course, this being Berlin – activists and various movements.

Everything being less techy turned out to be really nice. Most talks I attended gave me new perspectives on problems with tech giants. Touching topics like:

• Problems related to hardware production, from digging out materials in 3rd world countries to supply chains.
• Software developers' responsibility to use their informal power to make the world better for less privileged people.
• Exposing the "border industrial complex", how some companies earn a lot of money by being in the full supply chain from border defense and patrolling to handling of "illegal immigrants".
• The exploitation of platform workers, from fast food delivery people to the click workers who moderate social media content and classify data for "AI" models.
• And even a slightly more uplifting introduction to compost.party – a feminist server running from an old smartphone attached to a small solar panel.

I think my only complain would be that there was a lot of focus on all the things that are wrong, but less focus on what we can do to improve the state of things.

I'm very well aware that the self hosting we do in data.coop only solves our own personal problems with big tech, which are mostly the problems of a privileged elite. But it was quite exciting talking to other attendees about what we do and provide a glimpse of hope. Some didn't even know it was possible. Others asked a lot of questions about getting started. Some of our friends from ukrudt.net were there as well (it was such a pleasure seeing them in person!), and we ended up doing an improvised meeting together on the last day, inviting everyone to come ask questions, share ideas and exchange contact details for future collaboration.

I came home exhausted, but full of new ideas and inspiration. And almost felt like I had been to a festival, with all the good people I met along the way.