The wonderful Angela Slater from Time To Change, told me about a number of events etc that are coming up, and she told me of this Hackathon that she was attending in her own time. I thought it sounded really interesting. Then I thought that perhaps I should e'mail the organisers and offer my services to see if I could be of any use and attend the event in a more professional capacity. One of the organisers; Nataly, had actually met me before at another event but had lost my contact details and so, she said it was fate that I'd got in touch as she thought I'd be a 'great asset to the event.' We discussed what I could do from a Social Media Manager perspective and Nataly explained the event more clearly:
'Basically, I am on a PhD programme based in Open Lab (Newcastle Uni) in something called Digital Civics. This involves designing/creating/building technologies for the local community. I am focussing upon mental health (and self-harm more specifically). The hackathon I am organising will inform part of my MRes project. The idea is that we pull together the local community (those with mental health issues/charities/researchers/coders/tech people etc) and think of how we can create digital solutions to understanding self-harm (how can we raise awareness/destigmatise/reduce harm/emotionally support self-harmers and their social networks?etc).
'Basically, I am on a PhD programme based in Open Lab (Newcastle Uni) in something called Digital Civics. This involves designing/creating/building technologies for the local community. I am focussing upon mental health (and self-harm more specifically). The hackathon I am organising will inform part of my MRes project. The idea is that we pull together the local community (those with mental health issues/charities/researchers/coders/tech people etc) and think of how we can create digital solutions to understanding self-harm (how can we raise awareness/destigmatise/reduce harm/emotionally support self-harmers and their social networks?etc).
Over the two days I am trying to capture as much of the event as possible - photos/video presentations/audio feedback/some interviews/evaluation forms etc. I want to do this so I can evaluate this data and look at how useful hackathons can be in bringing together the community (for example, coders and mental health professionals are unlikely to work together usually) and starting conversations about taboo topics.'
I'll be manning the event's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/selfharmony2016
In addition to my own: https://twitter.com/aimes_wilson
There'll also be some photos going up on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimes_wilson/
And vlogging on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxkWBmMgubKY3zfqH_VkZJg
All in addition to a blog post from each day right HERE!
For more information, and to see the schedule for the two day event visit here: http://self-harmony.co.uk/index.html
I'll be manning the event's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/selfharmony2016
In addition to my own: https://twitter.com/aimes_wilson
There'll also be some photos going up on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimes_wilson/
And vlogging on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxkWBmMgubKY3zfqH_VkZJg
All in addition to a blog post from each day right HERE!
For more information, and to see the schedule for the two day event visit here: http://self-harmony.co.uk/index.html