Heya all,
This session ended up being more of a chat than a meeting - and maybe its
easier to keep it that way?
We set one piece of homework which was just that we've spoken a lot now
about collaborting on something, however small, and it would be great to
actually make that happen. Can people have a think about ways they could do
that?
Offers from me:
* Does someone else want to start hosting this meetup, or have any ideas
about making it more expansive? I am quite enjoying this meeting so happy
to carry on but itd be nice to get some more input on what it is, who we
are and whose welcome. I'd like to tell the world about it basically!
* Parallel idea: would anyone want to host a public event or similar where
we all talk about our work and the overall concept, a kind of community
tech practitioners open session?
* We have now done our first GFSC stream
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PYVmmFTmVY> - does anyone have a product
or service they'd like us to highlight if we did another one? (would need
paying for this)
* Does anyone want me to do a community spotlight
<https://gfsc.community/vote-out-covid-community-spotlight/> on the blog
for their thing? (can do this for free / blog subscription)
* Would anyone want to start producing a podcast as part of the blog, or
become an author?
* Does anyone want PlaceCal training and to be able to start using it with
their clients?
* If we did another lottery bid can anyone else lead it?
Lemme know your offers and do get in touch if any of this chimes with you,
Hopefully you all have an invite for next meeting too - 17 June at 12:30.
Kim
--
Dr Kim Foale (she/they <https://name.pn/kim-foale>)
*Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.*
Learn more about Geeks for Social Change Community <https://gfsc.community/>,
a collective building post-billionaire technology for a survivable world.
See work by Geeks for Social Change Studio <https://gfsc.studio/>, my
community technology consultancy.
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.*
heya, in case youve not seen it (please do sub to the newsletter if youve
not already) ive finally publihed that piece on the ctp overview:
https://gfsc.community/how-to-establish-a-community-technology-partnership/
my next step is to apply it with examples from within this group, prob
trans dimension first!
hope to see some of u next tue at 12:30 when we can get into it - i think
we can map it out for this group too and i can explain the future business
plan i have in mind for activiating this lil brain trust.
kim
--
Dr Kim Foale (she/they <https://name.pn/kim-foale>)
*Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.*
Learn more about Geeks for Social Change Community <https://gfsc.community/>,
a collective building post-billionaire technology for a survivable world.
See work by Geeks for Social Change Studio <https://gfsc.studio/>, my
community technology consultancy.
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.*
OK I got a bit carried away (100% not procrastination I swear!)
Have attached a neat and tidy version of the diagram I shared in the
meeting with more context.
Lemme know what you think! Next step is then writing out how to use it I
think.
Kim
--
Dr Kim Foale (she/they <https://name.pn/kim-foale>)
*Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.*
Learn more about Geeks for Social Change Community <https://gfsc.community/>,
a collective building post-billionaire technology for a survivable world.
See work by Geeks for Social Change Studio <https://gfsc.studio/>, my
community technology consultancy.
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.*
Heya all, just a reminder we have a meeting today.
Zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86839520341?pwd=2ZiakUe8iXmB13IKVnpvCTfOAybZkb.1
Pad here if anyone wants to add anything:
https://pad.gfsc.studio/PTVtvlr-RKmbFJAwYLelNQ#
See some of you later,
Kim
--
Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>)
*Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.*
Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/>
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.*
Heya all,
i put together a bid for JCRT (deadline next mon) - i do not have the
spoons to do my normal level of editing here but sharing for all to see
where im at on thought processes. on advice from others they are stingy and
dont tend to give out a lot so im just putting in to cover some of my role
for the next 3 years, plus a media assistant, plus a bit for hosting infra.
Thoughts welcome - it is currently a bit over the max 4 pages tho and i
have limited spoons for rewrites but will do my best to incorporate any
feedback on Wednesday afternoon and then send it off.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1huNPLXYcAzdButhyPxb5WLI2Sy4L32WKYMVgEEX…
Oh and I'm writing against the theme sustainable future.
https://www.jrct.org.uk/sustainable-future
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/>
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.*
This one has crept up on me, deadline 3 march:
https://www.jrct.org.uk/sustainable-future
I think its worth putting in a bit to run the initative described in the
blog - maybe just to cover my time, a media helper, some equipment and some
contributor honorariums for now? Will make doing everything else a lot
easier once those things are sorted.
Has anyone successfully applied to JRCT? It would be a bit of a rewrite
from our usual one and I was keen to get on with the lottery re-application
- i do hate writing to deadlines but it would be nice to be less all-in on
the lottery. If anyone can help me do it that would be amazing, not gonna
commit right now :)
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/>
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.*
same feedback diff font - honestly a bit of a relief to know this is the
area we need to work on to unlock a bunch of these and not something more
fundamental!
i sent this in response:
> That is really helpful, thankyou, and is in line with our last rejection
too so this is obvi something we need to work on. Its a tough one as we are
just starting out on what we know now to be the course of action we need to
do - but we are indeed struggling to evidence it. I wonder if there's a
space for someone to run a bit of an "activism r&d" fund somewhere in the
space that prioritises people trying new methods, as if i can say one thing
about the left it is deffo clinging on to past approaches that dont work in
many, many ways imo :)
Kim
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Oonagh Ryder <oonagh(a)lipman-miliband.org.uk>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 at 15:47
Subject: Re: Large grants programme application
To: Kim Foale <kim(a)gfsc.studio>
Hi Kim,
I'm getting back to you with the feedback requested on your large grants
application.
