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wearegig

@wearegig

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🌍 Global Network of Social and Technological Innovators
𝗪𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

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Googlest Du noch? Berlin gilt als internationale Start-up-Stadt: digitale Infrastruktur wird für die Stadt immer wichtiger. Es gibt bereits eine wachsende Szene von kleinen IT-Dienstleister*innen, Genossenschaften und Agenturen, die mit offenen Technologien arbeiten und gemeinwohlorientierte Ansätze verfolgen.
Viele Berliner Vereine, Initiativen und Kleinunternehmen bleiben jedoch im Alltag stark von wenigen, profitorientierten Digitalanbietern wie Microsoft, Google oder Apple abhängig.

Das Problem: Alternative Angebote werden bisher kaum gefördert. Lokale IT-Dienstleister mit Open-Source-Angeboten können sich gegen große Plattformanbieter kaum durchsetzen, obwohl ihre Lösungen nachhaltiger und datenschutzfreundlicher sind. Ihre Angebote wiederum in zivilgesellschaftliche Arbeitsstrukturen einzuführen braucht Ressourcen und Kompetenzen, die kleine NGOs und Vereine haben.

Das führt dazu, dass zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen wenig Kontrolle über ihre digitalen Arbeitsweisen haben. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Gruppen wird dadurch erschwert, dass verschiedene Systeme oft nicht kompatibel sind. Gleichzeitig fließt Geld für Software an große, meist US-amerikanische Konzerne, statt die lokale Wirtschaft zu stärken. Und es besteht kaum Transparenz darüber, was mit sensiblen Daten passiert.

Um das zu ändern, muss die Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Energie und Betriebe gezielt offene und nachhaltige Digitalisierung priorisieren.

Dafür fordern wir konkret ein mehrjähriges Förderprogramm „Digital souveränes Berlin“ – um lokale digitale Infrastruktur aufzubauen und kleineren Organisationen zu ermöglichen, auf diese umzustellen – durch Schulungen und Beratung, Prozessbegleitung für die Migration und gemeinsame Plattformen für die Zusammenarbeit.

So gewinnt Berlin die Kontrolle über zentrale digitale Infrastrukturen und stärkt die zivilgesellschaftliche Souveränität.

#opensource #opencode #digitalesouveränität #digitalisierung #datenschutz #DSA #greenIT #gemeinwohl #bigtech #startup #digitalhub taken in Berlin, Deutschland by @wearegig

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4 days ago

Geraldine de Bastion ist Eine Welt-Promotorin für Urbane Transformation aus entwicklungspolitischer Perspektive.

Sie fordert: NGOs, kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen müssen dabei unterstützt werden von Big Tech wegzukommen. Das #DigitalHub, das im @Berlinglobalvillage entsteht, muss dabei eine entscheidende Rolle spielen.

Beim Global Innvoation Gathering vernetzt sie Menschen weltweit, die an offenen, digitalen Innovationen für lokale Probleme arbeiten. Für Geraldine de Bastion ist klar, eine Weltstadt mit Haltung ist digitalsouverän und treibt eine Digitalisierung voran, die dem Gemeinwohl zugutekommt.

#weltstadtmithaltung #abgeordnetenhausberlin #digitalsouverän #fediverse #bigtech #digitalerpluralismus #zivilgesellschaft #berlin #kiez #bezirk #stadtgesellschaft #globalsolidarity #digitalisierung #globaljustice taken in Berlin Global Village by @wearegig

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5 days ago

Geraldine de Bastion ist Eine Welt-Promotorin für Urbane Transformation aus entwicklungspolitischer Perspektive.

Beim Global Innovation Gathering e.V. verbindet sie sich mit Menschen aus aller Welt, die an offenen, digitalen Innovationen für lokale Probleme arbeiten und setzt Projekte wie mAKE um.

Sie berät zu Smart City, nachhaltiger und partizipativer digitaler und ökologischer Transformation und Innovation in Städten.

#weltstadtmithaltung #abgeordnetenhausberlin #globaljustice #digitalsouverän #fediverse #zivilgesellschaft #berlin #kiez #bezirk #stadtgesellschaft #globalsolidarity #digitalisierung taken in Berlin, Deutschland by @wearegig

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5 days ago

🌍 10 towns. 3 countries. 12 days. 450 people.

Here's the story of how a moving makerspace brought circular fashion and crafts to 10 towns in 3 countries, and 450+ participants.

Last summer, @makeathek 's van, Matty, hit the road. Packed with a tent, tables, a handful of domestic sewing machines, many other tools and materials and the shared expertise of dedicated local partners. The van transformed ten local libraries across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into engaging community hubs, into circular nodes.

Explore how it connected the communities, extended circular practices, and reactivated local expertise via the link in bio.

Fab City, @fashrev_de Public Libraries 2030, @wearegig , Zentrum für soziale Innovation, Ukrainian Makers Association, @eca.crafts, OpenDot, @iaacbcn @fablabbcn by @wearegig

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13 days ago

🧶 Can a 1980s knitting machine and a library of 3,000 material samples teach us something about the future of textiles?

Our latest @makeathek community call, co-hosted with @fashrev_de, brought together practitioners from Cape Town to Prague to explore exactly that, picking up threads from the first make-a-thek Bus Tour this June!

Our two guests shared very different but deeply connected stories:

🧵 Valérie Záhonová (@materioprague ) showed us a "library you can touch" — 3,000 material samples, from bacteria-grown tiles to the lightest fabric in the world — and her project tracing flax from seed to garment.

🧦 Zuzana Šmrkovská (@__nit_lab__) walked us through her Brother knitting machine from the 1980s, orphaned when Czechoslovak textile industry collapsed, now revived through the open-source AYAB community.

