GIG wins mAkE! (EU Horizon project grant)

GIG is celebrating as we have received confirmation from the European Commission that our project mAkE will receive funding from the Horizon 2020 grant programme and we can start implementation in February 2022. This is an amazing opportunity to advance decentralised production systems between African and European makerspaces as mAkE will create a joint ecosystem with and for European and African hubs.
Read more about it here!

Announcing DOTS 2021!

Climate change, economic inequality and political divisions are only becoming more pressing challenges in the whole world. As a network of networks, hubs and individuals, we want to jointly implement change through concrete and tangible projects. 

GIG uses the power of gatherings to co-create and implement long-term projects that offer collaborative solutions to systemic problems in different localities, connected through a global network.

Therefore, we started DOTS in 2019 as a new, impact and output driven event format – it is more than a hackathon, a barcamp, an accelerator sprint – it is a combination of innovative formats and methodologies kicking off and scaling up collaborative (South-to-South) projects.

DOTS 2021 will be a virtual event bringing together communities all around the world in times of COVID-19. Public meetups will take place on 29th and 30th of November. Just next week!

Find out more and view the agenda here.

Citizen Social Science combines equal collaboration between citizen groups (co-researchers) that are sharing a social concern and academic researchers. Such an approach enables to address pressing social issues from the bottom up, embedded in their social contexts, with robust research methods. We aim to co-create socially robust knowledge.

To this end, CoAct will be holding monthly hangouts and you are invited!
Here's a blog post about the October hangout which was about "Accounting for gender equality in *Open*Citizen*Social Science – acknowledge and embrace people's life cycles"

You can look out for the next hangout and other events here, and on the CoAct and GIG social media channels.

Webinar: Tuesday, 23rd November 14:15:30 CET
This shall be on shaping a critical and open approach to gender equality in Citizen Social Science. You will not want to miss this!
Find the signup link here
 

We've been busy with several amazing events facilitated by our partnership with Nord Süd Brücken!

Open Health HACKademy #5 Interim Presentation + Careables Global South Discussion - Oct 9, 2021
As part of the Open Health HACKademy #5 organized with MatchMyMaker, ongoing projects as well as successfully published tools from MatchMyMaker were presented. Afterwards, makers from Brazil and Nepal presented open source tools that they are currently working on. More here

Bridging Health Care: Berlin goes to Ceará Innovation Week - Oct 14, 2021
As a prequel to Ceara Innovation week, Careables hosted a panel with the theme ‘Mechanisms for regional development’, that presented the potential of Ceará's ICTs in research, innovation and development. It aimed to disseminate innovative solutions devised and implemented in the state. More here

Ceará Innovation Week - Oct 18-23, 2021

This event featured 35 events focused on intellectual property, industrial and social innovation, geotagging and Geopark, and innovation in public policies. The Innovation Week was supported by Careables and included a session on "Public health: a future vision for open, tailor-made, co-engineered and replicable solutions" where a discussion was held about the current status of projects/work, share results and goals for the future, and how we can better connect in our efforts to build a global and open health ecosystem.
 

Careables Exhibition @ MoFab Kick Off: Repair, Preserve, Invent - Oct 24-25 
How can we achieve more participation in technology, especially in rural areas? How can we preserve cherished objects for longer? What can everyone do to get a grip on the growing drought? And what ideas are there for more mobility? These are some of the discussions had during the Careables mobile workshops and exhibits at the MoFab kick off in Cottbus/Germany. More here

xHain & Careables Make’n’Tell Night - Nov 06, 2021
Careables joined forces with xHain for the first time to exhibit a new Careables Collection produced in xHain hack+makespace! It included Makers from Iraq and Germany talking about one of the Careables they have made and the stories behind them. More here
 

Critical Making - we have a new website!
We are excited to share with you our new website! Find out about Critical Making, explore the case actions here, and come back as we're just starting to share resources and stories.

Do you want to join the community of critical makers? Sign up here.

Help us by taking part in the Critical Making survey.
Collaborative product development is key to build better, faster. With Open Source hardware, we leverage the skills and ingenuity of the many. But how can effective strategies be adopted across industries to encourage openness and inclusion in Maker communities?

We're calling our community of designers, engineers, makers and other creative innovators! Fill out a short survey to share your experience and thoughts on how to shape a more sustainable future for product development. Thank you. 🙏

Take part now

At Connective Cities Living Lab, “change darers” are Rethinking Municipal Response to global pandemic challenges.

The rise of e-government announced a great change in public administrations – but how could it be without Global Innovation Gatherings “change darers” ?

Public sector organisations have always looked out for new ways to fulfill their public mission.

This November—together with Marzavan Innovation, Data Natives, and the Connective Cities platform – members of the Global Innovation Gathering community are taking part in some virtual magic towards “hacking” municipalities worldwide and help them to experiment with new ideas,  processes, networks, management tools and technologies in order to create public value and effect positive change. 

Read more here

 

Engineering good: HabiTech 2021 and SalvageGarden

HabiTech 2021

HabiTech was a conversation during the TechForGood 2021 (virtual) festival about Assistive Tech with 5 speakers who used assistive tech to share their opinion and experience about using assistive tech! (how meta is that!)  Check out this instagram post about it here.

SalvageGarden Makerspace 
The Makerspace at EngineeringGood (called "SalvageGarden") is focused on Assistive Tech projects. From modification, customisation, and personalisation of off-the-shelf products to ideation and development of new objects and solutions to meet the needs of PersonsWithDisabilities. The Makerspace is sadly still trapped under the limitations of lockdown but we anticipate opening up of the space and invite people to reach out to EngineeringGood to express interest and support in our work. We're on Facebook, instagram, and a website that's entirely built and managed by volunteers :) 
Salvage.garden is the new webspace for the projects at the makerspace, but needs help to update and maintain. Ping Saad on saad@engineeringgood.org if you're keen to take that on, InstaStory wizards also welcome!

Read more about Engineering Good here

 

The Internet of production Alliance is hiring!

The COVID pandemic has revealed how fragile and inefficient the global manufacturing paradigm and supply chain are in emergency situations. What if we could manufacture PPE, spare parts, or anything, locally anywhere? What if we reimagined manufacturing? Join us and be part of the future of manufacturing!

The Internet of Production Alliance (“IoP Alliance”) brings together people from around the world to build open infrastructures enabling anyone, everywhere to participate in production.
We believe that the future of production lies in decentralized manufacturing based on shared knowledge, allowing us to deliver products faster, made from locally sourced materials and with less ecological impact.
We are global Alliance of people and organizations building the knowledge and tools to enable this future.

The next 2 years will see a great leap for the Alliance: the first dedicated team is being hired, a foundation is being registered, and new classes of data standards are being developed.

Open positions include:
- A Communication and operations Officer: a people person to provide communications, administrative & logistical support to the IOP Alliance.
- A Data standards Community Support Manager: a person with a background in customer service, remote IT support or technical marketing, to support the community of users of IOP standards
- A DevOps Officer: a person with a computer science/IT background to administer the data and systems linked to the standards and digital infrastructure that IOP Alliance stewards.

We are committed to building a diverse team and strongly encourage applications from people of all genders and all regions of the world. All positions are remote and applications from the Global South are welcome.

Get the full details and apply here

 

The 2021 African Makerspace Gathering


The 2021 Africa Makerspace Gathering just concluded and was one of our highlights of 2021. It was a hybrid event, held physically in Accra, Ghana and on zoom on 18th and 19th November, 2021.

Follow Kumasi Hive's Twitter and keep an eye out for pictures!