2025:Program/A Practical Guide to Leaving Big Tech

Session title: A Practical Guide to Leaving Big Tech

Session type: Lecture

Track: Wild Ideas

Language: en

🎥 Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NYuHNruixs&list=PLhV3K_DS5YfLPVASK2MANk6wSHgWmbULz&t=3556s 🎥

So, Big Tech owns just about all of our data now. What can we do about it? There are plenty of alternatives to Microsoft, Google, and Meta projects out there, but it can feel like a jungle we have to learn to traverse before we even get started in taking back our digital sovereignty.

The Open Source Club at the Ohio State University hopes to show you that this transition from corporate dependence to digital freedom is not only advisable, but feasible. We'll walk you through practical ways to understand your use of tech, the questions you need to ask yourself when considering alternatives, and providing step-by-step advice on how to move to more ethical and sustainable tech solutions in your daily life.

Description

To begin, we'll set the stage for what we consider the "average person's" relationship with tech; one largely founded on convenience rather than critical thought. This is a decision that's perfectly understandable, but one we ought to scrutinize if we hope to have a more equitable relationship with technology. During that process, we'll try to suggest counterpoints to some of the biggest reasons people allow themselves to become dependent on Big Tech today.

Next, we'll go over the practical stages of the reclamation of digital sovereignty. Privacy is a spectrum, and going all the way into the deep end won't be advisable for everyone! Thus, we'll go over the "stages" to adopting independent technology solutions that you can go through, so as to prime you with where you feel you might lie during the process.

For the rest of the presentation, we'll go through each stage in detail. We'll pose leading questions to help you be more mindful and thoughtful of how you use the technology in this stage, how to deeply consider its benefits and its shortcomings, and then provide more ethical alternatives to some of the commonly-adopted solutions we've observed in the day-to-day. These stages will move from being superficial and individual to becoming more and more deeply-ingrained and community-oriented; naturally, as you move rightward in this spectrum, more external factors play a role in your capacity to move away from Big Tech. Thus, we will give practical and anecdotal advice on making this shift as we move along.

By the end of the presentation, we hope to have provided you the tools necessary to, perhaps radically, change the way you think about and use technology. We will also have provided you with direct alternatives to many of the projects you likely feel dependent on today, with ins on how to slowly wean this dependence in pursuit of a more intentional digital existence.

How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?

The biggest pillar this presentation tackles is that of sustainability. A sustainable movement within Wikimedia relies on a sustainable relationship with the technology that supports it, not just for those who develop Wikimedia projects directly, but even the common users that patronize it.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Speakers

• The Open Source Club at the Ohio State University

The Open Source Club at the Ohio State University is a multi-decade institution dedicated to fostering awareness and appreciated for free, open, and accessible technology, from its development to its common use. In its pursuit to raise awareness for democratic and sustainable relationships with technology, it has provided information and discourse on topics such as Creative Commons, the Wikimedia foundation, non-profits in the FOSS world, and more.