Steven Savage – Page 355 – Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek

Activities For The Civic Geek: Get Academic

September 18, 2015 by Steven Savage

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
- Canadian Game Studies Association – A Canadian organization dedicated to interdisciplinary study of digital games.
- Digital Games Research Association – An association for academics and professionals who research digital games and things related to them. Includes events, a journal, a conference, and more.
- International Journal Of Computer Game Research – A non-profit, open-access, cross-disciplinary journal to publish and promote the studies of games. Open for donations as well!
- Journal Of Virtual Worlds Research – A journal (open to contributions) on virtual worlds.

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

-Steve

Activities For The Civic Geek: Help Out A Group

September 17, 2015 by Steven Savage

Maybe you’re not up for founding your own group or club. Fine. Take your specialized skillset, go find an existing club or convention or event that needs your help, and volunteer.

Geek clubs and groups and events are usually made up of volunteers – and frankly, not enough volunteers in most people’s experiences. Your average convention needs a lot of good will, a lot of warm bodies, and a lot of volunteer brains to run. These clubs and organizations need people that can help out.

That’s where you come in as a Civic Geek.

Ask yourself what skills you have, what skills you can provide, and go volunteering. If you’re willing people will respond – and if you’ve got a specific skill set you mind find yourself deeply involved right away. Good skills and good volunteering are important combinations.

Don’t know what you’re good at? Doesn’t matter. Gophers, people setting up the snacks, whatever. Start somewhere. You’ll find your niche.

Most conventions, clubs, or events have some kind of contact web page or volunteer form, so it shouldn’t be hard to get access. Some good networking will help as well.

On top of all of this, you might improve your existing skills or develop new ones. Maybe you’re an accountant and you help with a conventions finances. Maybe you want to develop public speaking so you run public auctions for a comics club. Helping out can help you out.

It’s my firm believe that every geek should be involved in some geek group, preferably local. Being involved face-to-face is good for civic geekery.

Resources:

www.animecons.com – Anime con listings!
www.conventionscene.com – What it says, a list of conventions and events for geeks!
www.costume.org/conventions.html – International Costumer’s Guild’s con list – great if you’re a cosplayer.
www.meetup.com – Still a great place to find groups
www.upcomingcons.com – Much as the name says, they list upcoming conventions. A great place to find cons to help out at.

(This ongoing series is an attempt to write a free guide to Civic Geekery – one idea at a time)

Steve’s Update

September 16, 2015 by Steven Savage

Whew, came off of one busy week at work. So of course I did a bunch of website work. Yeah, I know.

So what’s going on here is I moved all my MuseHack blogging (and Informotron) blogging over here. Informotron is purely press work now, and judging by people’s response you prefer it that way.

Now as for what’s up here, my Activities for The Civic geek is going on – that’s an experiment in writing a free ebook a piece at a time. In this case an ebook that gives you ideas to be a civic geek! I also hope (time permitting) to bundle up a lot of my old stuff.

I’m also going to be writing more books. The focus is going to be making stuff that’s a mix of analyzing and of stuff you can apply.

As for mow

Way With Worlds. The second run of editing is a heckuva lot easier.
Sailor Moon Book. We got a plan, I just need to have work interruptions to stop so I can get to it.
And the new ebook is . . . a resume guide to jazzing up your resume! That’ll be out probably October! After a break and getting some work on the Sailor Moon book.

Also expect to see more of me here now that I’m consolidating blogs

Steve