How-to.computer: A Self-Hosting Guide

Photo: Tommy Smits

On March 9th as part of the From Tactics to Strategies presentation session within the In-Between Media: Hybrid Tactics in the Crisis Era conference, Lukas Engelhardt will present his strategy of resistance to platform centralization: squatting the cloud a.k.a., DIY server hosting. 

At 16:00 at SPUI25 or online you can tune in to his presentation: How-to.computer: A Self-Hosting Guide

In the INC long-form titled New Dependencies, Lukas Engelhardt compares the many likenesses of self-hosting and squatting. Self-hosting, as defined by r/selfhosted is:

“The concept in which you host your own applications, data, and more. Taking away the ‘unknown’ factor in how your data is managed and stored, this provides those with the willingness to learn and the mind to do so to take control of their data without losing the functionality of services they otherwise use frequently.”

Besides being about practicality and functional usage, self-hosting is protesting the corporate or political policies that limit our online safety and independence. It is likened to squatting wherein both practices represent the struggle of negotiating space, whether that be physical or digital. As noted by Engelhardt, the valuable lessons drawn from squatting practices are ultimately useful also in the digital realm, such as “hack-y, DIY, non-scalable and non-streamlined behaviour patterns and solutions” and “reusing and adapting existing infrastructures and materials.”

More than just sticking it to the market dominators, these practices teach us how to build resilient communities in a rapidly changing world.

 

Register for the presentation session From Tactics to Strategies here.

Full program of the conference (March 9th and 10th) available here.

 

 

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