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.

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.  

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@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 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

With best wishes and I hope to hear from you soon

Matt

This was issue #6 of Community Tech. You can subscribe or unsubscribe.

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