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Civic Geek Catalog Update 11/30/2014

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The latest update for the Civic Geek Catalog is here.  We’ve got things for STEM, Video Games, and Writing enthusiasts!

The catalog is also sorted by Geekery and by Category!  154 entries and climbing!  I hope to do some resorting and mass additions over the holidays.

STEM

  • Education
    • The Hidden Genius Problem – An Oakland-based nonprofit that encourages technological skills and entrepreneurship for young men of color.
  • Equality
    • Platform – A nonprofit working to increase the participation of under-represented people in the “innovation economy.” Has an annual conference and works with YesWeCode.
  • Female Geeks
    • Tech Girls Canada – Provides national leadership for the various industry groups in Canada encouraging women in tech careers.

Video Games

  • Academics
  • General
    • GameConfs – A privately-run website that tracks and provides guides to games-related conference. Open to contributions and assistance.

Writing

  • Books
    • Books Abroad – Promotes literacy and a focus on sustainable escapes from poverty. Recycle used books, and focuses on getting people involved.
    • Borderline Books – UK-based organization collecting overstocks and damaged books and distributed them around the world.
    • GBA Ships – Runs a floating book fair – literally, a ship. A great way to help reach people around the world – and also works with community groups for supply aid and community care.
  • Equality
    • We Need Diverse Books – Focus on promoting diverse narratives in children’s literature. Reaches out to individuals and groups in children’s publishing, and is always looking for people to help out.

– 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/.

Civic Geek Catalog Update 11/23/2014

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So here’s your pre-Thanksgiving roundup of good causes and civic geekery to get involved in, from a comic historical guide to the infamous Desert Bus.

As always you can find the Civic Geek Catalog at CivicGeek.com, where it’s sorted by Geekery and by Category.

Anime

  • Academics
    • Anime And Manga Studies – Focuses on news and articles on the academic studies of anime and manga. It’s owner also does a symposium an Anime Expo.

Comics

  • Academics
    • Comics Research – A curated guide to books and resources about comics books, comics trips, and fannish information. Open to contributions of material and suggested resources.
  • History
    • Digital Comics Museum – An enormous archive of researched, curated, public domain golden age comics available free – and always open for donations and assistance!

Video Games

  • Charitable Work
    • Desert Bus – Since 2007 Desert Bus has been raising money for Child’s Play via webcasting marathons of the infamous never-ending bus driving game “Desert Bus.”
    • Donate Games – Partners with publishers and collects donations of games and equipment, then re-gifts items or sells them when appropriate to raise money.
    • Game To Aid – A charity that raises money via broadcast video-game marathons, often with various creative (and at times painful) themes.
    • Games Done Quick – Does game speedruns to raise money for charity.
    • Gaming For Others – A UK group that does marathons for charity, and works with Special Effect.
    • Global Gaming Initiative – Delivers positive mobile games – and then contributes 50% of the proceeds to appropriate causes.
  • General
    • Genes In Space – A game that uses game data and environments to “gamify” analyzing cancer data.

– 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/.

Fan I Am #8: Own Our Fandom

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keys

Now we come to the end of our journey. Well, so far, you know me.

So my conclusions from all my analysis were:

  1. It’s understandable why people identify with fandoms – it’s a core expression.
  2. There are several forms of fans.
  3. Identifying with a  fandom primarily isn’t appropriate for some people as it may be disconnecting – but for others it makes perfect sense. Those cases are those who are highly active in fandoms and/or have professional involvement.
  4. Fandom pathologies often originate from disconnection, over-identification (including with irrelevant demographics), over-investment, and unexpected interruptions.
  5. “Fandom” is best understood as being a broader phenomena than we may think.

Now all this is well and good, but beyond analysis what does this mean? What do we do?

Fortunately I have an answer.

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