| Community website - sub to our newsletter | https://gfsc.community |
| Consulting website - overdue an update | https://gfsc.studio |
| Discord | http://discord.gfsc.studio |
| https://www.instagram.com/geeksforsocialchange |
Come along
All our drop-ins are free, online, and open to anyone.
You don't need to be technical, you don't need to prepare anything, and you're welcome to just listen.
Find us on Discord at discord.gfsc.studio or just turn up.
Going Forward:
We found the audience of the various drop-ins overlapped significantly, so we're making some changes to our drop-ins
• PlaceCal
- Wednesday 18th March 12-1pm, Google Meet
• Peer Support, for creatives using technology & technologists being creative
- Tuesday 24th March, 4-5pm, Discord
• Collective meetup for staff & volunteers
- Tuesday 7th April, 4-5pm, Discord
Our Writers and Researchers meeting has been space for people writing about technology, community, and social change.
Several of the discussions have led towards posts for the GFSC blog, and some are going to lead into the revival of our podcast later this spring.
Watch this space, or (listen to it), if you will.
Artists, Creatives and Freelancers:
How do you leave Instagram when your audience is there?
Everyone knows corporate platforms are bad for you – the algorithm buries your posts, you don't own your audience, and the whole model is designed to extract from you rather than serve you.
There's no easy answer here, though some more independent platforms do exist, including Faircamp for self-hosting music, Merlot for creative projects, and ActivityPub for decentralised social networking.
PlaceCal Community Organisers
Local knowledge is everything.
The people making the best use of PlaceCal have been able to connect groups they already know.
PlaceCal works best when local people who already know and understand their community are involved in shaping how it's used there.
Tech Developers and Creators
Community organisation has become a kind of folklore.
Councils stopped printing guides to what's on because they assumed computers would solve it. Computers didn't.
Now if you want to find a yoga group, for instance, you have to rely on knowing someone who knows one.
That's the problem we're all trying to solve.
What’s been happening at our drop-ins?
We launched our four community drop-ins at the start of the year, and we’re now a couple of months in. Here's some of what we've learnt – and when you can drop in and join us next.
Here are just a few snippets of what the groups had to say. See the article for more!
You can read the more substantial summary on our blog: https://gfsc.community/whats-been-happening-at-our-drop-ins/
The Geeks for Social Change Podcast will be returning this year, and I've been tasked with making it come to life.
(Hi, by the way. I'm Ben Swithen (they/them, or what you will), and I wrote this article, and have been handling Geeks for Social Change social media since December)
I'm keen to hear from you about what you'd like to hear in our podcast, especially if you really disagree with anything above. Now's the time to rebuke me, if necessary.
I hope to hear from you, and vice versa!
Why Don't You?
I hope you do make a podcast – but with the same wariness I keep in my pocket when I hope a friend gets a dog:
I hope you do, if it is right for you to do so!
You can find the full version of the article (including reasons why right-wing podcasts prosper and left-wing ones struggle) on the GFSC blog: https://gfsc.community/why-bother-making-a-podcast/
Anyone could make a podcast, but why would you want to? An in-depth look at the reasons for and against podcasts as political, creative and social force (and why right-wing podcasts succeed in ways left-wing ones don't)
