GimpGirl Community@GimpGirl

http://www.gimpgirl.com

Katherine Mancuso@musingvirtual

What is GimpGirl?

• Women with disabilities come together to share our lives, in a safe space centered on the strengths we have as a collective, not particular disabilities.

• Over the years it has developed into a growing and ever-evolving collective dedicated to peer counseling and advocacy with a DIY and geeky spirit.

• Hundreds of members participate on multiple social media platforms, mostly English-speaking and in a range of different countries.

GimpGirl on Second Life

GimpGirl on Twitter

• @GimpGirl was founded in 2007 and has over a thousand followers

• we use it daily to communicate with women with disabilities, allies, and other disability organizations

• we announce meetings, livetweet our own events, and post and repost other information related to women with disabilities

Other Platforms We Meet On

• Facebook - GimpGirl Community - 2007, 142 members.• http://www.gimpgirl.com - website forums - Moodle-based -

relaunched in 2007, hundreds of members.• http://community.livejournal.com/gimpgirl - 277 members -

blogging community - 2003• http://www.flickr.com/groups/gimpgirl/ - flickr pool

Our Social Media Philosophy

• Build strong cross-platform relationships that distribute information on multiple channels

• Not every platform will be accessible to all people all of the time

• Many platforms will be accessible to some people some of the time

• Different people are comfortable on different platforms• Many PWD face challenges seeking information so it's

especially important to provide it in many styles.