It's important to say first that this was a strong application and scored
well. The work is clearly very relevant both to the aims of the Trust and
of this specific grant programme. The application could have been stronger
on impact. While the activities you were planning to (and have done in the
past) were clear, the application didn't spell out how the activities
connect to a broader process of transformative change. Successful
applications showed a clear link between activities carried out, and change
created towards an overall mission.
I hope this helpful. I'm afraid we're not able to give more detail due to
capacity, but we will be reviewing the application guidance and the process
for next year, so please do feel free to send us any feedback you have on
this.
Best wishes,
Oonagh
*Oonagh Ryder (she/her)CoordinatorThe Lipman-Miliband Trust
<https://www.lipman-miliband.org.uk/>*
*My working days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday*
On Thu, 6 Feb 2025 at 19:21, Oonagh Ryder <oonagh(a)lipman-miliband.org.uk>
wrote:
> Hi Kim,
>
> So sorry, I've had an unexpectedly busy week and won't be able to get this
> feedback to you tomorrow! I should be able to get back to you by next
> Friday.
>
> Apologies for the delay.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Oonagh
>
>
>
>
> *Oonagh Ryder (she/her)CoordinatorThe Lipman-Miliband Trust
> <https://www.lipman-miliband.org.uk/>*
>
> *My working days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday*
>
>
> On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 at 11:50, Oonagh Ryder <oonagh(a)lipman-miliband.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Kim,
>>
>> Yes, we're happy to provide some feedback! I'll need to take this back to
>> our Grants Working Group so it will take up to 14 days, but I will get back
>> to you by Friday 7th Feb.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Oonagh
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Oonagh Ryder (she/her)CoordinatorThe Lipman-Miliband Trust
>> <https://www.lipman-miliband.org.uk/>*
>>
>> *My working days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday*
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 at 11:27, Kim Foale <kim(a)gfsc.studio> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello thanks for letting us know.
>>>
>>> Would it be possible to get some feedback? We are obviously very worried
>>> about big tech's impact on the world rn but are struggling to find suitable
>>> funders for resistance work in this area so we'd love to know what we could
>>> do better next time.
>>>
>>> Kim
>>>
>>> On Fri, 24 Jan 2025 at 10:38, Oonagh Ryder <
>>> oonagh(a)lipman-miliband.org.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Kim,
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for your application to the Lipman-Miliband Trust large
>>>> grants programme. We received over sixty applications, with a high
>>>> proportion of of very strong applications, and regret to inform you that
>>>> your application was unsuccessful on this occasion.
>>>>
>>>> The large grants programme will be re-opening later in 2025. There are
>>>> no restrictions on re-applying to either of our grants progammes, so please
>>>> do feel free to submit an application again this year.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for your interest and we wish you all the best in securing
>>>> alternative funding for this important work.
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>
>>>> Oonagh
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *Oonagh Ryder (she/her)CoordinatorThe Lipman-Miliband Trust
>>>> <https://www.lipman-miliband.org.uk/>*
>>>>
>>>> *My working days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday*
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>)
>>>
>>> *Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.*
>>>
>>> Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/>
>>>
>>> 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.*
>>>
>>
--
Dr Kim Foale (they/she <https://name.pn/kim-foale>)
*Working hours: Mon-Wed 10-5pm.*
Geeks For Social Change <https://gfsc.studio/>
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.*
Hey 👋 I've been chatting with Kim about community tech topics recently, and seems we're on a similar pathway, and so got invited here, thanks for having me!
Not sure who is quite on this list, or what kind of things get discussed. I'm sure I know some of you already, e.g. autonomic, common knowledge, other cotech people..
In any case, here's a little intro with my best attempt at including some relevant info...
My community tech energy primarily goes into https://karrot.world / https://codeberg.org/karrot/ - which is becoming a kind of all in one tool for community organising (which can mean multiple things...) of a self-organised flavour, commons-y, sociocracy kind of idea. It's based on independent groups you have to apply to join, has threaded messaging, activity co-ordination, polls, trust-based permissions, video calls, collaborative pads, plugin system, etcetc. Roles, and sanctions coming soon. Built with django + vue + postgres + redis, kind of "boring" stack. Self-hostable via co-op cloud / etc. And strongly open source.
It's mostly used by groups across Europe that save food from waste, but can be used for other community organising use cases too. I'm keen to find scenarios to collaborate, use it as a base to build other things (maybe can avoid building more similar things from scratch?), share learnings, or just hang out and talk about these kind of things! Especially in the UK (where I am from and based, but our team is distributed around Europe). We have had two rounds of funding from nlnet, around 45kEUR in total, and have been online about 9 years (!), and the food saving groups use it to co-ordinate distribution of around 4000kg of food per day.
