About TBTT
- What is this action?
A collaborative campaign to reclaim information & communications technologies (ICTs) to end violence against women (VAW).
A call to everyone – especially grrls and women – to take control of ICTs and consciously use it to change power relations between men and women.
For 16 Days (Nov 25 – Dec 10), to enable users to employ ICTs for activism against VAW.
- Why “Take Back The Tech”?
Creating digital spaces that protects everyone’s right to move freely, without harassment or threat to safety .
Realising our rights to shape, define, participate, use & share knowledge, information and ICTs.
Addressing the intersections between communication rights and women’s human rights, especially violence against women.
Recognising women’s historical and critical participation and contribution to the development of ICTs (e.g. Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper…)
- What are the goals of this action?
Build knowledge on how VAW is connected with ICTs, based on diverse experiences and realities.
Support and promote local actions, priorities and advocacy issues on VAW & ICTs in different spaces and contexts.
Collaboratively create strategies on using ICTs tactically to counter VAW.
Changing the landscape, potential & paradigm of ICTs through active participation.
To facilitate movement building on the human rights of women in relation to the field of ICTs.
- Who to speak to?
Web communities and users
Advocates against VAW
Women’s rights defenders
People who profit from VAW
Media, information & news providers
Policy and law makers
- Who will take action?
Ordinary ICTs users – grrl, woman, female ICTs users
ICTs developers
Information provider & disseminator
Content creators
Knowledge builders
Basically anyone who from librarians, lecturers, writers, techies, geek grrls, bloggers, emailers, SMSers, trainers, storytellers, poets, writers, web managers, theorists, graffiti artists, photographers….
- How can you take back the tech? (some suggestions)
Put up a campaign banner on your site.
Come up with ideas for action that can be taken in the 16 days.
Think of networks or initiatives or online communities you know that will take on the campaign and localise this!
Share video clips, audio files, images, graphics, doodles & other kinds of content.
Submit tools or write guides that you think are useful.
Translate resources into your own languages
Write, blog, talk, document – join ka-BLOG! or create your own blogging community and tactics.
Discuss & build knowledge on this issue from your experiences and strategies dealing with VAW online.
Make your own campaign icons. Create new imagery
- Or start a local campaign!
Brainstorm with a few people whom you think might be interested to raise this issue in your town, community, country or region
What are the urgent issues in terms of VAW & ICTs?
What’s the one change you’d like to see happen, and how can the campaign help achieve that?
Think of simple, creative & concrete actions, or just get a few people together to take daily actions collectively
Contact us, we will help You:f or SEE: info@oneworldsee.org, Bosnia: sabina.redzovic@oneworldsee.org, Serbia: ivana.vuckovic@oneworldsee.org, Macedonia: eleonora.delova@oneworldsee.org
Don’t forget to share your campaign
- Questions to initiate action:
What are your thoughts of this action?
Can you take part in it?
What do you need to take back control of ICTs? (access? community? information? strategies?)
What do you see is missing?
How can you take back the tech?
What can you do online? What spaces do you have access to?
How do you use technology now?
What tactics can you implement for 16 Days to highlight the connection between ICTs and VAW?
Links:
Contact us with ideas! Let’s take back the tech!
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How to organize a Take Back The Tech! Campaign
1) Get together with friends, networks or partners
Find a few people with whom you’d like to organise a campaign. They can be as few and as many people as you like, as long as you share the same energy and commitment to take action.
If there are organisations or people already organising 16 days of activism campaigns, see if you can partner with them and build the campaign through a Take Back The Tech! action or activity.
2) Decide on an issue
What are the critical violence against women issues faced in your context locally (e.g. school, neighbourhood, workplace, city) or nationally?
How does the right to communicate, find out information, express an opinion, share knowledge and form networks or communities relate to them? This can either be either in a contributing way, or as an opportunity for addressing them. For example, there are increasing cases of women and girls being stalked and harassed through their mobile phones. At the same time, they are able to access information on the internet on how to deal with this situation. A possible call for action is to recommend that mobile operators enable an SMS-reporting of such abuses where they are able block further attempts of communicating from the harasser’s number.
If something is already receiving public attention, you can generally count on more support and impact. Are there any violence against women issues that are currently being debated, or a change in public policy context that can be used to call for greater shared responsibility to end violence against women? For example, a case that is being followed by the media, a change in government, a new minister in charge of women’s rights or ICT, recent budget announcements, a new law or policy etc. Make the connections with ICT and communication rights.
3) Think of an action
Be creative, strategic and challenging. You can also be playful! This can help you think of actions that are engaging and interesting for people to take part in, and can also help you get more media attention for greater impact.
What are you skills? What kinds of access do you have to different kinds of ICT tools and spaces? How can you mix and match different kinds of skills, tools and spaces together to form an action? For example, one of the Take Back The Tech! actions is to create postcards that are uploaded digitally, that could be sent through the website, posted to friends, or to public officials to raise awareness.
How can you reach the people you want to reach through your action? If they are women users of ICT, to which spaces do they go and what do they do? How can you catch their attention and commitment there through your action? If they are decision-makers, find out who they are exactly, and how can creative use of ICT both reach them directly and through the media?
Write up your action in any way you think most effective. When we write up daily actions, we try to: a) state the problem and make the connection to ICTs – be it technology, policy or communications rights; b) state the action; and c) give clear instructions about how to carry out the action.
4) Plan the details
Figure out what needs to be done, and who will be doing it. Divide up the tasks between partners so everyone has a part to play in the campaign, and that you collectively own it.
Depending on the scale of your action, you might want to think about when it is happening, what are the materials you need, who can help produce them, how will you let people know, do you have a media strategy, are there permits needed and time needed to apply for it, will there be security risks and how will you respond to them, do you need sponsorship and how can sponsors also be partners in your campaign, etc.
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This campaign is organised by the Association of Progressive Communications, Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP). APC WNSP is a global network of more than 175 women in over 55 countries promoting gender equality in the design, implementation, access and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and in the policy decisions and frameworks that regulate them. *CopyLeft. 2009 APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP)* Permission is granted to use this document for personal use, for training and educational publications, and activities by peace, environmental, human rights or development organisations. Please provide an acknowledgement to APC WNSP.
