Gregory's Server@rauschma (2): I bind books, set type, do woodcut + copperplate, make ink + paper, and sew—all analogue communications technologies that had by the 1790s developed global reach in concert with transport infrastructure. (Studying this stuff is what I do professionally.) I see fedi’s do-it-yourself-in-community ethos as continuous with the above and also with early freenets from the Whole Earth Lectronic Link on. There’s a maker-user aspect in public spheres that act as commons.
@mirijb2 Thanks for sharing!
That reminds me of reading that the success of steam engines wouldn’t have been possible without mass-printed manuals (as enabled by movable type). I find it interesting how science, technology, communication and mental paradigms are always highly interconnected.