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Welcome to September'26 Edition of GIGinsights!
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September has been full of community energy! Big news first: we are so excited to announce that Seeed Studio is joining the GIG Fund as its Community Hardware Sponsor, supporting GIG Fund grantees and their projects in hardware and manufacturing resources. We also spotlight San3a Tech, an inspiring Cairo-based GIG hub member, and recap two community calls: one on open environmental sensing, where members shared how their communities generate their own data, and another on the learnings we took from the recent make-a-thek bus tour. Dive in and get inspired! 🔧✨
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General Updates From the GIG Community and Team Members 📰
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Seeed Studio is a GIG Fund Sponsor!
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We're thrilled to welcome Seeed Studio as our Community Hardware Sponsor for the GIG Fund, contributing $20,000 in hardware and manufacturing support to grantees. Through this partnership, 25 GIG Fund projects will get access to Seeed hardware and Seeed Fusion manufacturing resources, covering everything from environmental sensing and edge AI to small-batch production. This support helps grantees turn their community-driven ideas into innovations that can be tested and deployed in the real world. A big thank you to Seeed Studio for believing in grassroots innovation!
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GIG Member Highlight: San3a Tech
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This month, we're spotlighting San3a Tech, a GIG hub member based in Cairo, Egypt. San3a Tech is a social enterprise working to democratise innovation and manufacturing across the Middle East and North Africa. Through Fab Lab Egypt, San3a Academy and Maker Faire Cairo, the network has reached 300,000+ beneficiaries and supported over 50 fablabs and makerspaces in five countries. This April, Maker Faire Cairo marked San3a Tech's 10th anniversary, bringing together 2,000+ makers for 50+ workshops. San3a Tech also continues to build partnerships, from girls' STEM programs to climate-focused maker projects.
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Community Call Recap: Open Environmental Sensing
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Our latest community call brought together five GIG members to share how their communities generate citizen-led data, from drone imagery to real-time pollution sensors. Gustaff Iskandar (Common Room ID), Bruna Zanolli (Rhizomatica), Tommy Charles (OpenStreetMap Sierra Leone), Onyekachi Okoro (MAJI) and Mike Jensen (APC) explored a shared question: who gets to produce the data that describes a place, and what changes once they do? Common Room's community networks in Indonesia pair internet access with open source weather stations and solar irrigation. MAJI trained Nigeria's oil spill agency on low-cost sensors, and the data now supports a court case against Shell.
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Community Call Recap: make-a-thek Bus Tour
Our latest make-a-thek community call, co-hosted with Fashion Revolution Germany, connected practitioners from Cape Town to Prague to explore our learnings from the first make-a-thek Bus Tour this June! Valérie Záhonová (matériO' Prague) presented a "library you can touch" of 3,000 material samples and a flax-to-garment project, while Zuzana Šmrkovská (Nit Lab) shared how she revived a 1980s Brother knitting machine with the AYAB (All Yarns Are Beautiful) community. What stood out most was how crafting is allowing communities to situate themselves in relation to the technologies that carry their cultural heritage.
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Get ready for Repair Day 2026!
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October 17th marks the 10th edition of International Repair Day, celebrating community repair and saying “no” to e-waste. And this year’s theme, “Repair Brings Us Together,” is a reminder that fixing things can foster new connections. This year, for the first time, GIG joins Repair Day as an official partner, alongside make-a-thek, and we can't wait to see the GIG community out there on October 17th - whether hosting a repair event, participating in a mending session, or organising a swap. Check out the official toolkit for ideas and resources.
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GIG Members' Project Highlights ✨
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The Pranava Institute, India
Titiksha Vashist and The Pranava Institute is hosting a virtual resource launch and panel, "The Internet We Choose to Build: Can We Make Better Futures by Making Young People Play?", on 1 October 2026. The event launches the institute's Unboxing Internet Infrastructures, an open-access educational toolkit that helps young people understand and act on the internet's environmental costs through play-based learning. The programme includes a keynote, a spotlight on community partners from India, Cambodia and the Philippines, and a panel on democratic participation in infrastructure governance and play-based learning. Register here.
