ajazz here, once again coming to you with an update about the stuff I’m doing and how you can get involved with it.

I’m still iterating on the format for these new newsletters, but for now I’m going to have them be divided into two sections: IRL (stuff I’m doing / going to in and around NYC), and online.

Online

Unplatform Office Hours: Sunday, June 14th, 3pm

Unplatform Office Hours is a monthly virtual event where I’ll hop on a call to give (and receive) advice about how to reclaim your relationship with technology. I get a lot of questions from folks around the world about how best to “unplatform” their communities—questions about what tech stacks to use, where to promote events, and how to even start the “unplatforming” conversation with their friends and peers in the first place, and Office Hours is a great spot to get answers from me (and whoever else shows up!) to those questions.

I encourage everyone reading this who’s interested in finding alternative to Big Tech platforms to come, and I especially encourage you to invite folks who might be tech-critical-curious but who haven’t had the time or confidence to go through the full Unplatform guide yet.

You can RSVP here. If you can’t make that time, feel free to shoot me an email. My inbox remains open.

Accepting Submissions: Commonality, a new tech-critical publication

I have yet to formally announce this on The Official Channels, but for the last few months I have been collaborating with a number of other writers, organizers, and technologists on Commonality, a new publication dedicated to covering the neo-Luddite movement around the world. In addition to carving out a space where tech-critical writers can push back on the conventional narratives around tech issues in the mainstream media, we’re also trying to model the kind of organization we’re advocating for by providing collectively-managed self-hosted services to contributors and subscribers, providing a private (“dark forest”) space for community members to talk and organize together, and fully-committing to building networks of communication outside of social media.

Our launch is tentatively set for mid-June, and thus far we’ve spent most of our time coordinating our IRL comrades in NYC to make sure the project had a strong offline foundation. I’m happy to report that we’ve built that foundation, and now we’re looking for contributors from around the world. If you are (or know) a writer, organizer, or technologist that has (1) a project you want us to talk about, (2) a tech-critical take on a high-profile political or social issue, or (3) a secret third thing you want to bring to the table, I’d love to talk to you. Just reply to this email.

(For those wondering what happened to From The Superhighway, this is why it’s on hiatus—it will be a regular column of this publication going forward!)

IRL

Commonality Salon #1: On AI, The Pope, and the Future of Humanity: Tuesday, June 16th, 7pm @ Tompkins Square Park

In May, Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical, entitled Magnifica humanitas (magnificent humanity), in which he raised serious concerns about AI’s impact on the future of mankind. The most remarkable thing about the encyclical is how familiar the Pope’s concerns are to anyone in the neo-Luddite movement—and it’s because of that familiarity that the encyclical is worth talking abut.

In the first of what will become a regular series, I and the other folks involved with the Commonality project are hosting a discussion about the encyclical, what it might mean for the future of tech-critical organizing, and what the reactions to it tell us about the state of the mainstream media and the tech industry. Join us in Tompkins Square Park on Tuesday, June 16th at 7pm. You can RSVP here—hope to see you there!