GIG @ Communities & Technologies

GIG @ Communities & Technologies

By Victoria WenzelmannNo Comments
The biennial Communities and Technologies (C&T) conference stimulates scholarly debate and is a prime venue to disseminate research on the complex connections between communities and information and communication technologies. #comtech2019 aimed to also connect academia and practitioners - an endeavor that GIG as a network and many members obviously relate and can contribute much to! Already in 2017, some GIGers participated in C&T in Troyes, as Oliver Stickel from Fablab Siegen had initiated a workshop around 3D printing and digital fabrication for education and the common good. This year’s C&T took place in Vienna from June 3rd till June 7th, and many GIG members participated in various roles. Regina Sipos and me organized the workshop Critical Making For and With Communities with the goal to facilitate and further exchange between researchers, practitioners and activists in the fields of critical making, social and digital innovation, participatory design, and community management. It was a very fruitful exchange between people working in...
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Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018

Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018

By Zen EditorNo Comments
On January 26, Youssouf Simbo Diakite, founder and CEO at African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe (ADYFE) was awarded the Mali Entrepreneurship and Engagement Award in the category Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018 – Best Achievement. Watch the ortm.ml news itemDownload Watch Youssouf Simbo Diakite interviewDownload Read more at maliactu.net/mali-4eme-edition-de-la-nuit-de-lentrepreneuriat-promouvoir-la-creation-demploi/ (French). In December 2018, Youssouf and his team at ADYFE organized the high-level forum 'Accelerated Africa Conference 2018 – from Entrepreneur to CEO: Channeling the power of the Diaspora : ...
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GIG @ re:publica Accra 2018

GIG @ re:publica Accra 2018

By Mugethi GitauNo Comments
re:publica Accra, the very first re:publica conference held in Africa, took place on 14-15th December 2018 at the Trade Centre in Accra, Ghana and was attended by over 2000 people from 32 countries. 1st @republica in Africa was a blast. More than 2000 attendees came to Ghana to debate the rising digital society. 274 spokesperson, 110 Hours of program. It was hot, exciting and mindblowing. I learned so much about Africa! Thank you everyone who was involved doing it. #RpAccra pic.twitter.com/RcBpAHSSYV — netzpolitik (@netzpolitik) December 15, 2018 GIG was a supporter for this African edition of re:publica. Many GIGers were among the curation & organizing team as well as speakers. GIG also  hosted the makerspace through Kumasi Hive. Kudzai M Mubaiwa (iZone Hub, Zimbabwe), Nanjira Sambuli (World Wide Web Foundation, Kenya) and Jorge Appiah (Kumasi Hive, Ghana) curated the tracks around the topics ‘Business and Innovation’, Politics and Society’ and ‘Science and Education’. Nanjira Sambuli gave the first keynote speech right after the opening...
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CryptoParty in Brazil

CryptoParty in Brazil

By Zen EditorNo Comments
CriptoAxé, a CryptoParty event aimed to strengthen the security community of Bahia State in Brazil. It was an effort to unite diverse people, collectives and organizations already involved in the dissemination of the debate about the importance of privacy and the tools of online security and cryptography. An event open to the public, with workshops and lectures for all audiences and where the spirit of sharing, solidarity and respect prevailed, so that all people, regardless of gender, class, ethnicity or religion were welcome. The event took place at Raul Hacker Club, on December 8th (Saturday), from 9am to 8pm. At the end, everyone was invited to join the end(less) party.  ...
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GIG@35C3. Hacking Diversity at a Hacker Congress.

GIG@35C3. Hacking Diversity at a Hacker Congress.

By Victoria WenzelmannNo Comments
In December 2018, we managed to gig up rp:Accra and just a week later also 35C3. It has been an intense time - but totally worth it! What is 35C3? The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club, Europe’s largest association of hackers. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and online freedom of speech. The event takes place regularly at the end of the year since 1984, hence the 2018 edition is the 35th one - 35C3. With now 16,000 participants, Congress is considered one of the largest events of this kind, and it is completely self-organized. GIG@35C5 Similar to re:publica and due to the bottom-up nature of the events, Congress is quite focused on Europe and Northern America, which is reflected in the speakers, participants and topics. We want to make sure international perspectives beyond these are represented at CCC. . Hence, GIG...
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GIG @re:publica Accra

