2026-07-10 –, Idea Stage
And Other Stuff (AOS; https://andotherstuff.org/) is a freedom-tech collective building open systems that protect human agency, communication, and connection. After participating in the camp planning session in Berlin, several members of our collective volunteered to support BitChat as an offline, BLE mesh-based texting app for DWeb Camp, and we would also be glad to host an AOS village or tent where campers can learn about our work, experiment with Nostr, and potentially use a camp-local relay.
Liz Sweigart and Rabble, AOS co-founding members will introduce who they are, how they work, and what they are building, followed by informal opportunities for campers to connect with attending AOS team members.
And Other Stuff (AOS; https://andotherstuff.org/) is a freedom-tech collective building open systems that protect liberty, expand human agency, and help people connect, organize, and create without dependence on centralized platforms. Our work sits at the intersection of Nostr, Bitcoin, Cashu, decentralized infrastructure, human-centered design, AI-supported development, and community tools.
At the Berlin gathering, a few members of our collective had the chance to participate and learn. Out of those conversations, we began discussing ways AOS could support DWeb Camp more directly. One possible contribution is helping BitChat serve as an offline, BLE mesh-based texting app for campers, offering a practical communication layer that works even when conventional connectivity is limited. We would also be interested in hosting an AOS “village” or tent where campers could drop by, meet members of the collective, explore our projects, and experiment with Nostr-based tools. As part of that, we could potentially run a Nostr relay just for campers, creating a local, hands-on demonstration of decentralized communication in action.
We are still learning how best to offer what we have in a way that fits DWeb Camp’s needs and culture. Rather than arriving with a fixed program, we would love direction from the organizers about where our contributions would be most useful. We can support technical experimentation, informal demos, conversation spaces, and lightweight onboarding for people who are curious about Nostr, Bitcoin, Cashu, decentralized communities, and open-source product development.
Liz Sweigart and Rabble, co-founding members of AOS, would be happy to offer a short lightning talk introducing the collective: who we are, what we do, how we work, what we have built so far, and why we believe open, permissionless systems are essential for human freedom and flourishing. The talk could then invite campers to connect with AOS core team members who are attending, explore specific projects, and identify opportunities for collaboration during and after camp.
Our goal is to participate in a way that is useful, generous, and aligned with the DWeb Camp spirit: sharing what we know, learning from others, and helping people experience decentralized technology as something practical, creative, and community-centered.
Liz Sweigart is a co-founding member of And Other Stuff, a freedom-tech collective building open systems that protect human agency, connection, and creativity. She brings a background in consulting psychology, organizational transformation, human-centered design, and online safety, with prior work spanning corporate leadership, participatory design, and human-computer interaction. As a postdoctoral alum of Vanderbilt’s Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab, Liz is especially interested in how decentralized technologies can be designed with and for the people who need them most, including activists, organizers, and communities with limited technical backgrounds. At AOS, she helps bridge strategy, research, engineering, facilitation, and storytelling to support practical, inclusive tools for a more open web.