Pinned post

What makes communities so difficult to reach for digital inclusion and local history projects? In our new blog post, we take a dive into the obstacles we faced when working with a housing association to put together a digital community history project in Oldham.

Link: gfsc.studio/blog/2023/raftt-de

(pls boost) What ideals do you place in the concept of "community"?

It tends to be a positive word, one people put a lot of desire and aspiration into. I'd like to know more about what that means for you

To read the full blog post, head here: gfsc.studio/blog/2023/raftt-de. If you'd like to support us in delivering community history projects in future, we'd really appreciate your contributions on Ko-fi! ko-fi.com/gfscstudio

Show thread

It's interesting to consider how differently this project might have unfolded if archival and community history interests were considered from the start. An attitude which considered this kind of storytelling important for the community, might have seen better records kept along the way, and pre-emptive consent gathered from residents of the towers.

Show thread

The most successful outreach was on-the-ground events in the community, and word-of-mouth about the project from the housing association we partnered with. We did manage to engage some key storytellers, but there were many more potential participants we could identify but just weren't allowed to contact — like those on local history Facebook groups.

Show thread

We found that data protection legislation made it very difficult to engage with participants! While data existed on people who had been living in the towers, the appropriate permissions weren't gathered at the time, and GDPR restrictions meant weren't allowed to use this contact information to reach former residents.

Show thread

The aims of the project were to create a digital space that tells the story of two towers (which stood from 1975 to 2021), their residents, and the close surrounding area, and also to involve local residents in the project in ways which would increase and develop their own digital skills.

Show thread

What makes communities so difficult to reach for digital inclusion and local history projects? In our new blog post, we take a dive into the obstacles we faced when working with a housing association to put together a digital community history project in Oldham.

Link: gfsc.studio/blog/2023/raftt-de

(We’d strongly encourage you to support their work via a donation on ko-if if you are financially able ko-fi.com/transsafetynetwork, and by reading and sharing their articles as a means of countering anti-trans narratives)

Show thread

Their fact-based journalistic reporting is of an extremely high quality, but their minimal old website didn’t instil first-time visitors with the trust that TSN deserve. They are now much better equipped to claim their position as a trusted source for counter-narratives against the increasingly hostile world of anti-trans organised harm.

Show thread

TSN are old friends of ours, and we’ve always been passionate supporters of the tireless, often painful work their team do to unpick both mainstream media and far right lies about the trans community.

Show thread

We are delighted to announce the launch of Trans Safety Network’s new and improved website and brand identity, in partnership with Studio Squid. Visit the new site at transsafety.network

After over a year’s work, we have finally launched a beta version of our new site… Check it out at gfsc.studio/ — you can see all of our lovely faces, explore a wide range of projects, learn about how you can support our work directly, and much more.

The paint is still (metaphorically) a bit wet — we know there are a few issues which need ironing out — if you spot any terribly broken things or howling errors, please do slide into our DMs or @ us on Discord.

Show thread

I am sure many other small studios will be familiar with what is often the hardest project of all — their own website! Self-promotion can often end up falling between the cracks during busy weeks and months…

For far too long, the GFSC website has been out of date, with few examples of our work, and not enough explanation of who we are and what we do. No longer!

Reminder we are a content designer and a developer! We’re a small predominantly , , and studio trying to make a fairer society using activism, , and research.

We work a , and are fully remote in the UK.

Content designer: gfsc.studio/2022/12/07/hiring-

Web developer: gfsc.studio/2022/12/07/hiring-

Reminder that UnTechCon is THIS SATURDAY! You can find all the details about the event here: gfsc.notion.site/UnTechCon-1-e including Eventbrite sign up page, schedule, code of conduct, FAQS etc. We can't wait to see you there!

We've written up a few FAQs about the day that we've had!

Full schedule announcement and details about the day coming on Thursday, can't wait to meet you all 🤗

gfsc.studio/2022/11/24/untechc

Show thread

Join us at Iffy Books on Saturday, December 10th from 6 a.m. to noon EST to participate in UnTechCon 1, a virtual unconference organized by Geeks for Social Change (@gfsc). We'll have coffee and donuts!

Register for UnTechCon:
https://gfsc.studio/2022/11/14/announcing-untechcon.html

Register for our meetup in PHL (optional):
https://iffybooks.net/event/untechcon

We're also thrilled to be on The White Pube's last podcast talking about our plans for 2023.

Synopsis: "Is Instagram a good place to share art? It's like we are all standing in the same town square screaming for attention but we can't even clearly hear the screams because we are screaming too. In this episode, we discuss the limits of centralised social media for artists and we also look at the alternatives"

Basically an RSS loveletter with @gdlp, @h & Zarina!

Link: thewhitepube.co.uk/podcasts/in

✨ANNOUNCING: UnTechCon ✨ — a one-day unconference about creating community digital autonomy, challenging big tech, and creating a future worth living in. It's on 10th December on the GFSC discord.

An unconference is a conference where there's no preset agenda or speaker list, under a loose overall theme. All attendees are encouraged to give talks, lead discussions, run workshops, etc. Or just come and listen if you'd prefer!

Full info here: gfsc.studio/2022/11/14/announc

We're still getting used to our little Mastoson server but are looking forward to sharing more of our projects with you and having a more direct line between what our staff are working on and the general public. This profile will hopefully slowly start to replace our Twitter profile here as we go: twitter.com/gfscstudio

Look forward to meeting you all!

Show thread
Show older
Geeks for Social Change

Geeks for Social Change are working towards a fairer society using activism, technology, and research. We welcome friends and acquaintances of the studio to join our server.