Details:
Date: 1 October 2026
Time: 12:30-2:00 PM IST
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Cultiva Lab, Spain
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VIVITA, Philippines
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Gabe Mercado and VIVITA Philippines led CircuLaunchpad, a circular economy incubation camp for young entrepreneurs and startups, in Baguio City this July. The camp was part of Circle Works, an 18-month grassroots programme that empowers youth innovators in the Cordillera Administrative Region to develop circular economy solutions for plastic waste and sustainable production. Thirty-five grassroots teams from the Cordilleras and across the country joined five days of workshops, mentoring sessions and partnerships. Watch the highlights here.
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Events:
Africa’s major digital rights and internet freedom forum, convening civil society, policymakers, technologists, activists, and regional/global stakeholders around privacy, inclusion, digital governance, and online freedoms.
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An open-web and Drupal community conference focused on collaboration, open source, community learning, and the global ecosystem around a major open-source web platform.
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OSHWA’s annual month-long celebration of open source hardware, inviting makers, designers, researchers, and organisations worldwide to share projects, certify their work, and join community events and conversations around open design.
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The first Vienna edition of Europe’s leading festival for digital society, bringing debates, keynotes, and an open barcamp on politics, technology, culture, AI, and digital infrastructure.
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The global gathering of hardware developers, researchers, educators, community scientists, and advocates working to make open science hardware ubiquitous, with unconference workshops, facilitated sessions, presentations, and posters.
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The 10th edition of the French FabLab network’s annual gathering, uniting makers and makerspaces around the theme “Makers and places facing urgency” through visits, conferences, and workshops on social, economic, and climate challenges.
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A free civic festival open to all, pairing re:publica with the New Fall Festival for talks, panels, and workshops on digital self-determination, democratic participation, AI, media, and culture.
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The annual celebration of community repair, with thousands of repair cafés, fixers, makers, and campaigners worldwide hosting events to extend product lifespans, share skills, reduce waste, and advance the right to repair.
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This inaugural symposium, themed “Shaping the Open Transition”, convenes researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and civil society to turn evidence on open source, open hardware, and open science into policy and action.
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A global community festival exploring the intersection of the open internet, technology, society, and digital rights, themed “Wilding” in 2026 and co-created with its community through labs, talks, forums, and installations.
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Opportunities:
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A GIZ-implemented programme supporting co-designed cooperation projects that combine expertise, resources, and knowledge. Projects may address any area of sustainable development and can receive up to €300,000 for implementation periods of up to two years.
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Deadline: October 31, 2026
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A fellowship for individuals pursuing innovative ideas for social change, particularly at the intersection of technology, knowledge, and learning. Fellows receive funding covering their time for one year alongside project co-investment.
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Deadline: November 1, 2026
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A grant programme supporting research and development of free and open technologies that contribute to a resilient, trustworthy, and interoperable open internet stack. Proposals may request up to €50,000, with support for software, hardware, standards, security, and related technical work.
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Deadline: November 3, 2026
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A programme supporting developers and teams to build socially relevant open-source software, with a focus on areas including data security, software infrastructure, and decentralised alternatives to dominant platforms.
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Deadline: November 30, 2026
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A grant programme supporting climate intervention projects approaching small-scale field testing to undertake environmental impact assessments, predictive impact modelling, and engagement with affected communities.
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Deadline: December 1, 2026
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Support GIG 🎯
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We invite you to join us in driving innovation for social impact worldwide as a supporting member.
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Why Support GIG? 🤝
- Drive long-term growth and sustainability for a global network of innovators.
- Promote inclusive, sustainable innovation through knowledge exchange and learning.
- Advance open hardware research and distributed manufacturing.
- Strengthen grassroots climate resilience efforts worldwide.
Ways to Support 🌟
Here are the suggested annual contributions:
Small Organisations: €300
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For organisations with fewer than 50 employees or under €1 million budget
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Large Organisations: €3,000+
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For organisations with 50+ employees or €1 million+ budget
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Contribute now or contact us to learn how your support can help social innovators create lasting change in communities worldwide.
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👀 Stay tuned for more exciting updates next month! 💌
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