Feminist Practise of Technology

FTX @ AWID 2012

15 February, 2012 - 15:17

What are the emerging risks and challenges that women’s rights advocates face in using technology for activism? How can we strategise to work more safely and securely online? What is the feminist politics of privacy, security and the right to participate on the internet? Are you attending the AWID Forum this year? If you are, join us at the Feminist Tech Exchange to explore and exchange ideas and strategies on the feminist politics and practices of online security, privacy and
women’s rights!

What is the FTX? 18 April 2012

The FTX AWID Forum 2012 builds from the success of <a href="http://ftx.apcwomen.org">Feminist Tech eXchange (FTX)</a> at the 2008 AWID Forum. This year, the FTX AWID Forum 2012 is a one-day event on 18 April 2012, taking place one day before
the AWID Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.

The theme of this FTX is focused on the area of security and privacy. This is because privacy and security is becoming an increasingly critical issue faced by feminist and women’s rights advocates who are using the internet and other ICT for their advocacy and activism.

The FTX aims to create a dedicated and open exchange space, where organisations and activists working on diverse issues are able to come together and deepen our knowledge and understanding on the different dimensions of this issue – from surveillance by governments, data collection by corporations who run internet services, the ethics and politics of evidence building and publishing stories online, to improving our skills and ability to better protect our online security and practices, as well as that of the communities we work with.

Partners of the FTX include organisations and activists who are well-versed and experienced in the area, and you can expect to have rich and provocative conversations and skills-building sessions on
this topic at the event!

There will also be sessions in French on using ICT for strategic communication at the FTX, organised by our partners, Genre en Action. So please pass the word to your Francophone networks and communities
to join us at the FTX

Apart from the sessions in French, FTX will be conducted mainly in English. So a working knowledge and comfort in English is needed.

FTX Forum Hub, 19-22 April 2012</h2> <p>We will be running several skills building and strategy sessions everyday at the AWID Forum Hub with our partners. This includes video for advocacy, visualising information for activism, evidence-building and monitoring through online mapping and crowdsourcing and more. The sessions are open to all AWID Forum participants, and will take place at the Forum Hub at specific times throughout the day, which will be publicised before and during the Forum.</p> <h3>How can you participate?</h3> <p>You can participate in 3 ways:</p> <p>a) Organise a skills-sharing session. Everyone has something valuable that they bring into the event. If you would like to share your strategies and know-how on a particular area at the 1-day event or at the Hub, send us an email with a brief idea of your proposed session before 5 March 2011. Each session is 30-45 minutes long.</p> <p>b) Suggest a speaker: If you know of someone who can inspire new ways of thinking about the politics of technology from feminist perspectives, or would like to share their revolutionary work or ideas, suggest them (or yourself!) as a speaker for our Feminist TechTalks. Each speaker will have 10-15 minutes to change the way we think about technology.</p> <p>c) Participate at the event! Join us at the 1-day event and help us build it with your energy, questions, ideas and experiences. If you're interested to participate, send us an email, or fill in the application form at: <a href="https://www.apc.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=12541&newtest=Y&lang=en" title="https://www.apc.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=12541&newtest=Y&lang=en">https://www.apc.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=12541&newtest=Y&lang=en</a> <strong>BY MARCH 5, 2012</strong>.</p> <p>d) Join us at the FTX Forum Hub! Build your skills and knowledge on how to use technology strategically and safely for activism, or bring your knowledge, ideas and energy to the conversations. Email us if you would like to be updated on the FTX `Forum Hub programme and activities.</p> <h3>Will my participation be covered?</h3> <p>The FTX` AWID Forum 2012 is envisioned to be an open and collaborative model. Every participant and organiser will shape the event with your contribution, ideas, knowledge and time.

We are also looking to participants and organisers to support your own participation. As such, we are not able to cover the costs for your flight and accommodation, but there will be no registration fee and we will take care of your local transport to the event venue and meals during the time.

