The Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX)
The Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is an initaive of APC Women's Neworking Porgramme that was developed in response to the calls from feminis and women's rights movements for greater understaning of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women.
FTX aims at building the knowledge and skills on communication rights and informatin and communication technologies from a feminst perspectives.It explores feminst practices and politics of technology and raises awareness on the critical role of communication rights in the struggle to advance women's rights world wide.
The FTX training in AWID attracted more than 100 participants from different countries were trained increative and strategic use of ICT facilities such as video, audio, social networking platforms, Digital storytelling and mobile and wireless technologies.
There were daily theatic plenary discussion such as ...... and skills sharing session from different tracks
All the tracks were interesting and practical and at the end of the three days training each track presented what they had managed to do
The video track presented video clips that featured participants opinions of feminist technolohy practices. The audio presented radio spots, the mobile technology demonstrated how to set up a wireless nework and bulk sms, the digital storytellers also screened their stories about their personal lives which ranged from identiy crisis and feminism.
All the plenary session were broadcasted live from FIRE Radio
My Experience at the AWID Forum Cape Town
The AWID Forum has started today where a hundred of women's rights activitis, donors and other stake holders converged to discuss the power of movements.
It stared with the plenary which I was not able to attend fully forst because I hadnot picked my conference tag and package. Enever the less, Later I was given a temporary pass. Thank God I later got my conference tag and the package.
I was previledged to have attended the FTX training and thefore it gave me access to ftx hub which was fully equiped with computers and a space for interaction.
Break away session.
I met with my ED, my Immediate Boss and one of the Isis staff. We looked at the program and selected seesion we were going to attend
The ABC of Movement Building-What, Why, and How by Srilatha B
The presenter started by defining the term Movement as an organised set of constituents pursuing a common political agenda of change through collective action.
And some of the characteristics of movments
- Clear political agenda
- Strong leadership at mutliple levels. Usually Movments have strong leadership at the top level only
- Continunity
- Diversity stragegies of political struggle and sharp anlaysis of power structure
- Gendered political analysis and political goal which previlages women's interests and transforms both gender and social power relations
- Use gender strategies and gender analysis
- Women make up a critical mass meaning that they hold key decison making positions
- Organisng and building mass base
- Consciuos raising and awreness building
- Focus on formal and substansive change- paradim shift in norms
- Clear power analysis to develop agenda
- Changing practice of power internaly and externally bearing in mind that most of us come from oppresive power backgrounds
Yes, they do matter alot. Women who have organised them selves into a critical mass have caused enormous chnage. Examples were drawn from India and Mexico where women were able to organised them in a movement and challenged policies and practices that were not favouring them
Below are the spheres both Informal and Formal that justify why Women's Movements Matter
INFORMAL
Individual/ Community
- Internalised attittudes
- Values
- Practices
- Cultural norms
- Beliefs
FORMAL
- Access to and control over resources
- Laws and Polices
Feminst/Women's movements have failed in some cases and countries because of several factors, one of them e being that our problems have been externally defined and do not address the critical areas. An example of HIV/AIDS case was given where HIV is given a femine case and its women who have the highest number of infection. Money has been given to address the HIV/AIDS epidermic and because it is externally defined to buy retroviral drugs and others, critical gender analysis of the disease and how it affects women and men differently has not been addressed.
After all has been disscused regarding feminist/ women movement, dow er have a feminist movement in Uganda.? and if it is there what major changes has in done.Politics, Power and Internet
Today, the intenet is shaping our existance in the transnational boundries. Women's rights have been emeshed in patriachal and capitalist values in the digital spaces.
When you introduce technology is the already inequality, it increases the inequality.
Can we think of a right to internet and communication rights in the digital spaces?
Can we have user generated content that women themselves can create?
An example of a google search about women in Costa Rich brought "Beautiful women from Costa Rica.
There is technical disaprootions. The internet today is shaping our reality world and creating visibility.
Women need to harness the potential of web2.o to create ther content
FTX Digital Story Telling Track
Its exciting here at Digital Story Telling Track
Stories are becoming powerful ways of raisng awareness, sharing experiences in a creative way. Digital story telling combines audio, text and visual formats to create a stroy.
Participants at the FTX digital story telling track have been working on their stories for the last three days. The first day we shared our stories orally as a traditional african way.
Today we are presenting our stories in a digital format. Its such a mazing to actually watch tha powerful stories with powerful messages. Stories ranged from personal stories to others peoles experience.
I did not tell my own story reason being that I wanted to bring out the work we do. Volence against women in situations of armed conflict and I learnt how to locate myslef in the story.
Its such a wonderful experience to do a story, recordning your voice as the person telling the story and adding apropriate pictures and messages.
I will add on when we finish screeining our stories.
Stories are becoming powerful ways of raisng awareness, sharing experiences in a creative way. Digital story telling combines audio, text and visual formats to create a stroy.
Participants at the FTX digital story telling track have been working on their stories for the last three days. The first day we shared our stories orally as a traditional african way.
Today we are presenting our stories in a digital format. Its such a mazing to actually watch tha powerful stories with powerful messages. Stories ranged from personal stories to others peoles experience.
I did not tell my own story reason being that I wanted to bring out the work we do. Volence against women in situations of armed conflict and I learnt how to locate myslef in the story.
Its such a wonderful experience to do a story, recordning your voice as the person telling the story and adding apropriate pictures and messages.
I will add on when we finish screeining our stories.
WHAT IS WEB 2.0?
