December 2024 - CTP Tech Partners

Shower Thoughts Thread
by Autonomic Co-operative 07 Jan '25

07 Jan '25

Thought we could have a thread for idea generating/co-operative dreaming. Maybe don't critique other's ideas here but just let them sit for a while, to be picked up if others like them. My first idea I didn't get into our meeting was: Festival of left tech IRL/online hybrid event hosted at SPACE4 in London. Invite everyone working in this field e.g. CoTech, cool orgs, redecentralise etc etc Networking and Lightning talks etc. Fun, weird and social. Influenced by Chaos Congress, EMF etc but tiny. Make it explicitly left. Use it to build energy and enthusiasm in this bubble which kinda fizzled out due to the pandemic and accompanying wildness. In solidarity Lai

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GFSC community pitch deck
by Kim Foale 20 Dec '24

20 Dec '24

heya i found a super corporate pitch deck template but acutally it really helped me get big picture ideas in order thoughts here on what this community could be: https://www.figma.com/deck/81tc6hS4Gp9UJlWG3kHhAZ/GFSC-Deck?node-id=1-100&t… would love your feedback and to know what would make it useful for you past the big picture stuff - can do another with specifics if helpful but i know that can also shut down ideas stage accidentally kim x -- Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>) *Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.* Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/> - Support our mission of a fairer world using technology & join our email list <https://gfsc.studio/mailing-list> - Project: The Trans Dimension, a new space for trans community enabled by technology and collaboration. <https://gfsc.studio/2021/12/14/enter-trans-dimension.html> - Article: "Why is it so hard to do nice things, that make a difference, with other people?" <https://gfsc.studio/2022/06/30/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things.html> If anything about this email is confusing or unclear please let me know. I am happy to provide information in different ways such as clearer language, over a phone call, with a voice note, or in plain text. Please don't feel the need to ever apologise for responding to my emails at your own pace. *Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.*

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Impact Shakers Accelerator
by Kim Foale 11 Dec '24

11 Dec '24

https://www.impactshakers.com/accelerator i just did a very quick bad applicaiton for placecal as thats all i have energy for (we really need an up to date slide deck), but maybe of interest to others too. kim -- Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>) *Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.* Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/> - Support our mission of a fairer world using technology & join our email list <https://gfsc.studio/mailing-list> - Project: The Trans Dimension, a new space for trans community enabled by technology and collaboration. <https://gfsc.studio/2021/12/14/enter-trans-dimension.html> - Article: "Why is it so hard to do nice things, that make a difference, with other people?" <https://gfsc.studio/2022/06/30/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things.html> If anything about this email is confusing or unclear please let me know. I am happy to provide information in different ways such as clearer language, over a phone call, with a voice note, or in plain text. Please don't feel the need to ever apologise for responding to my emails at your own pace. *Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.*

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Lottery update
by Kim Foale 11 Dec '24

11 Dec '24

Heya all, So me and stef just met the lottery and they were really nice. Bottom line is acceptance rate atm is about 3% so if something is not hitting all the criteria highly it's not getting funded. While they liked it overall, our two weaknesses were: - Scaling plan -- they admitted they didnt really get it but also wanted far more specifics (what groups / what areas of the country / how many people / etc) - Impact -- this is a million quid what do we get for it? This has long been where we struggle -- "its important that information exists" isnt quite enough for the lottery -- they want that social impact even while acknowledging the bullshittness that can be (again - 3% acceptance). They also said that the growing great ideas framework we did stuff under previously was a different CEO and a different strategy -- so including all that was prob a waste of word count, lol. Imagine a funder sticking to a consistent strategy for more than 3 years. Next steps are me and Stef are gonna meet next week, go through all the fieldwork notes and think about how we can represent impact and maybe try and get some funding just to write that all up. If anyone has a resource here to do an evaluation that would be great -- for example, could someone do an external evaluation of The Trans Dimension, Tech Hub or Resiliance Web? In general it sounds like we deffo impressed them and its worth reapplying -- but we are doing it from scratch again now. So down but not out and we will deffo be pursing it. Kim -- Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>) *Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.* Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/> - Support our mission of a fairer world using technology & join our email list <https://gfsc.studio/mailing-list> - Project: The Trans Dimension, a new space for trans community enabled by technology and collaboration. <https://gfsc.studio/2021/12/14/enter-trans-dimension.html> - Article: "Why is it so hard to do nice things, that make a difference, with other people?" <https://gfsc.studio/2022/06/30/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things.html> If anything about this email is confusing or unclear please let me know. I am happy to provide information in different ways such as clearer language, over a phone call, with a voice note, or in plain text. Please don't feel the need to ever apologise for responding to my emails at your own pace. *Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.*

