Recap: Folk Tech Play Day
How can we make and use technology that supports us in our everyday life and is also easy and fun to use?
How can great p2p, open source, open standards-based, and decentralized tech emerge from community rather than be imposed upon us?
These are the questions that we explore in Folk Tech.
We connected with a kickoff event at Vancouver's Z-Space on October 18. The morning began with introductions and moved on to a workshop to try out Story-Based Interviewing. Then we spent the afternoon exploring some of the terminology and moving into discussion and ideas, including some mesh network set-up, discussion about motivations in social media, and how to create "marketing" for Folk Tech.
The room was packed with a range of people with different experiences, backgrounds, and technical skills. As much as anything we discussed, the energy of this group of people made the day a success.
Folk Tech for People
There's a growing awareness that technology developed in the systemic architecture of VC and extractive capitalism can't support the relationships we need for collaboration and for life.
Technology that gives us the freedom and responsibility for our data and community relationships can emerge when we work in community to source needs, understand motives, and operate with solidarity rather than trying to "get users," which implies technology makers are the dealers not healers.
Moving ahead, we want to offer more participatory design practices for technologists and more gatherings for people living and doing work or learning in community to find supportive and delightful technology to support them!
Here's the slide deck from the event, if you'd like to revisit it!
Here are some terms that we discussed- please share YOUR definitions of these concepts!
What's Next?
We plan to host informal virtual meetings to share out what we're working on, learnings, collaboration opportunities, and resources. Sign up for events here and join us on November 19!