G2G = tics & tags

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TAKE BACK THE TECH!
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 grrls to ~STake Back The Tech!~T But you don~Rt 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

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TAKE BACK THE TECH!
www.takebackthetech.net
25 Nov 10 Dec
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* 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~Rs 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.