IRL

The Summer of Ludd (Jun 28 -> Jul 5)

For those unaware, I’ve been helping organize a huge neo-Luddite festival called the Summer of Ludd for the last few months, and it occurs to me that I have not written about ityet in this outlet. This is my bad, because it literally starts tomorrow:

There are literally over a hundred events going on through the whole week, so I couldn’t possibly list all the cool ones there. Luckily, Nick Plante over at NYC Off-Tech has done that work for me: you can find the full schedule of events here. If you’re local or in town during the week, hit me up and I’ll let you know which ones I’ll be at—including the event that I’m hosting, which I’ll talk more about below.

”What Are You Doing Tonight?”: How To Start Your Own Events Calendar (Mon, Jun 29 @ 5:30 | La Plaza Cultural)

If you’ve used the Unplatform guide, you’ll know that finding alternative ways to find local events is one of the most important steps in the “unplatforming” process. Many people stay on social media simply because they’re afraid of losing contact with their local communities—and that contact often comes in the form of following those few accounts that can be relied upon to post the show poster for the concert tonight, or the date for the next protest, or whatever other kind of civic or cultural gatherings are important for you.

The answer to this problem is simple: the event calendar. And not just one event calendar, but dozens, perhaps hundreds. These vital resources pull double duty as community infrastructure and cultural curation—they let people know what’s happening in a given community, and by listing particular kinds of events, they create the context in which those communities actually exist. The issue is that there’s not enough of these resources to cover all the communities people want to be a part of. This is what we want to change.

As part of the Summer of Ludd, on Monday the 29th, I’ve gathered the editors of NYC’s biggest and longest-running event calendars together in one place to share the story of how they started their projects and how they use them to support your communities—all with the intent of teaching you to do the same.

No RSVP required—just roll up to La Plaza Cultural, Monday @ 5:30p. Hope to see you there!

Online

Unplatform Office Hours (Sunday, Jul 12 @ 2pm)

I’ve scheduled the next Unplatform Office Hours (in which I answer your questions about how to liberate yourself and / or your community from Silicon Valley) for Sunday. July 12th. You can RSVP here.

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I am currently scrambling to prepare for the week ahead and the event on Monday, but rest assured I will have more announcements for IRL and Online stuff soon — stay tuned.