About CommsLabs 2.0
ASTRAEA has organised several CommsLabs in collaboration with RAD, who have developed a resource as part of their learning process and experience with CommsLabs. This resource, now renamedCommsLabs 1.0, is designed to provide guidance for future CommsLabs and to facilitate collaboration with a shared canvas of timelines, work-plans, templates, and workflows that can be adapted to new CommsLabs contexts and instances.
APC was invited by ASTRAEA in 2019. With the global pandemic hitting the world in 2020, the conversation evolved to address and respond to the constantly changing environment. This shift contributed to new collective understandings and sensibilities regarding the use of digital technological infrastructure as a site for network and movement building.
At the end of four years of collaboration, APC contributed to two CommsLabs: the Caribbean (English-speaking countries) and the sub-regions of Central Asia and South Caucasus.
The Caribbean CommsLabs was mostly remote, with the Co-Design Session done entirely online. The gathering had a hybrid format with two physical locations in Barbados and Jamaica, connecting for opening, closing, and plenaries.
The Central Asia and South Caucasus (CASC) CommsLabs had both the Co-Design Session and the final gathering in person, utilizing digital infrastructure for overall planning, hosting, and sharing information.
This resource builds upon CommsLabs 1.0 by sharing reflections, new templates, workflows, timelines, and methods of collaboration and communication. It tells the story and shares the learnings of two distinct and diverse gatherings, introducing a digital infrastructure based on free and open-source practices. These practices are rooted in APC's philosophy, inspired by transfeminist understandings of safety and security, and consider care as an exercise of active listening and contextual responses.
CommsLabs 2.0 serves as a resource for future collaborators and actors that ASTRAEA will convene, as has been the case with RAD and APC. It aims to offer guidance for convening coordinators, facilitators, and actors interested in addressing remote continuous communication with engagement and participation. Special attention is given to ensuring privacy, confidentiality, safety, and ease of access.