activities for the civic geek

Activities For The Civic Geek: Promote Accessibility

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Access to geeky pursuits can be challenging for some people; but you can help with access for people and even do more!

We take it for granted that people can enjoy the same geeky stuff we do.  It’s out there, right?  Accessible, right?  Not quite.

Some geeks suffer from assorted challenges.  It may be temporary, like a broken leg or reaction to a medical procedure.  It may be far more permanent in the case of disabled limbs and color blindness.  If you’re an able-bodied person who’s ever been seriously injured, you know exactly what it’s like to not be able to do the things you love, if only for awhile.

However we geeks are inventive folks and are at our best when more people can enjoy our community.  It’d be time well spent to help geeks who have some challenges, temporary and permanent, enjoy the same things we do.  You could:

  • Work at a convention and advocate for accessibility policies.
  • Work with groups that make video games, books, and more accessible to people who have limits.
  • Promote awareness of just how geek communities can be more open and accessible to people who have their limitations.
  • If you’re really technical, perhaps your geek group could get involved in charities, fix-it-shops, repurposing/refurbishing technology, and other ways to provide accessibility to people – geeks and more.

These activities aren’t just good for geekdom and the people benefiting – they’re good for you and your communities.  You learn how other people live, broaden your horizons, open your hearts and minds – and learn ways to help others.

Here’s a few geeky activities to look into to get you started:

Cosplay

  • CosAbility – A group focused on helping cosplayers work their physical challenges/disabilities into cosplay!

Video Games

  • Able Gamers – A charity that works to improve the lives of people with disabilities through video games, including charity work, consultation with gaming companies, and more.
  • Special Effect – Helps people with disabilities play video games with special technology and a variety of fundraisers. Takes donations and runs events.

 

Activities For The Civic Geek: Get Historic

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Love your fandom, love your geekdom? Get involved in archiving and preserving history.

History is important to all of us – to understand the past, to know where we came from, to predict where were going. Preserving history and recording history are important for that very reason. With our preserved and recorded history, we loose something.

So go and preserve and record the history of your geekdom.

With a little research, you can probably find some organizations, group, or club that’ll let you make an effort to expose future generations (or much younger generations) to the history of your given geekery:

  • There’s collections that preserve fandom artifacts like ‘zones.
  • There’s archival museums and organizations that keep track of rare artifacts like video game memorabilia.
  • There’s living museums, where people can see displays or even inexact with things like old games and toys.
  • There’s almost certainly organizations, mailing lists, and groups dedicated to recording history about given subjects.

You can probably find some way to help keep the history of your favorite geekery – and preserve it for others to study and learn from. From making donations of money to donations of artifacts, from recording history to pointing people towards useful research, you can do a lot so we can all learn later.

Or learn now . . .

Resources

  • Comics
    • Cartoon Art Museum – A museum for all forms of cartoon art, performing preservation, displays, events, and more. Established in 1984, it has a permanent home in San Francisco.
    • Digital Comics Museum – An enormous archive of researched, curated, public domain golden age comics available free – and always open for donations and assistance!
    • Wonder Woman Museum – A museum dedicated to Wonder Woman – and sponsors various charities as well.
  • Computing
    • Computer History Museum – A Silicon-Valley based museum of comptuer history, complete with exhibits, programs, and many volunteer opportunities.
    • International Internet Preservation Consortium – An international organization focusing on improving tools, standards, and practices of web archiving and preserving information. Reports, events, and memberships are available.
    • Internet Memory Foundation – A non-profit focusing on preserving the internet for heritage and cultural purposes, and develops a lot of technologies and projects. There’s opportunities to get involved.
  • General
  • Pinball
  • Video Games
    • Atari Party – A Californian organization that hosts events with hands-on use of classic Atari game consoles. Always looking for volunteers – and you can always found your own!
    • 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 Games 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. They even hope to build a physical museum someday!
    • Video Game History Museum – A video game history museum that covers a wide variety of subjects, histories, games, and focuses

 

  • Steven Savage

Activities For The Civic Geek: Get Academic

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Your fandom may not just be fun or expression – it’s an area people want to study and you can help.

At first draft, fnadom activities may seem a bit shallow to an outsider. However they aren’t to passionate fans and to people that study psychology, history, and culture. Fandoms offer fascinating areas of exploration and understanding.

This is why people can get actual degrees in popular culture. There’s something there worth studying. This is why there are academic instutrions that study video games, because it’s worth it.

If you’re so inclined, it’s worth getting involved.

There’s many things you can do so a few suggestions:

  • Join an academic organization and fund them. A membership pays the bills after all.
  • If you can contribute, do so! Write, provide web mastery, whatever.
  • Help academics speak at conventions, clubs, or events.
  • If you’re an academic, go speak on issues – even if you’re an amateur.
  • Promote the appropriate organization through your club, event, or writing.

There’s a lot of options. Go find what works for you.

Resources:

  • Anime
    • 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
    • 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.
  • Video Games

 

(This is all part of an ongoing effort to create a geeky guide for civic geeks)

 

-Steve