www.takebackthetech.net
25 Nov to 10 Dec
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What is the campaign about?
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It is simply a call for every person women and men, who uses online communications (ICTs), e.g. for chatting, emailing, blogging, doing websites or developing tools, to use ICTs for activism against VAW (violence against women) for 16 days.
Primarily, we are asking women and girls to “Take Back The Tech!” But you don’t have to be female to disagree with violence faced by women and be part of the campaign to transform gender relations. Unequal power relations lie at the heart of VAW, and this is apparent from the streets to online spaces. So we are saying technology should be used for equality, not to perpetuate violence.
The question is, how?
Make a postcard
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First is to understand how the issue relates to you in your own context. As part of the take back the tech campaign, we are featuring ‘postcards’ on the campaign website. The idea is to think about how ICTs and VAW connect in your own experience and reality. One (potentially fun!) way to do explore this connection is by making a postcard 🙂
Email us an image of your postcard(s) that answers these two basic questions:
1) “If I had…..” [use or control over a kind of ICT]
2) “I could….” [do something concrete about your experience of violence against women]
Examples:
“If I had a phone, I could call someone when he hits my mother”;
“If I had knowledge on how to track online users, I could find out who has been harassing me on these forums”;
“If I had a videocamera, I could make erotica for women instead”
Anything you can think of…
Postcards can made out of anything: a word document, piece of paper, photograph, image etc. Use any language you are comfortable in (if possible, translate the text in either english, spanish or french). Send it to us in PDF, JPEG, GIF, RTF or DOC format, ideally not less than 500 x 350 pixels in size. You can check the campaign website for an example.
Questions and submissions to: ideas@takebackthetech.net
* How many hours a day do you spend using some kind of ICT tool?
* Have you ever wondered how it connects with violence against women?*
* Can things like mobile phones, webcams, blogs and videogames transform power relations between women and men?*
From 25 November to 10 December, APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) invites you to take back the tech! For 16 days, this campaign engages you to think about how your use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can work to eliminate, or perpetuate violence against women (VAW).
The root cause of VAW lies in unequal power relations between men and women in almost all facets of life. The field of ICTs faces the same gender disparity. As a result, digital spaces like the internet, broadcast and telecommunications have become defined and developed according to dominant masculist perspectives. This means that VAW that happened in physical spaces like the home and streets, are now also taking new forms and occurring in digital spaces. For example, domestic violence abusers have used tools like spyware and GPS to track and control their partner’s mobility.
APC WNSP believes that both ICTs and VAW affect our capacity to completely enjoy our human rights and fundamental freedoms. Our right to move freely without harassment or threats to safety also applies to digital spaces. This 16-day campaign is to reclaim our right to shape, define, participate, use and share all aspects related to ICTs. We are asking you to Take Back The Tech!, and re-create a vision and reality of technology that is founded on equality.
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How Can You Take Back The Tech?
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*Check Site*: visit www.takebackthetech.net, and keep checking daily from 25 Nov to 10 Dec.
*Take Action*: each day, there are different actions that you can do to take back the tech, from making postcards, snapping pictures to joining our blogging fest.
*Tech Tips & Tools*: find out tech tools and tips on using ICTs more securely; share what you know.
*Issue*: equip yourself with more information on how VAW & ICT connects.
*Talk Tech*: build discourse around the issue; share your story as knowledge comes from experience.
*Start Your Campaign*: there will be a campaign kit where you can start your own Take Back The Tech! campaign in wherever you are. Use the campaign site as a platform to highlight your initiative.
*Translate*: localise the campaign and make it relevant to your context by translating information, tech tips and more into your own language.
*Tag Yours*: put up the campaign banner on your site and widen the activism.
For more information and questions, send an email to: jac@apcwomen.org; or find jac on Yahoo! Instant Messenger, under the ID: jhybe.
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ka-BLOG! TAKE BACK THE TECH!
www.takebackthetech.net
ideas@takebackthetech.net
25 Nov to 10 Dec
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ka-BLOG! We want to take over the blogosphere for 16 days.
ka-BLOG! is a 16-day blog fest for the Take Back the Tech Campaign. It is open to anyone and everyone – girls, boys, everyone beyond and more — who wants to share their thoughts, write poetry and prose, post graphics / pictures, rant, rave, heckle, make snide remarks, stick their tongue out at violence against women, and how online communications can exacerbate or help eliminate VAW.
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What is the campaign about?
—————————
It is simply a call for every person women and men, who uses online communications (ICTs), e.g. for chatting, emailing, blogging, doing websites or developing tools, to use ICTs for activism against VAW (violence against women) for 16 days. Primarily, we are asking women and grrls to “Take Back The Tech!” But you don’t have to be female to disagree with violence faced by women and be part of the campaign to transform gender relations. Unequal power relations lie at the heart of VAW, and this is apparent from the streets to online spaces. So we are saying technology should be used for equality, not to perpetuate violence.
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How to ka-BLOG?
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1. *commit*: commit yourself to 16 days of blogging about violence against women and technology.
2. *email*: Email ideas@takebackthetech.net, with your blog address and name/handle/nick if you want to sign up as a Ka-BLOGger. f you don’t have a blog yet, this will be a great place to start! Email us, and we’ll send you links on how to start your own blog 🙂
2. *identify*: make it known by putting a takebackthetech icon on your blog – create your own or grab a few icons from our Campaign Tools and Materials.
3. *post*: post something about the how you think violence against women connects with information communications technology? have a story? heard something quirky? snap a picture? think this is serious? doesn’t make much sense? anything at all! just post one thing a day from 25 nov to 10 dec on thinking about violence against women
4. tag it: use “takebackthetech” to tag your posts
5. link back: send in your bloglinks and and we’ll rss your posts to the campaign website throughout the 16 days
6. expand: widen the campaign to your readers by linking your blog to the campaign site.
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What to ka-BLOG! About?
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So long as it’s about violence against women (well, against) and how it connects to ICTs (and vice versa). So long as it’s about gender relations. So long as it’s about how women can have more control over technology. So long as it’s about women and gender equality.
It does not matter to us if the blog entries come in the form of jokes, limmericks, poetry, short stories, blurbs, graphics, pictures, articles, creative narratives.
We welcome bloggers in different languages!
So ka-BLOG! with us!
For more information on ka-BLOG!, go http://www.takebackthetech.net
[FYI. In Filipino slang, “ka-BLOG” would mean someone you blog with.]
Chat Garcia Ramilo
Coordinator
Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme, (APC WNSP)
www.apcwomen.org www.apc.org www.genderIT.org
chat@apcwomen.org
Manila, PHILIPPINES
APC Forum is a meeting place for the APC community – people and institutions who are or have been involved in collaboration with APC, and share the APC vision – a world in which all people have easy, equal and affordable access to the creative potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve their lives and create more democratic and egalitarian societies.