Email: ftx@apcwomen.org
Deadline for submission or application: 5 March 2012

Take Back the Tech! But know the risks first

Source: Take Back the Tech! But know the risks first

13 December, 2011 - 07:02

Like any tool, ICTs can be tremendously useful, but dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. This is doubly true for activists and women's rights defenders. Jennifer Radloff and Erika Smith spoke to participants from one of our secure online communications for women human rights defenders workshops, who shared their own experience with ICTs and what they've learned from the training.

There are a number of issues with online security in relation to activism - whether we are using mobile phones, sending emails, or if we are recording conversations and sharing them. How can we use technology securely for activism? What are the regulations or policies that could potentially affect those communications?

For example, the cost of communication via internet is really high in South Africa - so if the government expects people to access information around HIV/AIDS or reproductive health cheaply then they are going to have to lower the costs of communication. We also need to think about where people access this information: young people who don't have access at home, they have to go to a public library. In many libraries there aren't even books let alone computers. So what are the creative ways that they can access information and what tools (ie. mobile phone, village or school library) can they use?

And what happens when you go to the library and you search for information on lesbian rights and you leave the computer and you haven't shut down the browser and someone sees who you are? These are the kinds of issues we have to contend with.

Strategising Online Activism: A Toolkit

Source: Strategising Online Activism: A Toolkit

14 September, 2011 - 10:12

Strategising online activism toolkit cover

“Strategising Online Activism: A Toolkit” was designed for and by women activists but can be used by everyone. Key chapters include: strategising and planning your online activism; creating your campaign’s identity; social networking and security on the internet. vioThe guide provides practical and accessible step-by-step advice, while keeping a political and feminist eye. It was developed by APC’s women’s programme (APC WNSP) and our partner Violence is Not our Culture (VNC).

The toolkit aims to build:

*An understanding of why and how information and communications technologies (ICTs) can be appropriated by women's rights and human rights groups in their advocacy skills through their use of online tools, including networking and mobile tools for advocacy and campaigning
*The ability to develop an advocacy/communication strategy
*Knowing what social networking is and the various spaces and tools they could use in their online activism
*An understanding of online privacy and security issues relevant to building their online activism.

Secure communications essential to women's rights defenders

Source: Secure communications essential to women's rights defenders

29 August, 2011 - 13:32

Grady speaks to women's human rights defenders from India and Philippines who use ICTs in their work. They share their views how the right to freedom of association is exercised by women through ICTs. Speaking from their own experience, they dispelled some of the common myths surrounding the internet and ICTs use.

Women's human rights defenders all over the world are taking advantage of the power of ICTs, using them to leverage their advocacy and build capacity. Perhaps most important, these women are using new technologies to extend their networks and foster community, combatting the isolation experienced by many women and women's rights defenders.

More and more, women everywhere are exercising their right to freedom of association through ICTs.

As we well know, these can be incredibly powerful tools, but they come with their own inherent risks. Many defenders are using mobile phones and social networking sites, without knowing the potential dangers they expose themselves to.

For many, surveillance is a real concern. Women who speak out, access restricted content, or report domestic abuse and government corruption can face serious consequences if they are identified. Thus, the ability to use ICTs securely and safely is essential.

We interviewed several women's human rights defenders who use ICTs in their work. Go to the source for the full interview.

Feminist tips for online campaigning

Source: Feminist tips for online campaigning

27 June, 2011 - 21:13

This guide includes all you need to know to plan your online campaign from a feminist perspective. What does this mean? That Strategising Online Activism: A Toolkit focuses on women’s needs and how technology can lead to their empowerment.

Finding Our Courage to Speak and to Speak Out

Source: Finding Our Courage to Speak and to Speak Out

16 June, 2011 - 07:45

editor's blog
Login to post comments

In a space where women have learned to self-censor, to not speak with another woman because of the negative perception that can be extended to them, the story circle takes on an unimaginable value. I am humbled by the courage shown by these women, women who continue to struggle against the onslaught of patriarchal discrimination, and not just discrimination, but unabashed violence. Here are women who face danger as soon as they step out from their homes, they risk it, because they have to survive. Yes, it is a survival issue. It has come to this. For the rest of us, in countries, where there are still spaces to be who we are, to claim control over our own bodies and to claim our human rights, we shy away from this struggle, and we find reasons to do so.