GIG @re:publica Accra

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Under the motto "next level" re:publica is going to Accra and so is GIG! The two-day festival will gather the digital society in Accra, Ghana.  As in Berlin you can expect mind blowing talks, hands-on workshops, art installations, an innovation marketplace, four themed lounges and an evening and party program. Through our the Through the CfP re:publica received over 200 applications, over 81% came from Africa-based speakers! There will be about 75 Speakers from all over Africa, from about 15 countries, among them South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Benin, Gambia and Senegal, as well as about  65 speakers from Ghana, on top of that there will be about 25 speakers from other continents (e.g. Brazil, USA, UK, Germany). As of today the program will be published bit by bit. At the moment there are 15 sessions online, with a  50%-50% Gender Balance among speakers.  GIG will be presenting a makerspace as one of the themed lounges and members will be present in different sessions! Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou will...
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Human Networks Festival

Human Networks Festival

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Last week the Human Networks Convergence took place in Barcelona, Spain.  The Human Networks Convergence was a three day gathering of 30 network connectors representing 16 different international networks experimenting with alternative models and ways of organising to tackle systemic challenges. Theresa Fend participated to represent GIG. The purpose of the Convergence was to test whether a shared event, such as a co-designed Human Networks Festival, could provide a container for our networks to share our learnings and practices with the wider world as a means for being greater than the sum of our networks. In the upcoming weeks the working groups will share their insights and next steps in the form of Medium articles and a joint publication....
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Tell us what you think: Humanitarian Maker Principles

Tell us what you think: Humanitarian Maker Principles

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Please give is your feedback on the draft principles to guide Humanitarian Makers in their work: humanitarianmakers.org/.../HM-Principles-Action-Requested Over the past several months, Humanitarian Makers have been developing 8 principles to guide humanitarian making. The process has been to move forward a draft created at the Fab12 conference, to integrate reputable humanitarian and industry principles into the draft and then to invite input from humanitarians and makers to further refine the draft. Now we are opening up the discussion with the wider humanitarian making ecosystem and invite GIG members and friends to contribute. Please provide feedback on the principles and/or share principles that guide your efforts by the 19th October. Be honest and direct as it is our hope that these principles will be a relevant resource for people around the world engaged in humanitarian making. Also, if you have examples of statements of principles that you think would be relevant to our work, please include them in your submission too!! Link to the humanitarian makers principles feedback...
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#SenStartupAct and the Dakar Policy Hackathon

#SenStartupAct and the Dakar Policy Hackathon

By Zen EditorNo Comments
The Dakar Policy Hackathon brought together more than sixty key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Impact Dakar with the goal of developing a Start-Up Act. All stakeholders in the ecosystem have been mobilized to share different proposals to improve the business environment and equip themselves with startup-friendly legislation and regulations to support entrepreneurship and innovation and to respond to global challenges of the world. Read the event report (French). The opportunity for entrepreneurs, innovators and ecosystem enablers to contribute and gave input into policy formulation is a critical and progressive for policy makers and governments as major stakeholders are coming up with effective and inclusive policies that create enabling environment for business development and entrepreneurship. This is what i4Policy helps to deliver, enabling all and empowering all. ...
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Building the Africa Open Science Hardware community

Building the Africa Open Science Hardware community

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Our GIG colleagues Vicy, Jaiksana, Stephen and Jo made their way to Kumasi, Ghana to attend the very first Open Science Hardware summit in Africa: AfircaOSH. The event is being hosted at Kumasi Hive. AfricaOSH is a gathering for everyone interested in Open Science & Hardware as a means to achieve locally adapted, culturally relevant, technologically and economically feasible production in Africa; as an alternative to traditional Intellectual Property (IP) and closed knowledge systems; and to understand its potential for development and collaboration across Africa, especially by reducing barriers to entry in education, research and manufacturing. Participants will include but are not limited to makers, hackers, practitioners and researchers in science, technology, engineering, government officials, private sector players and civil society across the African continent, the global South and the World. The GlobalGathering for Open Science Hardware recently launched the Global Open Science Hardware Roadmap: Making Open Science Hardware ubiquitous by 2025. If you are also working towards Open Hardware in general or more specifically with research...
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