Vulca Seminar 2023 | Learning Networks

Vulca Seminar 2023 | Learning Networks

About Vulca Seminar Vulca Seminars were created as a following step of Vulca Tours, enabling the makers’ community to interconnect with each other, deepening the sense of belonging to the community VULCA is developing. Through Seminars, we want to emphasise different makers’ communities in Europe. Each year, our seminar is organised in a different place and country in Europe, and topics are adapted based on key efforts of the welcoming community. Seminars are open to everyone who thinks the maker movement makes a positive impact and we want to encourage everyone (makers, hackers, researchers, …) to meet and discuss with each other. 6th EDITION (already) Previous editions of VULCA Seminar brought us to several European countries such as France, Poland or Portugal. In 2023 VULCA community will be reunited in Ljubljana, Slovenia. We visited Slovenia in 2017, meeting Kreator Lab in Maribor, and then Zavod 404, Poligon and Rog Lab in Ljubljana. Years after, we kept relations with some of them through different projects and events. 2023 is the right moment to organise something together, and the new CENTER...
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Business Model Talk on Sustainability of Networks

Business Model Talk on Sustainability of Networks

This month's Business Models Talk will tackle the topic of the Sustainability of Networks. We have Felista Aku, Senior Partnership Manager at AfriLabs based in Nigeria, and Tom Hansing, Co-founder of the Network of Open Workshops in Germany. In this episode, we will discuss the challenges of maintaining the operations of a Network and showcasing different financial models through examples in Africa and Europe. We will touch on the value added by networks and examine ways digital communities can remain connected to survive.  Each month we host a community discussion focussed on a different aspect of how to make the maker ecosystem more financially sustainable. We invite you to join us and share your experiences, gain insights into how to grow your makerspace, and discuss different revenue streams and business models. ...
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Data_labe: A Hub for Data and Narratives from the Favela

Data_labe: A Hub for Data and Narratives from the Favela

Data_labe is a data and narratives laboratory based in the Maré favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is also a member of the Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), a network of innovation hubs, makerspaces, hackerspaces and other grassroots initiatives worldwide. In this blog post, we will showcase their work and connection to GIG and invite you to listen to an audio interview with Gilberto Vieira, one of the co-founders of data_labe. You can listen to the interview here: Data_labe was born in 2016 as a project within the Observatório de Favelas, a social organisation promoting favelas' human rights and social justice. In 2018, it became an autonomous non-profit association. Its mission is to promote the democratisation of knowledge through data generation, analysis and dissemination, focusing on race, gender and territory. Its team comprises young people from low-income regions who produce new narratives through data. At the core of their projects is the question of the images constructed about the city and its...
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H-Fablab – Fuelling sustainable innovative solutions in Côte d’Ivoire;  starting with young makers

H-Fablab – Fuelling sustainable innovative solutions in Côte d’Ivoire;  starting with young makers

Dodji Honou conducting a practical training for kids at H-Fablab (all photos courtesy of H-Fablab) In the neighborhood of Bingerville about 45 minutes -1 hour from Abidjan, in the district of Angré,  stands H-FABLAB.  A digital manufacturing laboratory whose primary objective is to promote learning by doing among young people, whether or not in school, literate or not in French. The space was opened formally  in Sep 2021, but had been running informally for 2 years before that. They enjoy good internet access via a fiber connection, though electricity can be sometimes unstable Dodji Honou is  the founder of H-Fablab. His story begins in Togo, where he was born. And where his story with makerspaces  and innovation hubs began. He was a member of  Woelab now expanded into Hubcity in Togo, and in 2013 while there, his story with GIG also began. He met GIGers, Geraldine and Max , who introduced him to GIG.  He later moved on to Senegal to work with a...
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Education, Bits and Trees Festival for digitization and sustainability in education

A two-day learning festival for students and lecturers of pedagogical courses, teachers and school administrations, pupils and everyone who wants to rethink and redesign learning. Let's develop concrete ideas together on how to bring future topics related to sustainability and digitization into schools!  By the way, teachers can have their participation in the festival recognized as further training. More info. And otherwise? The ticket includes coffee, delicious food and a sophisticated supporting program with yoga, dance workshops, a massage room and much more! Tickets are available here!* *pssst: The tickets are also valid for the Bits & Bäume conference taking place at the same time! Find full information about the program/schedule on their website here Event organized by:Junge Tüftler*innen (Young Tinkerers), TU Berlin (Technical University) and Education Innovation Lab. ...
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Building Innovation in Nepal: Impact Hub Kathmandu