References

Aggregated from:

Finding Our Courage to Speak and to Speak Out

Out of the shadows: Filipino youth survivors of violence transform the personal into the digital

Source: Out of the shadows: Filipino youth survivors of violence transform the personal into the digital

13 June, 2011 - 17:53

MANILA
13 June 2011
(Ava Vivian Gonzales for APC)

The narrator of The Shape of My Youth recalls how two years previously, a relative sold her for US$ 23. She was just 12. But this and other digital stories produced by a group of young Filipinos are not just stories of betrayal – they are also stories of hope.

From Islamabad to Geneva, Feminist Tech Exchanges creates young reporter

Source: From Islamabad to Geneva, Feminist Tech Exchanges creates young reporter

1 June, 2011 - 20:39

CALGARY
1 June 2011
(LC for APCNews)

After attending APC WNSP’s Feminist Tech Exchange

in Islamabad, 24 year old lawyer and activist Sana Masood attended the she never imagined it would lead her to be a young reporter for the International Committee of the Red Cross. View her new digital story Pakistan: Youth in armed violence. Photo © ICRC / Gassmann Thierry

Gender studies centre and women’s rights guide book launched in Cambodia

Source: Gender studies centre and women’s rights guide book launched in Cambodia

28 March, 2011 - 00:00

An unprecedented achievement for the study and prevention of further violence against women in Cambodia was announced last month with the opening of a Women and Gender Studies Centre in the capital city Phnom Penh. APC member Open Institute, a non-profit and non-government organisation in Cambodia, launched both the Centre as well as a women’s rights guide book as part of APC’s campaign: Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women. The Women’s Guide Book (a collaborative work by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Open Institute, and the international organization Peace and Development) was created for activists, policy-makers, survivors of violence and those interested in women’s rights. It outlines the legislation that can be used to support women’s rights as well as clear explanations of those laws.

New online guide for using Web 2.0 tools to link research and policy

Source: New online guide for using Web 2.0 tools to link research and policy

15 March, 2011 - 17:01

Fundación Comunica and APC have launched the Impact 2.0 iGuide: New mechanisms for linking research and policy, a guide designed to help researchers identify the right Web 2.0 tools for establishing links with policy makers, for building their online presence and credibility and for effectively communicating their research.

Storytelling as a learning and connecting tool

Source: Storytelling as a learning and connecting tool

31 October, 2010 - 04:07

Smath's blog
Login to post comments

Training in using ICTs for advocacy and activism can be difficult when experience and confidence levels vary amongst the participants. Keeping the energy levels up, making sure that everyone is up-to-speed, engaged and following takes a deep focus and an ability to “read” the participants. Technology can be frustrating when it fails us or we miss one critical step in the process. Being a trainer, one needs (among other things) to be empathic and create an environment which encourages participants to ask questions. It is a constant process of learning for both trainers and participants.

References

Aggregated from:

Storytelling as a learning and connecting tool

What do rain storms and e-advocacy to combat VAW have in common?

Source: What do rain storms and e-advocacy to combat VAW have in common?

26 October, 2010 - 09:22

Smath's blog
Login to post comments

It is day 2 of the 4 day FTX workshop here in Phnom Pehn

Cambodia. 18 participants are in the second workshop to build understanding of e-advocacy strategies in the context of anti-VAW advocacy. The first workshop focused on augmenting skills on advocacy strategies and this workshop is focusing on bringing the campaign online using social networking to build multi-media campaigns.

References

Aggregated from:

What do rain storms and e-advocacy to combat VAW have in common?

Feminist Practise of Technology

What is the FTX? 18 April 2012

User login