Feminist talk

Anonymity, accountability and the public sphere

Posted Wed 16 May 2012 - 15:38 | 12,732 views
I found myself being confronted with the issue of anonymity and accountability in different ways at the AWID Forum. At the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) and Connect Your Rights events that took place just before the Forum, we discussed about the different and increasingly sophisticated ways that internet technologies have been used to erode any sense of anonymity online.

Feminist talk

Bargain basement shopping in the information society

Posted Tue 15 May 2012 - 06:19 | 11,327 views
When I saw this quote on Mozilla's new Collusion website: "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold - Andrew Lewis." I felt it summed up the economics tool box session on Commodification of Knowledge that APC led at the 2012 AWID Forum quite nicely. The session, organised by APC, brought together speakers to spark debate and reflection, but the…

Feminist talk

Privacy and voice

Posted Fri 11 May 2012 - 08:03 | 8,408 views
I'm sure we've all seen amazing testimony videos of incredibly sensitive subjects: of women who choose to have abortion and share why despite risking imprisonment in their country for this act of taking control of their bodies; lesbians who come out fighting against "correctional rape"; rural women living in isolated regions sharing stories of cultural violence. I cringe and wonder - do they know…

Feminist talk

Have you ever spied on your ex on Facebook?

Posted Thu 10 May 2012 - 08:34 | 7,165 views
The question in the headline elicits a complicit smile. Have you ever? Or have you spied on their new partner? Or have you googled someone you just met and liked a lot? At the interactive session on “Privacy and pleasure” that was held as part of the 2012 AWID Forum there were a variety of participants, of diverse ages, that raised their hands, recognizing that both Facebook and Google are tools…

Feminist talk

Take away personal dynamics, be anonymous

Posted Wed 25 Apr 2012 - 14:50 | 7,960 views
Who said we should write things in our own names? It makes it personal. Today there was a debate at AWID Forum about a letter that was distributed criticising the exclusion of a certain discourse in the MENA region, and a point that was used to attack the letter was that it was not signed, you can't identify the authors of the letter, and no one "to take responsibility" for its content.

Feminist talk

Last Rescue in Siam: A comedy about anti-trafficking raids in Thailand

Posted Fri 20 Apr 2012 - 09:58 | 8,139 views
Empower Foundation of Thailand has creatively used art and media to promote the rights of sex workers for over 20 years. Empower has collaborated with artists to bring their messages to people in Thailand, in cartoons, in nearly life-size papier mache dolls that are more well traveled than the sex workers they represent, and in their own books. But these have been primarily for audiences in…

Feminist talk

Filtered by the state, inspired by Gita Sen

Posted Thu 19 Apr 2012 - 17:00 | 7,747 views
Today Gita Sen said “we are in a fierce vicious unequal new economic world where battlegrounds are many” and a few hours later in the session on “Commodification of knowledge: how increasing access and availability of the internet had transformed the way knowledge is produced and shared” a participant made us notice that “We were being watched." And it's true behind the gorgeous beauty of…

Feminist talk

Anonymize yourself: digital security and feminist practice of technology

Posted Thu 19 Apr 2012 - 15:54 | 9,522 views
As the day passed I saw myself surrendering to the fact that there is nothing good in the laziness of a routine that prevent us from thinking about technological abuse that we as women activists can suffer and make the other suffering. When on the 18 we had the feminist tech exchange I understood that I need, I have to anonymize myself.
Photo

Editorial

WHY IS THE INTERNET FEMINIST ISSUE?

Posted Sun 15 Apr 2012 - 14:47 | 12,238 views
The women's programme of world’s oldest progressive internet network outlines its priority issues for the 12th AWID International Forum on Women’s Rights in Development that will gather over 2000 women’s rights activists from around the world from April 19 to 22, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Publication

The 'Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society' research: Final meeting report

Posted Tue 10 Apr 2012 - 08:10 | 4,533 views
The final meeting of the ‘Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society’(CITIGEN) research network was organized by IT for Change in Bangalore in February 2012. The CITIGEN research programme studies whether marginalised women benefit from new information and communication technologies and whether the internet and mobile phones strengthened their active citizenship. The final meeting of…