Dear All,
Trebor asked me send in an introduction of who Genderchangers
are and what collaborative aspects we have. Here follows an overview
of our work. It is the first time I try to phrase our collaborative
aspects so please be patient with me...there is some good stuff
below ;-) Your ideas and comments are of course welcome.
--
Gender Changer Academy
The Gender Changer Academy (GCA) started out as an idea in early
1999, and came into practise about eight months later. Three female
volunteers at the ASCII workspace in Amsterdam wanted to learn
more about computer technology, and in particular pc hardware.
While learning the very basics about hardware we invited women
in the neighbourhood to join us.
This lead to a workshop in which five students and three teachers
joined forces and began demystifying the box | thing | computer.
This workshop led to another, and later it became a three evening
course. After this we have added workshops in Linux install, HTML,
Gimp, networking, encryption and gender & tech. The past four years
we have been giving workshops and courses in various places in the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, U.K, France, Croatia, Greece, Canada
and the U.S. All courses are for women and all teachers are women.
On a few occasions men participated as well.
Three years ago we came up with the idea of setting up a tech-
carnival for women. We were tired of seeing so few women present
at various geek events that we decided to build up a platform of
our own. It is now called the eclectic tech carnival, or short /etc,
and is held annually in an Eastern European country each summer.
In July 2004 it will take place in Belgrado, Serbia in collaboration
with Zene Na Delu (Women at Work).
GCA collaborative formula
The GCA collaborative formula was, and still is, quite simple.
First aspect of collaborative work lays in our workshops and
courses. Each course or workshop has a small number of students,
with a maximum of ten. At least two teachers are present each
time. Our aim is to minimize the threshold between teacher and
student, and to maximize creative and collaborative work during
each lesson. All students work in pairs, helping each other
while figuring out which functions different hardware pieces have.
An example from a second aspect is a project like the GCA hardware
reader. Everyone is welcome to add and modify text, and build up
a new version (a wiki is on its way). Many people have been working
on the current reader and in various languages. At this moment a
new version is being translated into Hindi by participants from
the Cybermohalla labs at SARAI in Delhi, India.
A third aspect can be found among the teachers. Their role is
more of being an assistant like a Can-I-Help-You, than a
I-Know-All-I-Am-Your-Uppergeek-Listen-To-My-Wise-Words kinda
thing.
Some people might see a difference in learning and teaching
patterns between womyn and men. Personally I would call a GCA
learning surrounding a female computing environment
| coat hanger | hiphop collective | physical space | where
there is little or no hierarchy, and where all people involved
feel at ease, and are allowed to be curious and fresh in the field.
Two last, but not less important, aspects of our collaboration
involve friendship and food. While doing these courses together
we make new friends, hang out together, share personal stuff,
and cook together. Being friends makes it easier to accept each
others good and bad qualities. This is an aspect which I find
very important. Everyone knows this but it is not often emphasized
in discussions about 'new media initiatives' or what ever we are
called. Sharing a cause is not enough. Being friends helps
collaborative work become successful. One of the genderchangers
came up with the term 'Peer-pool'. This term might be a good
description of what I have tried to explain above. Or maybe not.
Lemmeno.
Collaborative URLs
ASCII workspace
http://scii.nl/
GCA Readers
http://www.genderchangers.org/lib/
and many others.best greetz | Sara Platon
--
The sound (...)
Of stoves being lit tun tun tun...
Of water being drunk gutuk gutuk gutuk..
Of walking chut chut chut...
Of rotis being made thup thup thup...
SHAHJEHAN in 'Cybermohalla Diaries'