Towards Digital Autonomy
Professionally speaking, I was born and raised in Corporate America. I started working at IBM in January 1997, while living in The Netherlands, till 2014 when I moved on. Throughout all of these (nearly) 30 years in IT, while doing lots of good work with pretty smart and incredibly talented colleagues around the world on Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Learning, Change Management, Community Building and Social Networking for Business, amongst several other disciplines, I have always been surrounded by cutting-edge technology, with some true golden years happening between 2000 and 2014 when I was heavily involved with Enterprise Social Tools, which, as you all may know and remember, then morphed into what we’ve known as Enterprise 2.0 (a.k.a. #SocBiz). You may be wondering though, why am I writing then about “Towards Digital Autonomy”, right? Well, simple: Right from the start, technology has never been neutral, but political.
In consequence, one needs to carefully choose wisely and correct the wrong choice(s) I once made and act accordingly: Therefore, I choose Digital Sovereignty.
I guess I didn’t see it. Or, better said, perhaps, I didn’t want to see it. I realise now I may well have been far too involved into the rabbit hole of always believing that technology, in general, is neutral and it all depends on how we apply it, i.e. for good or bad. It was only after I had to take a compassionate leave for three months earlier on this year that I realised how wrong I have been all of these years.
What happened? Well, I had to take some time off work and focus 100% on some personal matters that needed my full attention. No distractions allowed. That meant I had to make a rather bold and radical move: Delete my entire digital life. Yes, that’s right, I decided to delete pretty much everything of my online life from the last 25+ years, including some of the oldest social networking platforms I have been using all along as well as this very same blog that I got started back in October 2005. Ouch! That daring move of deleting my entire digital identity hurt more than I had anticipated, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I needed to focus on family matters that had priority and that was it. I could always recover, or so I thought.
As things got better, and I started to resurface online back again in mid March this year, remember, I was entirely offline for 3 months, including not watching any of the news (I know, that was quite dramatic, too!), I realised we’ve been living in a permanent state of technofeudalism or, in order words, surveillance capitalism. Was I aware of it from before? Most probably. Was I blinded by the superb shiny digital toys coming out of the US that were put right in front of our eyes? Most definitely. Did I want to do anything about it? Not likely. Did I want to go back as if nothing happened and carry on as usual? Not a chance! Even more so when I started seeing how plenty of the digital tools I was using on a daily basis before I went dark belonged (and still do!) to different American corporations that have been actively supporting genocide, daily war crimes or enabling the destabilisation of democatricly chosen governments for standing up on the right side of history, like the country I currently live in.
Yeah, I know. moral compass is a b*tch. Apparently, decent human(e) values and integrity, too! But, then again, if we don’t have any left, who are we? What are we? Can we still call us human(e)? How do we differentiate ourselves then from ruthless, bloodthirsty savages, driven by profit and greed, who have embraced a culture of violence and death? Think about that for a minute. Is that the civilisation we want to want to build, nurture and sustain for future generations to come? One ruled by thugs, crooks, grifters and (war) criminals?
What are the alternatives? What are the pros and cons of each and everyone of them? Do we have any at all? What are the trade-offs both on a personal and business level? These and a few other questions have been in my mind for a good few weeks now, which is one of the several reasons why I decided to resuscitate this blog. I needed a space, my new online home, in which I could reflect and understand the shift I’m personally going through. Can I rebuild my entire digital identity away from US Big Tech? Can I still have a successful professional career for whatever is left of my working life? Can I still have a personal life not relying on the many digital tools most people are obsessed with and addicted to? Can I beat the altorightm relying almost exclusively on decent human connection(s) built, nurtured and sustained over time?
See? That’s why I needed this blog. Why I decided to bring it back to life, but with a clean slate, having left behind a digital past that helped built the persona I no longer believe in. It’s time to rebuild. It’s time to explore and find potentially good, decent alternatives to US Big Tech. It’s time to fully understand and embrace the reality that technology has never been neutral. On the contrary, right from the design phase, digital tools are capable of enabling the possiblity of advancing as a society for good, but also accelerate our very own doom and demise as a species. Technology, in the XXI century, is all about politics. It’s always been, we shouldn’t forget that going forward.
It’s therefore an imperative we all get to choose carefully. Choose wisely. Own your own words. Your own story. Your own self. Rebuild, one conversation at a time, the human connection(s) that the algorithms have taken away from us to divide us by inciting all of our fears and rage for their own profit, greed and whatever political agendas they may have while installing fascist regimes. Become a Luddite with an indefatigable purpose: Rebuild, nurture and steward community. After all, we are all natural born supercooperators, we shouldn’t forget about that. We just need to show up and get down to work!
Lots to be done still! Let’s begin our incredible journey ahead towards Digital Autonomy!
