[NextGenderation]
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Since the end of last year a process has started to
prepare the first
European Feminist Forum (EFF), planned for 13-15 June
2008.
The EFF secretariat had called last year to start
'Affinity Groups' on
different subjects to prepare the Forum, and so a
group was started
focussing on women and tech, ICT, New Media - called
'agitate'
(Affinity
Group InformaTion And new TEchnologies).
We are now looking for and inviting more women and
women's groups to
join us in this process.
The general aim of the group is to increase visibility
of women in IT,
with a focus on FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source
Software) and new media.
>From our application to co-ordinate this topic for
the EFF:
====
Our affinity group will discuss, analyse, raise
awareness and get
active
around issues of women and new media and information
and communication
technologies (ICTs). The percentage of women who are
actively
interested
in these issues is extremely small, due to different
reasons. The roots
can be found in education, gender roles, homogeneous
and exclusive male
structures in existing gender-mixed groups and
networks (most of them
in
fact not mixed but instead almost all-male).
We want to build a stronger network to
* give visibility to our actions,
* carry on the debate about why it seems to be just
'natural' that
women
and computers don't go together well and what the real
reasons are,
* develop more activities with a clear feminist focus
(wonderful recent
example: Take back the tech,
http://www.takebackthetech.net/index.php),
* share experiences and empower each other and others
* help make access to new media easier for feminist
activists
* interrogate and address the ways in which both
gender and race are
factors that prevent people from having full and equal
access to
virtual
and tech spaces
Members of the envisioned group are so far active with
different
aspects
that can be found in the thematic triangle of ICTs,
media and
information: organising courses for women to get a
better understanding
of computers, running a radio, independent media
websites, involvement
in the 'FLOSS' community, research and analysis of why
women are so
little present in those forms of political activism
that focus on new
media/ICTs, but also the representation of women in
the media in
general.
Another focus will be to cross borders, as many
existing groups are not
or little known outside the region where they are
active, and to
strengthen networks, especially across East-West
borders.
By sharing experiences with women from other
continents we'll analyse,
research and understand more the convergences and
paradigms that women
face in different situations and countries and also
the strategies for
standing up to sexism's.
Last but not least a certain reluctance of feminist
groups and networks
towards new technologies is quite visible, and we
would like to use
this
chance to reach out to women who would like to find
out more but don't
know who to ask. Empowerment of women is always a
vital part of women's
groups busy with technology and we will have a lot to
share with you
all
during the EFF.
===
Find more about us here:
http://europeanfeministforum.org/spip.php?article96?=en
We have so far done the obvious: started a mailing
list, a wiki, and
got
used to the EFF website
(
http://europeanfeministforum.org).
What we would like to do next is: make active use of
the EFF online
forum, but also organise a real life meeting sometime
after the summer,
to talk about plans for next year's EFF meeting in
Warsaw.
If you are interested, please get in touch:
* Send an email to eff[at]systerserver.net,
* join us in irc: irc.indymedia.org #eff (for help
with irc chat:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Sysadmin/IrcHowTo)
* contribute to the forum:
http://europeanfeministforum.org/spip.php?rubrique28
=========
Please distribute this invitation to other women and
women's groups who
may be interested!
--
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