Folk Tech Showcase, accessibility insights, and more!

Hi Folks!

It was amazing to meet some of you this week at the ATmosphere conference! It felt to me like there are a lot of really on-vibe people in the ecosystem, even if the actual Folk Tech aspects are still somewhat of a work in progress. If you were there, let me know how you it landed for you.

In April, we'll be hosting a showcase of Folk Tech-aligned projects. We could definitely use a couple of volunteers to help with the virtual rooms set-up and to help hold the space. If you're up to help, please let me know.

Submit your project!

You can submit a project to showcase here. The projects don't need to be digital or finished, just aligned with the Folk Tech principles. What a great opportunity to find collaborators, cross-pollinate ideas, and find some new tools to play with.

Excited to see these cool projects? Register to attend!

March Folk Tech: Accessibility

Last time, we had a great conversation about accessibility.

Some conversation highlights:

• Walled gardens often reduce interoperability and cause accessibility issues when different systems can't talk to each other. As Matthew said, "these systems weren't designed to let you connect the different parts of your life, they were designed to connect you with their services (and surveillance)."

• ADHD brains often thrive on pattern-matching, so apps that offer gamified experiences can be of particular value to some neurodivergent folks - and can also become traps when incentives are profit, not people's welfare.

• FOSS can rely on a "leisure tech class," aka people with spare time, which isn't a durable foundation.

• Ideas for funding accessibility included making data access a legal right (similar to copyright exceptions), fiscal hosting through tools like Open Collective, and separating need-signaling from funding so communities can express what they need without it being tied directly to who has money.

• Accessibility could be a part of all education, so that it's not seen as a "specialised" thing just for designers

• There's a perceived tension between designing for the most people versus designing for the most profit.

Watch the interview with Eric Bailey here.

Would you like to be part of a Folk Tech designers working group? We will start to think about ways to directly impact projects in the ecosystem that we think can help our communities take ownership of their collective. You don't need to be a "professional designer" but experience working on experience design and front-end development would be great. Sign up here.

See you soon! LX