Product
From Winter Camp INC
Contents |
Manifesto
What are the aims and goals of the Genderchangers? How did these come about and how have they evolved since 1999 when the collective was created? Is it possible to visuallu image the organisation in an organogram for example?
Website
We need to move from a static to dynamic site. It would be wonderfull to have more women participating and contributing to moulding the content of the site.
Anna: It would be nice if during the wintercamp there was time to think and talk about how the website can be restructured to be more useful to the Genderchanger's needs as we are now. We have many women scattered about but (almost?) no local groups in real life. But most of us wish to have such groups, maybe like Linux User Groups, who meet, share experience, help solve problems, organise courses, ... It would be good to have the website as a tool to help organise local groups: we could add very simple ideas to help with this: How to set up mailing lists, how to find like minded women, how to organise courses..
Generally I would love to see us to be more actively inviting women to participate: advertise the mailing list more (on the website, that is, for now). If we think we are capable: another point for discussion at the wintercamp. --> This would also fit the Starter's Kit section further down.
Another idea is to offer more practical help with software: which to use, how to use it, simple(!) how-tos instead of complicated manual. Maybe links to other websites who already have this kind of thing. "I want to find out about photo editing but don't want to buy Photoshop": Here is GIMP, here is how to use it, here is the Linuxchix course GIMP for beginners, for example. Plus ideally: here is the Genderchangers chat room, the Linuxchix IRC server, etc. to ask in real time.
Amaia: I'd like to put more social networking features in the website, to help keep the energy flowing and have more "ambient awareness"[1] and more human touch. I'm not sure it this would be something to do on the current website or something to make in another like thenetwork.genderchangers.org/eclectitechcarnival.org or something like that.
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audrey: i would like to introduce an alternate option to using drupal : wordpress
wordpress is *not* a CMS - its a blogging platform with customisable CSS and variable pre-made 'themes to choose from.
reasons: 1) it is *much* easier to use/learn/update/implement (i've been using for a couple of class blogs already so i speak from experience)
2) though the functionalities are reduced (in comparison to a CMS) i think wordpress can cover our needs
-can have multiple user logins with different 'permissions' (so authors can simply put posts, editors can edit other posts, and for example admin has all rights.... etc). [similar to drupal but less flexibility of permission defenition - which i dont think is necessary in our case]
-can have multiple pages/sub-pages (with different parent pages etc).
-supports media upload (and embed) of most kinds (from what i can tell).
3) like drupal, wordpress would be installed on our server (well tuxic server actually - the one we currently use for GCA website).
4) the themes look nicer and are much much easier to customise than drupal ;)
5) this solution is 'implementable' withing the winter-camp week (is drupal realistically?)
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Printed material
We have never been strong in producing brochures or visiting cards. It may be very usefull to put some time and energy into this once and for all. In addition stickers, buttons, postcards, a quick-screen, poster, banner and "readers".
Business Plan
Sometimes we talk about making a real and serious plan for financing one or more women / Genderchangers to do the everyday stuff that needs to be done! Do we want to go for the NGO route and apply for subsidy form funders like GFW, Hivos or (even!) the Open Society? Or do we dare go for the NPO route and find a way for us to earn money in a manner?! This is an ideological and organisational cultural shift that will need a lot of attention and discussion by all.
- Long term project plan
- How to finance our endeavours
- How to become independant
- From volunteers to a NPO?
Centre on the Move
The Eclectic Tech Carnival is a Genderchangers-on-the-Road / GCA-on-Tour intervention. We could do more of this; have a bus, a mobile classroom. It's a practical example of a suitcase for the Community Advocate / Public Relations / Marketing workers.
Chapter Starter's Kit
GCA-in-a-Box
donna: http://www.tacticaltech.org/ set a good example IMO
ushi: some time of research for existing "how to's" (manuals-f.e. http://makezine.com/projects/) and analyse why they might worke or what we are missing - maybe this lead us into a method of making "how to's" for a starter kit.
Give new chapters a leg-up
Along with practical suggestions and examples of what has worked, new groups need to be able to connect with and help and support one another.
genderchangers instructable
What/How would we flesh out a genderchanger 'instructable'? What is the goal/step-by-step approach and 'result' of the genderchangers network?
audrey: my goal is to document the various discussions during the winter-camp and frame into an instructable!
Physical Meeting / Classroom Space
Hacklab examples
http://hacdc.org/ http://hacklab.to/ http://www.nycresistor.com/ http://koeln.ccc.de/index.xml
Existing how-to-s & tips
http://hacklab.to/archives/on-incorporating-a-hacker-space/ http://hacklabs.org/es/howto
Possible Public Intervention
reni: i'd like in any case to amplify the sounds by using contact mics and i would really like to do something punky
donna: iets met handvest van de aarde
Buzzword Bingo <http://lurkertech.com/buzzword-bingo>
cooking - could be ambivalent as stereotype female activity (or: "we could just make dishes where everything is balls")
Wintercamp discussion on products
Build in some kind of each on teach one concept. For example each workshop could start with a short presentation on GCA including a preamble "this workshop is for free, the price is to teach someone who is one step behind you in learning what you know or have learned" (pay-it-forward, good karma, chain of favours).