Dear friends and family,
As the weeks and months of 2020 tick on, we are coming to grips with the new normal and the changes that the pandemic has forced upon society. In many ways this year has become that of the ‘unplannable’.
With countries experiencing a second wave of coronavirus cases, no one can really say what the next five months may hold. Just like 2008 and the years thereafter, everything that lies ahead is uncertain.
At Edgeryders we have always believed there is strength in the collective and the journeys our members take together can help pave a way out of this unwieldy time.
On 21st July, we are holding an event to discuss how the coworking sector can recover from the economic fallout of the pandemic. We have invited seven experts from all over the world who will be discussing their experiences and exploring the solutions on how they can begin to form a new route.
For inspiration ahead of the event, our co-founder Nadia has shared her own path and how she came to found an organisation that has created digital tools for distributed co-creation and virtual coworking rooms.
Universities have also been hit hard by the crisis. In many ways they were an already broken system prior to the pandemic, with researchers and academics faced with unpredictability, a lack of job security, and a system with inbuilt inequality and biases.
We have previously talked about precarity in this sector at Edgeryders, but a new conversation has ignited around it specifically in relation to German universities, as our members imagine new ways in which universities can be funded and operate.
Our community has also been discussing a route that many countries have taken in recent months to try and stop the spread of the virus - tracing apps. Our members are mostly in agreement that this road is misguided and such apps infringe on people’s liberties and basic human rights.
The conversation resumed this week when one of our members raised questions over recent research that has found that in the Asia-Pacific region states that are inclined towards authoritarianism increased surveillance throughout the pandemic.
One of our members has previously posted about the contract-tracing app that is being used in Germany and asks, why people have not been more critical of it. If you have thoughts on an alternative path to take, join the conversation.
Speaking about creating different routes, our members have also been discussing the details of how a new internet could be developed - one that’s open source and free of big tech interest.