Futility or hope: pink flowers, crowbars & compost
On New Year’s Eve Tim Chambers shared a link to John Green’s review of Auld Lang Syne, resurfacing Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s question: how do we perceive a bright pink flower growing in an alley?
Looking back through the lens of 2025, a rough year in so many ways, the flower can look like futility. A tiny plant crushed by dark forces. Looking forward to 2026, it’s a symbol of hope. The flower in the alley reminds us that a few feet below the asphalt there’s a huge, vibrant planet, surging with energy. For those of us working in digital spaces, the planetary mesh is a metaphor for the open social web, hidden and overpowered by the walls and highways of the tech-oligarchs. It’s time to get out the crowbars and pneumatic drills - and a pile of compost.
I’m excited about 2026 for three reasons.
First, across Europe - and in parts of the Global South, Asia and North America - more and more people are looking forward to new digital spaces.
Instead of welcoming asphalt and concrete from Big Tech, they’re seeing the hope the flower represents.
Second, in 2025 our Newsmast technology finally came together, inspired by a handful of pilot communities we’re working with. So we're ready to go.
Sparked by a Media Revolution workshop at the UK’s Byline Festival, we put everything we’d been building into a platform for progressive organisations looking to move on from big tech. Mobile and web apps, curated channels of content, and a safe, welcoming community hub. Offering the mix of private conversations, connected groups and global feeds championed by Ben Werdmuller at FediForum. In 2026 we look forward to rolling out this technology, building communities around independent news publishers, content creators, professional networks, local communities - and communities on the open social web.
Third, and most importantly, what inspired me in 2025, making me hopeful for 2026, was meeting people who can see the flowers too.
Everyone at Newsmast, including our incredible development team in Asia. Liz and Caspar at Mo-Me. Jaldeep, Sidd and the Bristol Cable co-op. Rhys at the Leicester Gazette. Peter at Totnes Pulse. Madeline and Rishad at Good Commons. Salvatore, Jenna and the team at Latte Creative. Bjoern, Sandra, Elena and Erik, helping flowers grow across Europe - and Sebastian, Catherine and Torben at Eurosky too. Felix and the team at Mastodon. Ivan and Mayel from Bonfire. Charles, Crissy and everyone at FediCon, including Dansup from Pixelfed/Loops, Julian from NodeBB, Ben Pate from Emissary and Jesse from Frequency. Philippe and co at Qlub Social. Jaz and the team at Twt Cymru. Tim and the creators at Find Out Media. Our network pioneers, Jose in Brazil, Angela in Nairobi and Ragip in Berlin. Anuj and Ryan, building bridges. Matthias at WordPress and John at Ghost. Sean and Damon at WeDistribute. Tim and Seth at indieweb.social. Evan, now full-time at the SWF. Chris and Johannes, always asking the difficult questions. And two of the most eloquent, insightful people I know: Ben and Laurens, who astound me with their clarity of thought, week in week out. That’s a long list, and I’ve missed off a bunch of people, all of whom who I’m grateful to - thank you.
This is just the beginning. See you on the pavement, wherever you can spot a green shoot. Bring crowbars, and buckets of compost. It's pink flower time.