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quick intro!
by Oliver Bates 08 Dec '24

08 Dec '24

Hello friends, Nice to meet you! I'm Oliver. I'm a researcher, designer and facilitator from fractals coop ( https://fractals.coop/) We're four people who before fractals we're doing tech or tech adjacent design and research work. We aren't really doing any of that at the moment as we've been mostly doing consultancy gigs working with charities and campaigning organisations to do strategy work and as a learning and evaluation partner. 3.5 days a week I'm employed as a contract researcher at Lancaster University (https://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/oliver-bates) My work is where people, tech, and just and sustainable futures meet. I'm part critical designer, part tech critic, part user researcher, part game maker. I made a card game called Meal Deal ( https://crankandfile.co.uk/meal-deal) that came from research and design workshops with gig economy couriers about their experiences of the platform and working on their bikes. I'm moving my work more into facilitating challenging conversations and building community that is on a shared journey to a future through decaying and collapsing systems, using games and creative activities:) Kim invited me today after conversations we've been having about escaping big tech, capitalism and the work we want to be doing towards just and sustainable futures. If you want to dive in or connect I am on linkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/batesoliver/ My email is oliver(a)fractals.coop Looking forward to meeting you all soon. Thanks, Oliver

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lipman-milliband application
by Kim Foale 04 Dec '24

04 Dec '24

heya all, so i misread this and its actually just 10k a year for 3 years (30k), not 500k (thats the earnings cap for groups they will fund) im therefore putting in basically just to run this network and the event series we've talked about - it wont go far. draft here with the key questions. bear in mind the extreme character limits! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PYJejS9FgFxY4QDdfUHedXfGAKS0qxDQFZZ51lG… thoughts welcome. the information on the website is misleading (it said jan 31st) but its actually dec 15th so you've got till monday to give feedback then i'm gonna get it in. https://www.lipman-miliband.org.uk/grants/large-grants.html cheers, kim -- Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>) *Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.* Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/> - Support our mission of a fairer world using technology & join our email list <https://gfsc.studio/mailing-list> - Project: The Trans Dimension, a new space for trans community enabled by technology and collaboration. <https://gfsc.studio/2021/12/14/enter-trans-dimension.html> - Article: "Why is it so hard to do nice things, that make a difference, with other people?" <https://gfsc.studio/2022/06/30/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things.html> If anything about this email is confusing or unclear please let me know. I am happy to provide information in different ways such as clearer language, over a phone call, with a voice note, or in plain text. Please don't feel the need to ever apologise for responding to my emails at your own pace. *Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.*

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ecological citizen grant funding
by Kim Foale 04 Dec '24

04 Dec '24

https://ecologicalcitizens.co.uk/funding "Within our funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), we have just over £750k to support innovative, short-term projects to further explore how we might define, enact or explore Ecological Citizenship for a sustainable digital society. This fund will be split across 3 years of funding. Thank you to everyone who applied for our first year of funding under the theme *Materials & Resources* - the quality of the applications we received was outstanding. We really appreciate the time and effort involved." We would prob want this: "C) Deployment(s) (£40-50k) | Maximum 12 month project. Small to medium scale roll out of an ‘EC touchpoint’ with communities, locations, partners or other appropriate organisations." The down side: "In order to apply to the Ecological Citizen(s) funding, your project MUST be led by a principal investigator (PI) who is a member of research or teaching staff at an EPSRC eligible, UK-based institution*." This seems like a shoe-in for a Tipping Point PlaceCal - but can we get a suitable institution to host it? The host institution would probably take the lions share of this funding too so it would prob want to be someone already in the network who can do the work. Kim PS I looked at lipman-millaband trust and realise i totally re-read it, its 10k a year for 3 years. sigh. might go for it for the event series we've talked about. I think prob next step is a lottery re-application, but not got a date in with them yet to talk about the rejection. -- Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>) *Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.* Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/> - Support our mission of a fairer world using technology & join our email list <https://gfsc.studio/mailing-list> - Project: The Trans Dimension, a new space for trans community enabled by technology and collaboration. <https://gfsc.studio/2021/12/14/enter-trans-dimension.html> - Article: "Why is it so hard to do nice things, that make a difference, with other people?" <https://gfsc.studio/2022/06/30/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things.html> If anything about this email is confusing or unclear please let me know. I am happy to provide information in different ways such as clearer language, over a phone call, with a voice note, or in plain text. Please don't feel the need to ever apologise for responding to my emails at your own pace. *Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.*

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