Community

Hey all, Steve here.  I finally got around to a project I’ve wanted to work on for awhile: The Geek Catalog.  A bit of a Whole Geek Catalog as it were.

The idea is this – we geeks can, should, and want to be involved.  We can apply our skills and our passions to making the world a better place and engaging in our communities.  However where to start is kind of the question.  So I’ve set aside a project for myself where I’m going to begin inventorying ways for geeks to really get involved – based around what we care about.

So The Geek Catalog will list things sorted by Geek Focus (what do you geek over) and Community Focus (what you want to get involved in).  Drop by and find ways to do more!

Now how far can I take this?  Don’t know for sure.

But we’re going to have fun finding out.

 

Computing

• Female Geeks
  • Made With Code – Promotes women in coding with projects, events, and mentoring. Has several alliances and supporters.

Cosplay

• Culture
  • Geeks For Consent – Spreads the word on cosplay =/= consent, petitions conventions for proper policy, and more.

General

• History
  • Texas A&M Cushing Library Fanzine Collection – A giant archive of pre-internet fanzines and documents – always open to donations.
• Knowledge
  • The Digital Human Library – A resource (for Canadian teachers) that provides people to be digital and remote experts. Worth joining, inviting, and emulating – something great to try at a convention.
  • The Human Library – A site encouraging human libraries, where people act as living books. The site encourages and instructs organizers.  Something for geeks to try at cons, clubs, and more.
• LGBT
  • GeeksOut – A site for gay geeks that focuses on both geek and LGBT issues, with it’s own attitude. Always looking for supporters!

STEM

• Citizen Involvement
  • Code For America – An alliance of coders and citizens that innovate on technology, draft policies, and create apps to help citizenship.
• Female Geeks
  • Women Rock Science – A blog about women in science, from resources to history to recent discoveries.
• Space
  • Penny 4 Nasa – A group working to raise awareness of NASA, get increases in funding, and promote space expoloration.

Video Games

• Female Geeks
  • Girls Make Games – A series of international sumer camps encouraging girls to explore the world of video games.
• General
• • The Museum of Art And Digital Entertainment – A mix of museum, lectures, and classes to promote game history and awareness, located in Oakland, California.
• History
  • California Extreme – A convention of video game and pinball enthusiasts where the actual machines are brought into one big arcade. Includes panels and other events – and accepts volunteers.
  • Digital Game Museum – An archive of games and game memorabilia that does shows and displays. Based in San Jose, California, but open to support from anywhere.
  • The International Arcade Museum – A giant database of games that you can help with! Also contains huge archives of past relevant magazines and more.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.