I also sometimes do bits of more freelance-y type work, as Karrot doesn't cover our costs of living, probably need to do some of that this year, so also looking to collaborate on that kind of thing too.
Not tech related stuff: I live on a canal boat around in/around the Bath area, and very much into nature, healing, therapy-type topics (IFS lately), low cost living, amateur music jamming/singing, bike touring, wild camping.
Happy to discuss more on or off list about any of these kind of things!
Cheers,
Nick
I wonder if there is any worth in us as a co-hort trying to re-engage with
this, now that Promising Trouble is shutting down?
Kim (or anyone else) - did we have any contact with Matt before? There
might be an opportunity to partner and get funding for us to provide a
"community coordinator" or "community hub" for example? I suspect the
reason Promising Trouble stopping is a lack of funding but we (in the form
of Kim and out < £3000 overhead) might be a lot cheaper.
*Katja Mordaunt* (she/her)
Technical Project Lead
Geeks For Social Change
https://gfsc.studio
I work part time for GFSC and may not always be able to respond immediately
to your message. Likewise, please don’t ever feel the need to apologise for
responding to my emails at your own pace.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Katja <katjamordaunt(a)gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 6, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Subject: Fwd: Next Steps for Community Tech
To: Katja Mordaunt <katja(a)gfsc.studio>
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Promising Trouble <communitytech(a)buttondown.email>
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2025 at 12:02
Subject: Next Steps for Community Tech
To: <katjamordaunt(a)gmail.com>
[image: A colourful illustration of many different kinds of people
collaborating using technology to improve their communities.]
<https://www.ellyjahnz.co.uk/?utm_source=communitytech&utm_medium=email&utm_…>Illustration
by Elly Jahnz
<https://www.ellyjahnz.co.uk/?utm_source=communitytech&utm_medium=email&utm_…>
The start of 2025 has been a time of change at Careful Trouble.
Until now we’ve been an organisation of two parts - half not-for-profit,
half-consultancy - and we’re sad to say that a new year has seen the
closure of our not-for-profit arm, Promising Trouble.
From now on we’ll be operating as Careful Industries, with a focus on
inclusive innovation and careful AI training and consultancy. You can keep
up to date by signing up to our newsletter
<https://www.careful.industries/newsletter?utm_source=communitytech&utm_medi…>
.
Moving forward, this email list will no longer be active, and will be
deleted soon.
But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of Community Tech Community of Practice.
It is now under new management - Dr Matt Dowse at the Centre for
Sociodigital Futures.
Thank you for being part of this community, for sharing ideas and inspiring
others with your work. We’re looking forward to what comes next as the
community continues to grow.
Below is a message from Matt:
------------------------------
Since the start of the Community Tech Community of Practice, Promising
Trouble have curated a network and a platform that has brought together
individuals, groups, and businesses from across the UK who are interested
in community tech. Now that the programme has ended, there is an
opportunity to develop and widen its reach and continue the good work.
I’ve been researching Community Tech as part of my role as a researcher at
the Centre for Sociodigital Futures at the University of Bristol:
www.bristol.ac.uk/censof
<http://www.bristol.ac.uk/censof?utm_source=communitytech&utm_medium=email&u…>
.
Over the past 18 months I’ve attended the Gatherings, joined on line, and
met with many of the members of the Community of Practice as part of the
research that I have been doing. I’ve also met with many other people who
are not part of the Community of Practice in the UK and Europe who are
involved in Community Tech of all kinds.
I think that there is a great opportunity to bring together an intentional
community of people interested in the ways that tech can engage with
communities in positive and progressive ways. This includes past Makers and
Maintainers, Developers, and all those many people who are interested and
curious about Community Tech.
I’m offering to steward a new Community Tech Network, building on past
work, and focussed on providing opportunities for connection,
collaboration, learning, and sharing resources.
As many of you know, Community Tech is a term that seems to describe many
activities. These include local activism, peer to peer learning, acts of
solidarity, coding, sharing, and making. Community Tech is also a vehicle
for alternative ways of organizing, different approaches to innovation, and
thinking about economies, tech for good, and the challenges that Big Tech
brings to the communities that we live in.
A Community Technology Network has the potential to continue to grow this
movement, connecting and sharing the great work that is being done across
the UK.
*If you are interested in being part of a Community Technology Network,
please contact me by email – **matt.dowse(a)bristol.ac.uk*
<matt.dowse(a)bristol.ac.uk>*. *Tell me about the work that you are doing and
what you want from a Network like this.
You can find some of the work of the centre that I work in here Communities
and their sociodigital futures | Research | University of Bristol
<https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/centres/sociodigital-futures/stories/com…>
as
well as a recent essay that I wrote with Rachel at the end of 2024
here Communities
and their sociodigital futures | Research | University of Bristol
<https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/centres/sociodigital-futures/stories/com…>
With best wishes and I hope to hear from you soon
Matt
------------------------------
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