Rights . Violence . Technology - HELP US TO JOIN THE DOTS

In 1993 the United Nations recognized
violence against women as a critical human rights issue that compels
State commitment and intervention - only 16 years ago. In efforts to
end violence against women communication rights - including access to
information, right to privacy, freedom of expression and opinion and
the right to form communities - are fundamental. It is also about
exercising our capacity to take control, shape and define
communication frameworks, technologies and platforms. We understand
this as critical to transform our spaces - both offline and online -
into spaces that are free from violence against women.

At the same time, it is challenging
to make the link between violence against women and information and
communication technologies as human rights issues. Often, ICTs are
seen just as a tool instead of a critical agenda for the advancement
of women's rights and human rights. Policies, laws and development
plans on emerging ICTs rarely take into account the reality of
violence against women in its creation and implementation. Similarly,
policies and laws on violence against women rarely take into account
the dimensions of emerging ICTs.

How have developments in information
and communications technologies strengthened the efforts to end
violence against women? How has it enabled violence against women to
happen?

Help us to join the
dots. Document and analyse the complex and changing interconnection
between rights-violence-technologies through your imagination and
stories.

YOUR ACTION 16 images x 16 seconds

The idea is simple. Send us 16
images that tell the story of the reality of violence against women
where you are, and how it connects with communication rights and
ICTs. Ground your images with a narrative and thoughts - add
subtitle, comments, factsheet, audio or music. Each narrative should
not exceed 16 seconds per image, this is about 40 words.

(The idea follows the
Pecha-Kucha presentation format which was originally designed for
architects and other creative people who often struggle to share
their passion and showcase complex productions in words. The original
Pecha-Kucha format is 20 x 20 - we've adapted it to 16 for the 16
days of activism against gender violence.)

Here are some
examples of presentations:

• rights
  . violence . technology - joining the dots! Slideshow by purpleduck

  
  

• Malaysia
  : Take Back The Tech! Slideshow by ezthetic

  
  

Create
your own 16 x 16 story and share it with us!

Shortlisted 16x16
presentations will be featured in June's GenderIT edition.

The
closing date for submissions is 17 May 2010,
the
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day .

Step by step guide:

1. Grow stories with your reality.
Start a conversation.

• Write
  down your outline. Come up with 16 keywords or topics that
  best describes your story and show interconnection between
  rights-violence-technologies. This can take shape of a concept, a
  phrase, a particular photo or image that you're thinking about.
  

  
  

• If you are stuck for thoughts,
  you can use the
  series of papers featured in this issue that provide a baseline
  on the policy on ICTs and VAW in 12 countries across Africa, Asia
  and Latin America on genderIT.org.
  

  
  

2. Powerful images tell powerful
stories

• Choose images that tells the
  story of violence against women and its connection with ICTs.
  Storyboard the images to fit with your outline
  

  
  

• Images can be made of a phrase,
  a quotation, something you draw, photographs of the streets you walk
  in, a print screen of statistics, a collage made from magazines and
  newspaper clippings, comic strips, a snapshot of a piece of
  legislation, digital postcards - anything you feel is part of the
  story.
  

  
  

• Do a search for images on the
  internet, especially image libraries that allow sharing like Flickr
  and Creative
  Commons.
  

  
  

• Create tag clouds using Wordle.
  
  

  
  

• Make a comic
  strip and get a witty conversation going.
  

  
  

• Save print
  screens.
  

  
  

• Use any imagery on the Take Back
  The Tech website, like digital
  postcards.
  

  
  

• Produce a mosaic
  made up of many different images.
  

  
  

• Be creative, provocative and
  have fun!
  

  
  

3. Create your slide show

• Create your own 16 x 16 slide
  show that tells the story of violence against women and ICTs where
  you are.
  

  
  

• Create a slide show using Open
  Office, Powerpoint
  or Keynote. Or you
  can save all your images to pdf files.
  

  
  

• Upload your presentation on
  Slide Share -
  a web browser application that allows you to create slide shows and
  share them with others.
  

  
  

o Once
you have registered and verified your account, login, select
"upload".

o
Browse and upload your Presentation, Powerpoint or Keynote file (or
images as individual pdf files).

o You
can add a narrative to each slide under "Description", or
leave it blank.

o Or
you can use Vocaroo to record
audio and create a slidecast.

o
Select whichever category you think most applicable.

o
Under "privacy", select "public" so we can embed
it on this site.

o Then
click "publish" and you're done!

• If you don't want to create an
  account on Slide Share, email
  us and we will send you the login details of the shared account.
  

  
  

• Or simply email
  the presentation to us and we will upload and share it on the
  site for you.
  

  
  

4. Ground the story with your
narrative.

• Ground the 16 x 16 stories with
  your narrative and add your thoughts to the images.
  

  
  

• Add a narrative by inserting
  a text comment to each of the16 images. (If you use Slide Share
  add a narrative to each slide by inserting a comment according to
  the number of the slide.)
  

  
  

• Or add voice or music to the
  slideshow:
  

  
  

• You can also use a service like
  Vocaroo to
  record your voice as you view the slideshow, and email
  the audio to us.

  
  

• Or use a service like
  Postcard.FM
  to send the image with the audio integrated, and we'll add it
  to your slide show.
  

  
  

5. Share it with us

• Copy and paste the link of your
  presentation as a comment on
  this page. Scroll down and click on the button “Post here >>”

  
  

• Or send it to us by email
  genderit (at) apcwomen.org.
  
  

  
  

• You may want to use a web-based
  file-sending service, which makes it easier to send large files,
  such as yousendit.com
  or filemail.com.

  
  

• Or you can create an account on the Take
  Back The Tech! site, and upload your slideshow, audio file, or
  image directly.
  

  
  

o Login, click
on "create content", then "media". In the "body"
section, click "source" and copy and paste the embed code.