Take part in our inaugural event.
a free, serious, graduate-level, months-long seminar
The Technology of Decentralization
How and Why to Use Neutral Standards to Build the Encyclosphere and Other Decentralized Networks.
Organized by the Knowledge Standards Foundation.
A Seminar? Why?
Do you loathe the aggressive takeover of the Internet by Big Tech?
You have heard about “decentralization” as a solution.
You have heard it has something to do with blockchain—what’s that? Maybe it sounds exciting—or dodgy. You might have also heard that decentralization is much older than blockchain. (It is.)
Would you like to do something meaningful to help? Many of us would, but what? First, you need to know more about both the problems and the solutions. Maybe you’re nontechnical and want to get the concepts down more firmly, and decide where to contribute your content and skills. Or maybe you’re a developer, and you want to develop a more rigorous understanding of the technology of decentralization.
The non-profit Knowledge Standards Foundation, a group led by Wikipedia co-founder Dr. Larry Sanger, is organizing a (hopefully) massive “teach-in” of the concepts behind the decentralization of the Internet, in the original, old-fashioned sense in which the Internet itself is decentralized.
We’re going to find bunches of real experts to talk to about this stuff. We’ll run it like a graduate seminar with lectures or interviews (and plenty of opportunity for Q&A), serious readings, and in-depth (written) discussion. We’ll learn a lot together.
The seminar will not just be educational. It will also help organize people to try out new decentralized systems, such as decentralized social media and video systems, and to deliberate seriously about the policies defining a decentralized encyclopedia network, an “encyclosphere.” Many of the issues we deliberate about will be applicable to other sorts of decentralized systems.
And sorry to all the blockchain fans, but this is not a blockchain seminar, although we will spend some time covering that.
The seminar is free because it is an essential part of the KSF mission to educate people about these things, and we think this will be a great way to organize people to build a centerless, leaderless, truly decentralized encyclopedia network—the encyclosphere.
Watch Below:
Week 1: The Internet: from decentralization to corporatocracy
Week 2: Encyclopedists discuss a decentralized encyclopedia network
Week 3: Decentralizing Social Media
Reading list | Seminar FAQ | Seminar planning details (old!)