Building Innovation in Nepal: Impact Hub Kathmandu

photo courtesy of Impact Hub Kathmandu Impact Hub Kathmandu is an open, inclusive and collaborative space designed to give social innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers somewhere to meet, work, network and learn. They provide a friendly open space that welcomes people from all across Kathmandu, and beyond! They are part of a global network of 105+ Impact Hubs in over 60 countries, working across disciplines, acting across sectors, with amazing people putting ideas into action.  Impact Hub KTM provides business support to Nepali entrepreneurs and businesses with a social purpose. They connect, inspire and support impact entrepreneurs to scale up their projects and enterprises to address some of Nepal’s challenges,  convening changemakers to convert their passion and commitments into meaningful projects. They also have FabLab Nepal, a digital fabrication laboratory to learn, play, create, mentor, invent, and innovate. They provide access to the environment, the skills, the materials, and the advanced technology to allow anyone to make (almost) anything. Since establishment, they have worked...
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Africa Makerspace Network practical training session

Africa Makerspace Network practical training session

The second edition of the AMN Practical Training Session is set to happen on the 26th August, 2022 and is themed, “DIY and Everyday Hacks for Makerspaces”. This edition is centered on knowledge exchange on the theme. Participants would demonstrate simple hacks and DIYs that can be adopted to make work easier and faster in the makerspace setting.Venue: Zoom. Event link would be shared with participants once they register.Participant registration link;bit.ly/AMN-PracWk22 Inquiries should be channeled through [email protected] The African Makerspace Network (AMN) is a community of African Makerspaces comprising researchers, innovators, hobbyists and students that use tools and equipment within a structured space for skills and knowledge sharing, community problem solving towards attaining a sustainable development in Africa. The Network birthed in 2019 currently has in its community about 27 makerspaces from across 10 African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire and Botswana. The purpose of enhancing harmonization among makerspaces in the African region to...
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AfricaOSH 2022 Cameroon

AfricaOSH 2022 Cameroon

AfricaOSH is an annual summit taking place on a rotating basis across the regions of Africa. A 3 day event consisted of presentations, brainstorming and panel discussion on sharing science and hardware to promote African innovation. The AfricaOSH Summit is a grassroots effort to bring together a community of researchers, educators, innovators, makers, makerspaces, and many more. This year’s Summit applications are now open to everyone. The Summit is slated for September 29th to October 1st at MboaLab, Yaounde-Cameroon. Apply with the link below:https://bit.ly/AOSH_Summit22https://bit.ly/AOSH_Summit22 Deadline for applications is on the 31st July 2022...Le sommet AfricaOSH est une communauté de chercheurs, d’éducateurs, d’innovateurs, de fabricants, de makerspaces, et bien d’autres. Les candidatures pour le sommet de cette année sont maintenant ouvertes à tous. La date limite pour les candidatures est le 31 juillet 2022. Nous espérons vous voir au Cameroun. Postulez avec le lien ci-dessoushttps://bit.ly/AOSH_Summit22 The aim of the summit is to discuss all the opportunities for Africa, offered by Open Science and its various trends and topics (Citizen sciences,...
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IGF 2022 Ethiopia

IGF 2022 Ethiopia

image from IGF 2022 website The 17th IGF, under the overarching theme Resilient Internet for a Shared Sustainable and Common Future, will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 28 November to 2 December 2022. The meeting programme is guided by five themes drawn from the Global Digital Compact in the UN Secretary-General's Our Common Agenda report. The IGF 2022 Call for Session Proposals invites stakeholders to propose sessions on those themes and is open until 3 June 2022. A Fully Hybrid IGFThe 17th annual IGF will be hosted in a hybrid format. The meeting will aim at accommodating the participation of stakeholders present onsite in Addis Ababa or participating online in an equitable manner. This hybrid approach also extends to the session organizing teams (organizers, speakers, moderators and rapporteurs) who will participate online or onsite.  The overall objective is to make participation in IGF 2022 meaningful and inclusive for all participants.  Elements of the hybrid format are currently under careful review by organizers. Participating PlatformThe 17th IGF will be hosted on a unique digital platform where meeting discussions will take place...
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Tropixel Brazil 2022

Tropixel Brazil 2022

Tropixel is a community that operates on the borders between culture, science, technology and society, dreaming of regenerative futures for our side of the world. Tropixel Sementes (seeds) is a self-organized meeting of the Tropixel network. At this moment in Brazil and the world, it is essential that we meet again and design (continue designing) joint strategies for this difficult year. There are elections at the end of the year, and that is a challenge in itself. In every state and across the country, 2023 will also be intense. So let's meet and discuss either creating ways to survive even worse conditions, or starting to regenerate from the rubble (and regenerating is not rebuilding, it is not repeating, it is not resuming old premises). Plans Tropixel Sementes will take place over four days at the headquaters of Instituto Neos; a fantastic space surrounded by Atlantic Forest .  Instituto Neos headquaters. Image from Ubatuba Wiki It's a date, not a festival. In other words: Tropixel doesn't imagine having...
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