Web2.0 is known as the participatory web. Some call it user generated or user centred web. Others say it is data driven. Tim O'Reilly, the mand credited with coining the term web2.0 has defined it as the bussiness revolution in the computer industry casued by the move to the internet as the platform. Wikipeadia is one of the graet examples of we2.0 at work.
Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices has come up with his own name for it 'read and write web'. This is so because anyone with internet access can now create their own content and tailor pages to suit their own particular needs.
Web2.0 refers to the second generation of webbased services. It covers a wide range of applications including blogs, mashups, wikis and feeeds to social bookmarking, social networking and media sharing sites.
Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices has come up with his own name for it 'read and write web'. This is so because anyone with internet access can now create their own content and tailor pages to suit their own particular needs.
Web2.0 refers to the second generation of webbased services. It covers a wide range of applications including blogs, mashups, wikis and feeeds to social bookmarking, social networking and media sharing sites.
WOMEN AND ICTS: ARE THEY DRIVERS OF DEVELOPMENT OR INEQUALITY
Today more than ever we have the ability to collect, share and process information of all kinds (text, audio and visual) thanks to technology advancements and innovation.
Due to their wide application potential, ICTS are having profound and pervasive social, economic, environmental impacts on the world. As more people gain access to information and communication, they become better positioned to make decisions that improve their own lives which in turn help to address the problem of social and economic disparities.
While the digital opportunities are spreading to both men and women, the existing gender divide that runs across all social and income groups have been amplifies where ICTs are concerned.
Throughout the world women face serious challenges that limit or prevent their access, use, ownership and control of not only ICT but also other ….. These challenges stem from the economic, social and cultural obstacles which must be tackled for the sake of equitable development opportunities. The major problem lies in the existing gender stereotypes and biases that are embedded in cultures and social norms as are a reflection of patriarchy in our societies.
Little work has so far been done to understand the relationship between ICT and gender equality, the gender dimensions of access to, and use of ICT, and how ICT can indeed become a tool for the promotion of gender equality. As the potential of ICT for development has now become a focus of attention, this is the most opportune time for clarifying the gender perspectives in ICT so that such perspectives can be integrated from the outset into all aspects of this new sector.
Applying a gender perspective to ICT means assessing the implications for women and men of policies, programmes and projects to ascertain how opportunities, benefits and risks accrue to women and men differentially based on their socially constructed roles.
This calls for an enabling environment, to create an anabling environment ICT policy processes must integrate gender analysis at all stages of their development, from the initial design to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This requires an analysis of the current status of women and men’s participation in, and use of, ICT, including a comprehensive analysis of sex disaggregated statistics and indicators and policy responses that target gender-based differences and inequalities. In addition, the policy process itself needs to be inclusive and consultative through the participation of stakeholder groups representative of the full spectrum of society, including gender advocates.
Due to their wide application potential, ICTS are having profound and pervasive social, economic, environmental impacts on the world. As more people gain access to information and communication, they become better positioned to make decisions that improve their own lives which in turn help to address the problem of social and economic disparities.
While the digital opportunities are spreading to both men and women, the existing gender divide that runs across all social and income groups have been amplifies where ICTs are concerned.
Throughout the world women face serious challenges that limit or prevent their access, use, ownership and control of not only ICT but also other ….. These challenges stem from the economic, social and cultural obstacles which must be tackled for the sake of equitable development opportunities. The major problem lies in the existing gender stereotypes and biases that are embedded in cultures and social norms as are a reflection of patriarchy in our societies.
Little work has so far been done to understand the relationship between ICT and gender equality, the gender dimensions of access to, and use of ICT, and how ICT can indeed become a tool for the promotion of gender equality. As the potential of ICT for development has now become a focus of attention, this is the most opportune time for clarifying the gender perspectives in ICT so that such perspectives can be integrated from the outset into all aspects of this new sector.
Applying a gender perspective to ICT means assessing the implications for women and men of policies, programmes and projects to ascertain how opportunities, benefits and risks accrue to women and men differentially based on their socially constructed roles.
This calls for an enabling environment, to create an anabling environment ICT policy processes must integrate gender analysis at all stages of their development, from the initial design to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This requires an analysis of the current status of women and men’s participation in, and use of, ICT, including a comprehensive analysis of sex disaggregated statistics and indicators and policy responses that target gender-based differences and inequalities. In addition, the policy process itself needs to be inclusive and consultative through the participation of stakeholder groups representative of the full spectrum of society, including gender advocates.
Libraries and the World Social Forum
Kenya Library Association organised a workshop for librarians in East Africa on how to create a knowledge base from the World Social Forum in 2006. Building a knowledge base for the WSF information was the first step towards opening up library and information professionals into public life. As librarians, being in libraries and disseminating information to users is not enough for one's profession. Venturing inot information gathering makes the whole profession.
Over 70 librarians from East Africa were trained and participated in documenting World Social Forum Information and a wiki website was set up where all the information was uplaoded.
As a follow up to this, 12 librarians again from Librarians were trained on how to maintain a wiki website. The training was in Nairobi at School of Monetary Studies, Kasarani.
The training begun very well and participants were taken through the basics of wiki pages.
Over 70 librarians from East Africa were trained and participated in documenting World Social Forum Information and a wiki website was set up where all the information was uplaoded.
As a follow up to this, 12 librarians again from Librarians were trained on how to maintain a wiki website. The training was in Nairobi at School of Monetary Studies, Kasarani.
The training begun very well and participants were taken through the basics of wiki pages.
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