This lamp stands on my desk at home. It is made from recycled materials and Ben’s work is just so thoughtful. Sadly the statement it makes about the loss of an effective postal service in the UK has indeed come to pass, in the name of “efficiency” we have seen this service decline and post office workers have been exploited by their bosses with the complicity of big IT and our previous government.

This post on Bluesky this morning by a much respected contact in the open education community, Brian Lamb, was the prompt that brought me back to my blog today as it resonated with my current fears for the future of the digital age:

Of course some of the disappearances online are just reflections of how our lives change over time. For example I have now retired from my academic role and deliberately spend less time online in order to be more present in the lives of my family as I live out what years I have left. Since the demise of Twitter and my “conscious uncoupling” from X I have tried to keep in touch with the network of truly wonderful folk I had connected with in the halcyon days before Musk and the broligarchy owned and corrupted all (well most) that was good about the internet. I moved to Bluesky and increased my use of Instagram and Mastedon with some success. I decided to commit to continue blogging in retirement and, although I am less present online than I used to be, I am happy to say that my open connections continue to inspire me and give me hope when all about looks gloomy. See this recent post from former CEO of ALT, Maren Deepwell. It helps me jump from ALT’s OER25 conference to Reclaim Open 2025 and although I couldn’t take part in either event at the time I can still review and reconnect. I am grateful that the blogging continues openly.

I am also grateful to Alan Levine for the Open Education Global network which is a great source of international connections for like minded folk who see the value of connecting for the public good. I fear, especially with the rise of autocracy in the US, that some of the infrastructure we in the digital open community rely upon may be vulnerable to attack and may indeed be lost as our values are deemed by some to be “too woke”. We have to stand together and push back collectively to ensure that the power of digital connection is not lost or diverted to those who would rewrite reality to fit their own ends. We need to support each other so no-one is lost to the “unbounded melancholy” Brian understandably mentions.

So let’s not go the way of the Post Office. Let’s show our appreciation for each other and our open community in every way we can. Let’s remain present and attentive so we don’t lose what we treasure. We may need to speak out about the damage that is already becoming apparent from the misuse of social media and the enshitification arising from the resource hungry use of AI. Let’s be bold and above all let’s be bold together.