Digi-CNX is a local Chiang Mai network committed to dialogue and research on how digital technologies are impacting both people and our planet. We're proudly based in Chiang Mai and hosted by the Chiang Mai University School of Public Policy.

We have been organizing meetups since August 2023 on topics like Digital Ecology with Indigenous Communities, Interrogating the Blockchain, and the Rise of Global Creator & 'Wang Hong' Culture, and have grown a diverse local community of academics, digital rights activists, researchers, digital nomads, journalists, Web3 builders, educators, entrepreneurs, artists, policy makers, and more.

This fall, Digi-CNX along with collaborators willl be hosting DHU@CNX, a Digital Humanities Un-College spread over several weeks during the popup village season in Oct-Nov 2024.

Using a loose open structure inspired by the 'unconference' format, the 'Un-College' will comprise a college-like mix of learning activities, ranging from reading groups, seminars, mini-courses, and research projects. There will be programs led and offered by members of the Digi-CNX community like Michel Bauwens (founder of P2P Foundation) but also a loose set of resources and scaffolding (spaces, shared calendar, etc.) for participants to organize their own.

The theme of this year's Un-College will be the Digital Humanities, orbiting around the human and societal impacts of Web3-era tech, through the lenses of history, anthropology, economics, game theory, STS, futures, systems theory, and more. Since it's the year for Devcon SEA, we will especially look to link the broad themes of the humanities with Southeast Asian and regional context and culture.

What do we hope to achieve with this project? Three things.

1. To offer everyone (locals and global popup villagers alike) the chance to explore the links between tech and society in the context of Southeast Asia in a deeper college-like way with fellow learners and the many theoretical frameworks of what we might broadly consider the digital humanities (which Digi-CNX has been exploring here in Chiang Mai for over a year). We see this especially as an invaluable complement to much of the building-focused activities that typically accompany the Web3 calendar.

2. To catalyze enough activity in Chiang Mai engaging local thinkers and learners to reach a critical mass for taking the Digi-CNX community and activity up a level. We won't always have the occasion of hundreds of global friends coming through town to learn and build together; our hope is that DHU-CNX helps to seed and jumpstart local community, learning, dialogue, and critical inquiry.

3. To provide a platform and space for Web3 thinkers and the curious to explore important human questions in small groups together, drawing from the best aspects of inquiry-based learning and the liberal arts tradition. Many researchers, builders, and founders have digital humanities-shaped questions or curiosities that might be best-explored with others, if only there was the right space. We hope to create just that right space.

What do we hope to do with your support? As far as possible, we would like to make DHU-CNX free and accessible for everyone, especially locals and students. Digi-CNX is a community effort with some infrastructural support from Chiang Mai University and other local partners. Funding will help us support some of our seed Un-College activities and cover shared project costs.