What stood out most: people making not because of a perfect set-up, but because it lets them situate themselves in relation to the technologies that carry their cultural heritage!

Full recap linked in bio 👇

#CircularFashion #TextileCraft #makeathek #OpenSourceHardware by @wearegig

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18 days ago

Big news! 🎉

We're thrilled to welcome @seeedstudio as our Community Hardware Sponsor for the GIG Fund. Seeed Studio is contributing $20,000 in hardware and manufacturing support to the Fund's grantees.

That means 25 GIG Fund projects get access to:
🔧 Seeed hardware, like SenseCAP sensors and edge AI vision modules
🏭 Seeed Fusion manufacturing resources, for prototyping and small-batch production

This support helps turn community-driven ideas into real, testable innovations. Think: off-grid sensor networks, low-cost educational kits, circular-economy devices, and more.

Thank you, Seeed Studio, for believing in grassroots innovation. We can't wait to see what our grantees build!

#OpenHardware #DIYElectronics #OpenSourceTech #TechInnovation by @wearegig

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21 days ago

🛠️ On our latest community call, five GIG members shared how their communities are generating citizen-led data, from drone imagery to pollution sensors!

Gustaff Iskandar (@commonroom_id), Bruna Zanolli (Rhizomatica), Tommy Charles (OpenStreetMap Sierra Leone), Onyekachi Okoro (@mediamaji), and Mike Jensen (@apc_network) posed a shared thread across four continents: who gets to produce the data that describes a place, and what changes once they do.

𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔:
🚁 OpenStreetMap Sierra Leone's drone imagery campaign mapped all of Freetown, revealing four households where satellite imagery once saw one.
🌊 Common Room pairs internet connectivity with open source weather stations and solar irrigation in Indonesia.
💧 MAJI trained Nigeria's oil spill agency on low-cost sensors, now feeding a UK Supreme Court case against Shell.

Check out the call's full recap. 🔗 Link in bio.

#GIG #CommunityData #OpenMapping #EnvironmentalJustice by @wearegig

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25 days ago

This month, we're spotlighting the incredible work of one of GIG's hub members - @san3atech!

Based in Cairo, Egypt 🇪🇬, San3a Tech is a social enterprise with a mission to democratise innovation and manufacturing in the Middle East and North Africa. Through its pillars - @fablabegypt, @san3aacademy, and @makerfairecairo - the network has reached 300,000+ beneficiaries and supported 50+ fablabs and makerspaces across 5 countries.

San3a Tech shows how a single Cairo makerspace can grow into a decade of connected community innovation. This April marked the 10th anniversary of Maker Faire Cairo, bringing together 2,000+ makers for 50+ workshops. It also continues to pursue meaningful partnerships, from girls' STEM programs to climate-focused maker projects!

Learn more about their journey. Link in bio.

#SocialInnovation #MakerMovement #STEM by @wearegig

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a month ago

🧵 Crafting Connected Communities

How can materials, textile practices and making help us learn, connect and build stronger communities?

Join us for the next make-a-thek online session, exploring what we discovered during the first make-a-thek Bus Tour.

We’ll be joined by Valérie Zahonova from matériO Prague, sharing insights into their approach to materials, and Zuzana Smrkovska, talking about her textile practice and plans for the future Nit Lab around textiles & making.

✨ A conversation about materials as a starting point for experimentation, learning and connection.

📅 16 September 2026
⏰ 2 PM CET
💻 Online via Zoom

#makeathek #CraftingConnectedCommunities by @wearegig

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a month ago

🔧 October 17th marks the 10th edition of International Repair Day, celebrating community repair and saying “no” to e-waste. And this year’s theme, “Repair Brings Us Together,” is a reminder that fixing things can foster new connections!

This year, for the first time, GIG joins #RepairDay as an official partner, alongside @makeathek, and we can't wait to see the GIG community out there on October 17th - whether hosting a repair event, participating in a mending session, or organising a swap. Who's joining?

Learn how GIG is involved - link in bio.

Let's celebrate repair as resistance, innovation, and community action. 💚 See you guys on October 17th. 🔧

#RepairDay #RightToRepair #RepairCulture #RepairDontReplace by @wearegig

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a month ago

🌍 Berlin is a world city with attitude, where digitalisation is open, local, and self-determined!

🛣️ GIG stands for Berlin having a clear vision to strengthen sovereignty over its digital infrastructure, rather than large tech corporations. Digital infrastructure matters as much as roads, schools, and power grids, and we are calling for Berlin to support local IT providers and open technologies, so that we can keep data, knowledge, and value creation right here in this global city.

🗳️ Berlin elections are on September 20th! Use your vote for a digitally sovereign world city, and talk to Berliners around you about how we can make this happen!

#weltstadtmithaltung #berlinwahl #berlinzusammen #berlin #GIG taken in Berlin, Deutschland by @wearegig

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a month ago

👋 Say hello to our newest GIG members! 🎉
Our global network just got richer. We're excited to welcome a new group of changemakers into the community, each one nominated for the impact they bring to their local ecosystem.

Meet our newest members:

🇵🇹 Rafael Calado | Bio Lab (Lisboa)

🇨🇿 Barbora Pešek | MakeMore (Czechia)

🇹🇿 Epifania Wilbard | Twende (Tanzania)

🇭🇷 Roberto Vdovic | Fablab Zagreb (Croatia)

🇿🇦 Moeketsi Masoeu | Ocean Hub Africa (South Africa)

🇫🇷 Stephane Godin | BrailleRAP (France)

🇩🇪 Holger Kienle | Open Source Ecology (Germany)

Spanning open-source hardware, assistive tech, biotech, and ocean conservation, this group reflects just how wide-ranging grassroots innovation really is.We look forward to the ideas and partnerships this group will spark across the network! by @wearegig

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a month ago