Meet the B4RN Computer Club: Your Problem Solved in Return for Cake by Cherry Soup Productions

Part of a special issue of GenderIT.org on "Infrastructures of Resistance: Community Networks Hacking Global Crisis"

During the pandemic, communities in Lancashire banded together, using human networks they had developed while building the internet network for B4RN(link is external). They also ran an online “Computer Club” via Zoom to stay connected and offer technical support to B4RN members. The focus of this podcast is the online Computer Club – how it has evolved from the in-person Computer Club that B4RN hosted every Friday at their headquarters in Lancashire, and how it facilitates vital knowledge-sharing alongside the technical hardware that makes internet connectivity possible.

As the conversations in the podcast illustrate, the Computer Club offers a lot more than simply technical advice. It’s a community space, where people have developed friendships and cultivated a language for talking about the digital world that is accessible to their communities. You might say their unofficial motto is “if I can do it, you can do it.”

GenderIT.org: https://genderit.org/articles/broadband-rural-north-b4rn

Music: Conor Molloy (conormolloymusic.com)
Artwork: Gustavo Nacimento (https://linktr.ee/gstnsc)