The Geek Catalog – And So It Begins

Sunrise

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
  • 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
  • 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/.

An Interview With Bill Kendrick On His Atari Parties!

Remember when I mentioned the Atari Party when I profiled the Digital Game Museum? Well I got a chance to meet the gentleman behind the event, Bill Kendrick (ironically, when I had to make a correction). Of course I seized on the opportunity to interview him because this is a living history event – the kind of thing we geeks should do more. That’s a hint, but let’s talk to Bill to motivate you more.

Read more

California Extreme – Looking Back, Looking Forward

caextreme_2001_collage

Last year I found out about California Extreme, an event in the Bay Area where people get together to show off, discuss, and of course to play old video games and pinball machines over the course of two days. This has been running for 16 years, and its to my shame as a geek that I took so long to discover it.

So needless to say this year I went, if only because I felt a near-moral obligation to do so. This is pure applied geekery – a historical and social event that also contains some people who do or did make a living in involved industries, and a ton of hands-on experiences.

Here’s what I saw. Short form – it was great. But dive in longer – there’s a lot to share.

Read more