Influencing Tech Narratives Through Exponentially Powerful (margin*notes)^

Why I'm building a community around this newsletter

(psst: please share this with your friends!)

There’s something special about the margins of a document. A draft policy brief. A regulation. A speech. Throughout my life and career I’ve spent much time in the margins — both literally and figuratively.

That’s where we write our comments, insights, directions. It’s where our thoughts wander. Where we underline what stirs us. Where we scribble reminders of our lived experiences that should influence the main text. The margins are where we think aloud, offer suggestions, raise awareness, surface facts, raise contradictions — before a text gets polished, published or enacted.

The margins are also where many people in the world are forced to live. Marginalised communities. Gender and sexual minorities. Women and girls. Ethnic, cultural, and economic minorities. People with disabilities.

They may seem insignificant to manyt, but often, the margins — both the literal and the figurative — are where real change begins. Where narratives shift.

That’s what this space is for. To surface ideas, experts and expertise, lived experiences, learning moments and other contributions often neglected by policymakers in Silicon Valley, Washington, Brussels and London. It's a space to share thoughts, hopefully inspire and make it easier to access resources from our parts of the world.

Welcome to (margin*notes)^squared^ — a newsletter about power, technology, justice, and the public interest. Written from the edges, with the purpose of ensuring our (margin*notes) become exponentially powerful. Squared and squared again.

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The Inspiration

There’s a handwritten note on my refrigerator that reads:

I don’t remember where I first saw it — maybe the product of a mindless scroll — but it stuck. I copied it down and stuck it where I’d see it every day.

It perfectly captures why I believe in the power of the margin note — and why I’m writing this newsletter.

The quick scribble on a policy draft.
The sidebar at a conference.
The feedback you give a supervisor.
The quiet suggestion you offer on a leader’s talking points.

They might seem small. But they are intentional acts. Clear, consistent interventions that, over time, add up. They shift narratives. Reframe conversations. Redirect decisions. Change trajectories.

That is exponential influence. And the power of the margins.

Why I'm Writing This

I’ve spent most of my life living and working in the Global South — in communities, movements, institutions, and networks often treated as peripheral to decision-making in global tech, policy, or development. And yet, it's in those margins that I’ve found the greatest clarity about power, purpose, and possibility.

I’ve experienced this massive digital transformation that continues to shape and reshape our lives from Southeast Asia. Framed by colonial history, my experience with digital technology can never be divorced from my life here.

I’ve worked inside governments, with the UN, at Big Tech, in civil society and with grassroots human rights defenders — from Jakarta to Washington, from Paris to Bangkok, from Geneva to Phnom Penh, from Taipei to Khathmandou. I’ve sat in elite rooms and grassroots meetings. I’ve had a security detail and I’ve squatted on the floor of an NGO office. I’ve watched how decisions get made, who’s consulted, and who’s conveniently left out.

My belief is this: if policymakers in the Global North — and the ecosystem of think tanks, NGOs, universities, philanthropies, and agencies that surround them — actively engage the ideas and people who have historically lived at the margins, we can design better governance. We can shape outcomes that serve citizens and societies first and foremost.

This newsletter is one small, consistent effort toward helping my community of experts and visionaries achieve the world we want.

What You’ll Find Here

This is not a think tank. It’s not an institution. It’s a notebook — my notebook — and you’re invited in.

Each issue will include:

• Reflections on the systems shaping our digital and political lives

• Notes from my own work in global policy, digital rights, and public interest research

• Commentary that connects the headlines with the hidden forces beneath

• And sometimes, just fragments: quotes, questions, or scribbled thoughts in the margins

Some entries will be sharp. Some unfinished. But all will be honest — and guided by a deep commitment to dignity, equity, and the common good.

Why Now

This moment calls for critical, grounded, globally-aware insights. It calls for the so-called Rest-of-World to bring our chair to the drafting table and shift narratives. We need to make meaning together, to listen more, and to ask better questions — especially about whose knowledge counts, and whose interests are served.

So if you’ve ever felt like the side conversation was more insightful than the keynote… if you’ve ever made a note in the margin that changed the way someone thought… if you want to increase your knowledge on what the world outside the usual capitals thinks and experiences… this newsletter is for you.

Let’s Shape the Discourse — One Margin Note at a Time

If this resonates, I hope you’ll subscribe, read, and share.

This isn’t meant to be a monologue. It’s an invitation to dialogue — to meet each other in the margins and make meaning, together. It’s a conversation — written in the margins, where I think the real influence often occurs.

We’re all writing this future. One margin note at a time. Join me!