Dr Kim Foale's bloghttps://kim.town/https://kim.town/writing/2012/agriculture-soundscape-recordings-from-2007/https://kim.town/writing/2012/agriculture-soundscape-recordings-from-2007/These are some field recordings I made in 2007 as part of my BA(Hons) dissertation.Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2012/rethinking-sound-web-2/https://kim.town/writing/2012/rethinking-sound-web-2/I've bounced the ideas in Sounds and the web off a few people now and had some very valuable feedback.Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2012/arborjs-experiments/https://kim.town/writing/2012/arborjs-experiments/Arbor.js is a great little library that lets you make visual thesaurus style springy node diagrams using JSON network descriptions.Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2012/sounds-web-dont-work/https://kim.town/writing/2012/sounds-web-dont-work/Generally speaking, I think the web handles audio very badly.Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2013/sound-and-the-web-3/https://kim.town/writing/2013/sound-and-the-web-3/How can very large collections of audio data be quickly and easily searched and catalogued?Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/acoustic-citizenship-night-day/https://kim.town/writing/2014/acoustic-citizenship-night-day/Like many others this week, I was amazed to find out that someone moved in next to an iconic Manchester music venue, and then complained about the noise. What were they thinking?Sat, 18 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/art-of-noises/https://kim.town/writing/2014/art-of-noises/Art Of Noises is a game of abstract musical performance for 3-5 people. Players take the role of avant-garde performers, attempting to communicate various nouns, verbs and adjectives using a variety of toy instruments.Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/dont-trust-i-side-with/https://kim.town/writing/2014/dont-trust-i-side-with/I've been pointed by a few people now towards I Side With as a policy guide. This site is extremely poorly sourced.Thu, 15 May 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/england-losing/https://kim.town/writing/2014/england-losing/This World Cup, I've been quite surprised to find myself really enjoying the football -- but only when England lose. Why is this?Tue, 24 Jun 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/pass-sing/https://kim.town/writing/2014/pass-sing/In this article I'm going to talk about how both the ability to create sound and the ways that we hear it are bound up in social power: affected by gender (on an inter-personal level) and patriarchy (on a political level).Wed, 27 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/publishing-phd-theses/https://kim.town/writing/2014/publishing-phd-theses/PhDs take years, are an "original contribution to knowledge", and are generally paid for by the taxpayer.Thu, 12 Jun 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/selective-imagination/https://kim.town/writing/2014/selective-imagination/For me, one of the most frustrating things about any kind of vaguely nerdy fandom is the application of what I can only describe as selective imagination.Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2014/termite-club-ladyfest-leeds/https://kim.town/writing/2014/termite-club-ladyfest-leeds/Dug out some recordings of a noise/experimental night at Ladyfest Leeds in 2007, recorded in Holy Trinity Church.Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2015/living-in-the-ruins/https://kim.town/writing/2015/living-in-the-ruins/It is strange to think that the poplar trees in Hulme Park were planted as part of an effort to make the area around the Hulme Crescents greener and more hospitable.Sat, 13 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2015/pax-porfiriana/https://kim.town/writing/2015/pax-porfiriana/Civilization was one of the first computer games I really learnt anything from.Mon, 25 May 2015 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2015/transcribing-royal-charter/https://kim.town/writing/2015/transcribing-royal-charter/A week's gone by and I'm wondering why I've spent it transcribing an enormous legal document from 1855. What does a huge certificate from 1855 have to do with the history of Hulme?Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2015/stop-making-pincushion-maps/https://kim.town/writing/2015/stop-making-pincushion-maps/There has been an explosion in the use of maps to visualise data, prompted by the rise of the "data scientist", available open data, and a wealth of new tech tools.Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2016/dear-friend/https://kim.town/writing/2016/dear-friend/Dear Friend is a letter-writing project celebrating women in public life and struggles for liberation.Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2016/no-false-users-gfsc/https://kim.town/writing/2016/no-false-users-gfsc/User stories are meant to be non-fiction. We should not be in the business of giving any more airtime to fictional user stories than we need to, given how easy it is to gather them.Mon, 10 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2016/paul-graney-pioneer-acoustic-ecology/https://kim.town/writing/2016/paul-graney-pioneer-acoustic-ecology/I'd never heard of Paul Graney before Tuesday. In Central Library, as part of Manchester Histories Festival, I learnt about a man curiously absent from any number of histories.Tue, 14 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2016/social-power-data/https://kim.town/writing/2016/social-power-data/We have the data, but who is listening? How can we hope to solve social problems using open data when we're having trouble getting any kind of progress on social issues that have been widely documented for decades?Fri, 25 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2016/understanding-manchester-baths-wash-houses/https://kim.town/writing/2016/understanding-manchester-baths-wash-houses/Manchester's pivotal role in the industrial revolution has been written about extensively -- what can we possibly learn from the baths and wash-houses of the time that we don't know already?Sun, 17 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2016/what-is-a-factory/https://kim.town/writing/2016/what-is-a-factory/Most obviously, a factory is a place: a building where products are assembled on a production line.Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2017/tech-culture-failing-communities/https://kim.town/writing/2017/tech-culture-failing-communities/The shift in internet and technology culture over the last decade has been phenomenal. And yet despite all this technology that's supposed to bring us together, social isolation is a major player in the current epidemic of depression and loneliness.Tue, 14 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2017/victory-points-suck/https://kim.town/writing/2017/victory-points-suck/I really hate victory points (VPs) as a game mechanic.Sat, 08 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2018/placecal-story-so-far/https://kim.town/writing/2018/placecal-story-so-far/Looking back on how PlaceCal came to be. How do we help local communities publish their events collectively?Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2019/brief-introduction-placecal/https://kim.town/writing/2019/brief-introduction-placecal/PlaceCal is a package of calendar software, education and community development. It makes it easier for residents to publish events, find information about their area, and see how to get involved in local groups.Wed, 08 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2019/email-lists/https://kim.town/writing/2019/email-lists/When starting a new community group or campaign of any type, one of the first things to get right is group communication. Despite dozens of tools claiming to sort out this kind of thing, in my experience nothing beats an email list.Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2019/ladder-citizen-participation/https://kim.town/writing/2019/ladder-citizen-participation/There's a lot of discussion about co-production, co-design and other impressive-sounding terms starting with 'co-' at the moment in tech circles. This article revisits Arnstein's 'Ladder of Citizen Participation'.Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2019/placecal-capabilities-approach/https://kim.town/writing/2019/placecal-capabilities-approach/We discuss how a capability approach to information technology in neighbourhoods with low social capital can create embedded and sustainable Community Technology Partnerships.Tue, 30 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2020/taser-report-gmp/https://kim.town/writing/2020/taser-report-gmp/Comprehensive examination of Taser deployment risks, highlighting concerns about accountability gaps and potential for serious injury or death. We advocate for the abolition of tasers.Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2021/enter-trans-dimension/https://kim.town/writing/2021/enter-trans-dimension/A new space for trans community enabled by technology and collaboration. We're really proud to finally launch The Trans Dimension, a new online community hub connecting trans communities across the UK.Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2021/gmp-taser-update/https://kim.town/writing/2021/gmp-taser-update/Analysis revealing a discrepancy between Greater Manchester Police's public claims about declining Taser use and actual Home Office data showing usage at more than double the rate claimed.Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2021/everything-is-connected/https://kim.town/writing/2021/everything-is-connected/The most important question to ask whenever you are developing software is: should this be connected to the internet at all? And if it should be, how do we minimise the amount of data we store to do so?Tue, 03 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2021/imok-is-launched/https://kim.town/writing/2021/imok-is-launched/We've been working on imok for a while, and are glad it's now ready for public use. It's a simple bot designed to support people undertaking potentially risky activities.Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2021/technology-isnt-a-magic-wand/https://kim.town/writing/2021/technology-isnt-a-magic-wand/Due to the massive amounts of money and hubris that reside in the tech sector, we now seem to believe that the same methodology used to sell pens that write upside down can somehow be adapted to fixing homelessness.Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2021/what-happened-to-nuclear-free-manchester/https://kim.town/writing/2021/what-happened-to-nuclear-free-manchester/Now not only do we have several companies here who manufacture or assist in the production of nuclear missiles and submarines, we put 'em in the regional marketing brochure.Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2022/announcing-gfsc-podcast/https://kim.town/writing/2022/announcing-gfsc-podcast/By popular demand our first episode 'How government technology limits who we can become' is out today. Mallory Moore, Zara Manoehoetoe, and Dr Kim Foale discuss technologies of state and empire.Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2022/rafft-design-blog/https://kim.town/writing/2022/rafft-design-blog/Co-designing a local history archive with Oldham residents. We are currently in the early stages of working on a number of local history projects.Thu, 24 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2022/national-network-community-technology-partnerships/https://kim.town/writing/2022/national-network-community-technology-partnerships/How we are going to transform the relationships between people, technology and place over the next two years, thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund.Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2022/rise-fall-facebook-events/https://kim.town/writing/2022/rise-fall-facebook-events/David Hayward and Rachele Evaroa join Kim to talk about the infiltration of all our social lives by Facebook, and how things are probably worse for venues now than they were 10 years ago.Tue, 04 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2022/trans-dimension-accessibility-guide/https://kim.town/writing/2022/trans-dimension-accessibility-guide/A first look at our new zine on making events more inclusive for everyone. When we asked our collaborators for affirming experiences at events we heard 'the best I've had is mediocre.'Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2022/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things/https://kim.town/writing/2022/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-nice-things/Our presentation from Electromagnetic Field Festival 2022. On the surface of it it seems simple: tech types have skills, and community groups have unmet needs. Why does it feel so hard?Thu, 30 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/artist/https://kim.town/writing/2023/artist/I've always had a complicated relationship with art. More specifically, I've always had a complicated relationship with knowing if what I make is art or not.Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/bmi/https://kim.town/writing/2023/bmi/BMI, or "body mass index", is a very old — and famously completely fucked — health metric.Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/community/https://kim.town/writing/2023/community/'Community' is a concept at the heart of a lot of the work I've done over my life. I think for most people most of the things that bring them happiness and allow them to assert their identity are through ideas of community and family.Sun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/document/https://kim.town/writing/2023/document/Computers have been fully embedded into the operations of daily life for at least thirty years at this point. In this historically relatively short time they've utterly integrated into capitalism, but almost all our working metaphors are still based on physical things.Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/estrogen/https://kim.town/writing/2023/estrogen/It feels suuuuper cliche to write a piece on estrogen as a transfemme who recently started HRT but the politics around the representation and technology of it are utterly fascinating to me.Sat, 01 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/fax/https://kim.town/writing/2023/fax/We don't really see fax machines so much nowadays but they were a really magical and fun invention when I was a kid.Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/gfsc-publications/https://kim.town/writing/2023/gfsc-publications/Sometimes we make things you can hold in your hands. Sharing a collection of publications we've made over the years and announcing a new collaboration with Pen Fight to distribute them.Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/go/https://kim.town/writing/2023/go/Go is my favourite board game. I got really into it in my 20s and was dedicated enough to go pretty regularly to an IRL group in a pub a fairly long bus ride away.Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/goodharts-law/https://kim.town/writing/2023/goodharts-law/When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.Sat, 01 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2023/minimum-viable-organisation/https://kim.town/writing/2023/minimum-viable-organisation/It should be easy (low emotional labour, low technical labour, zero cost) to start a project with a small group of people with shared goals.Thu, 28 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2024/community-tech-partnerships-year-1-report/https://kim.town/writing/2024/community-tech-partnerships-year-1-report/Key findings from our National Lottery Community Fund funded project. What we've learnt, what we've done, what we want to do, what's next.Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2024/conversations-in-room-or-corridor/https://kim.town/writing/2024/conversations-in-room-or-corridor/Something I've noticed a lot recently when thinking about what events I want to go to is if I think the reason for going is the event itself, or the people who are at the event.Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2024/craftsperson-and-scientist/https://kim.town/writing/2024/craftsperson-and-scientist/Two ways of working we've identified through our collaborative practice. Some people work best iteratively and some would prefer to forge ahead alone – but how do we ensure these approaches play nicely together?Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2024/first-eighteen-months-mastodon-server/https://kim.town/writing/2024/first-eighteen-months-mastodon-server/We are a small community tech studio doing mostly publicly funded community sector work. We've been running a Mastodon server since November 2022.Mon, 15 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2024/trans-organisers-fund-report/https://kim.town/writing/2024/trans-organisers-fund-report/Over the last year we administered a fund for trans organisers in Greater Manchester. We used this as an opportunity to research the priorities, goals, barriers and experiences of trans organisers on the ground.Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/best-way-personal-website/https://kim.town/writing/2025/best-way-personal-website/The question we get the most on the Discord is simply 'how do I get started with a web presence?' As you might expect, there are a plethora of options out there today.Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2024/singularity/https://kim.town/writing/2024/singularity/"The singularity" is a well-worn concept in sci-fi. What if the really scary thing isn't an AI that takes over everything, but rather one that is exactly stupid enough it can happily take over the boring office jobs for the rest of time?Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/geeks-for-social-what/https://kim.town/writing/2025/geeks-for-social-what/Five years ago, I calmed myself with the words 'What a silly year!'. Half a decade later, this still applies.Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/karrot-community-spotlight/https://kim.town/writing/2025/karrot-community-spotlight/We emerged out of a dream to build a digital sharing platform for the world, building off the back of the success a great foodsharing platform for German-speaking regions.Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/louder-and-lonelier/https://kim.town/writing/2025/louder-and-lonelier/Technology, on the whole, promises to make our lives happier, better and more connected. But if you look around, it feels like a lot of technology actually delivers exhaustion, isolation and a feeling of being spied on.Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/resilience-web-spotlight/https://kim.town/writing/2025/resilience-web-spotlight/It's a platform that maps community, social justice and environmental groups in a local area. These maps are created and maintained by the people who live there.Fri, 19 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/resistance-to-billionaire-technology/https://kim.town/writing/2025/resistance-to-billionaire-technology/We shouldn't need platforms owned by the biggest losers on the planet to live happy, healthy, connected lives.Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2025/trans-digital-archiving/https://kim.town/writing/2025/trans-digital-archiving/"I'm so excited that you reached out! I love your work and it means a lot that this project connects with your practice and your communities."Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2026/announcing-gfsc-community-drop-ins/https://kim.town/writing/2026/announcing-gfsc-community-drop-ins/GFSC is starting four regular monthly drop-ins for: tech developers; artists and freelancers; community organisers; and writers and researchers. They're focussed on developing and supporting people to use open source and community technology, including our own PlaceCal platform.Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2026/state-your-assumptions-gfscs-philosphical-foundations/https://kim.town/writing/2026/state-your-assumptions-gfscs-philosphical-foundations/We've spent nearly a decade doing community technology work and tried to write it down it in about fifteen different ways. This is attempt sixteen: our honest takes on digital inclusion, co-production, and why the best community organising rarely looks like what funders want to fund.Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2026/the-geeks-for-social-change-supporter-survey-2026/https://kim.town/writing/2026/the-geeks-for-social-change-supporter-survey-2026/We’re getting a better idea of our supporters by researching what people actually need from technology. Help us capture a snapshot of your feelings that we can feed into our plan for the coming year.Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2026/what-if-we-made-money-at-the-intersection-of-art-and-technology/https://kim.town/writing/2026/what-if-we-made-money-at-the-intersection-of-art-and-technology/just kidding ........ unless ?? 👀 💰 💻 🧑‍🎨. A run-down of the 15 ways we could think of to get funding for your project: from the capitalist (venture capital) to the grassroots (direct donations). We cover the various types of community, arts, research and business funding, and even mention DAOs.Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://kim.town/writing/2026/whats-happening-where-you-live-re-introducing-placecal/https://kim.town/writing/2026/whats-happening-where-you-live-re-introducing-placecal/If you've hung around us the last few years you undoubtedly will have heard us go on about PlaceCal. But what is it, why does it matter, how can you and your community benefit, and why has it taken us so long? Kim takes it from the top and outlines our ambitions for community technology in 2026.Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT