[AktiviX] Meeting of international female media-activists at the Digital days in Brussels (20-24 january, 2004)

Sun Jan 4 09:48:55 UTC 2004

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 20:39:28 +0100
From: "lize" <lize at indymedia.be>
Subject: [imc-women] 	Building up an 'out-of-standard'
	Media-(h)ac(k)tivist network	starring....
To: <gca at lists.genderchangers.org>
Cc: imc-women at lists.indymedia.org
Message-ID: <001f01c3cbe8$12f20d10$c200a8c0 at UMAKESH>
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Meeting of international female media-activists at the Digital days in Brussels (20-24 january, 2004)

Hello girls !

I am working for a project that every year organizes the ?Digital Days <http://www.digitales-online.org/> ? (20-21-22-23 january 2004) a
conference/festival of four days where female teachers & pupils of ICT, ICT professionals, artists, activists and academic researchers meet and
share know-how, skills, abilities, experiences, dreams and questioning.
The "Digital days" build out practical workshops, presentations of projects, research results, lectures and moments of informal, festive
exchanges to encourage women to take up new media as a tool for their advancement in a patriarch world dominated by technology in the 
hands of man. [(continuously updated) program <http://www.digitales-online.org/2004/home.php>  of these ?Digitales
Days? ]

This year they asked me to invite some (media)activists and I think it is a good occasion to do outreach, to give an introduction on
media-activism, to give workshops and to meet and brainstorm upon the female side of media(h)ac(k)tivism. Some of us have met on the recent
European medialabs and hackmeetings and expressed the need to share our tools and experiences with women from different backgrounds.

As the Digitales days are part of an ICT course for women seeking employment, the public will contain about 90 female pupils from
different (ethnic) backgrounds. We want to present our activities and set up some workshops to share our know-how on making alternative 
media.
We want to show and explain that participation in alternative media is a possibility to raise your voice and tell stories that elsewhere aren't
heard. We think this feminist and multi-ethnical approach or emphasis is necessary to avoid media-activism turning into yet another political and
ICT territory with a strong 'white&male' signature. The exchange of skills between international media-activists and the 180 participants of
Digitales will undoubtedly encourage some of the present women to take up both media-activism and information technology in the struggle for
the rights of women inside and outside Europe.

To make media-activism appealing to large groups of women from different backgrounds we want to set up local and international workshops 
for and by women on different occasions : schools, women's assemblies, local women's days, but also at assembly meetings, international 
medialabs & hackmeetings, 'no border' camps & international and local social fora.
By bringing our tools close to the public, we want to encourage women from different backgrounds to take up both media-activism and
information technology in the struggle for the rights of women inside and outside Europe.

We want to organize us in a network of female media-activists, so to specifically deal with the gender and minority question inside the
media-activist movement. We think the presence of a strong female network will change the image of the ?white&male? media-activist
movement and will encourage women from different backgrounds to join media-activsm.

We also want to form a firm network to proceed on the domain of (women)(media)activism and the use of new technologies : networking,
independent information channels through internet and the use of free software are essential tools to fight against the dominant neoliberal
system that through privatization and undemocratic decisions is making more victims among women than among men.

Indymedia <http://idaho.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/4699.php>  reported on gender discrimination within some collectives : several women
complained about being silenced in meetings, some experienced open sexist behavior, many stated that there was a general atmosphere that
made it hard for women to work within their indymedia group. We think a strong female network within the media-activist movement can act as 
a watchdog for gender & minority discrimination upon decision making procedures of various media activist groups. We also want to formulate
concrete proposals for the reflection of the diversity (e.g. in relation to gender-, sexual-, spiritual-, and/or cultural-identity) within the different 
media-activist collectives.

At the recent media-activist meetings in Paris and Geneva, we were convinced that the ?Digitales? event in Brussels is the ideal
opportunity to come together and set up a network, because the ?Digital days? is offering us a setting in which we can not only talk and
brainstorm but also immediately act : at the Digital days we can set up workshops and immediately reach the public we have in mind : women 
from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, the setting of Digital days offers us the opportunity to make an open assembly on the
gender issue, so to-be media-activists can participate in the decision making on our network, right from its birth. 

The "Digitales" meeting of women of the european media(h)ac(k)tivist movement will also be a first international meeting on "women in
media-activism". We all want to know each other better and exchange skills and experiences in a setting that is not urging us to 'produce',
but welcomes teaching, reflection, debate and the planning & organizing of future actions & meetings. With this first meeting we want to
conceive a workgroup that could organize a larger international medialab/conference/festival inspired on Medialabs/Digitales. Such a
meeting could bring together all European (cyber)feminists,
(media)activists and to-be-activists during one event. In practice, we want to work out a concrete framework for organizing such an event as a
counter-activity against the World Women's <http://www.redfeminista.org/forum2004.asp?id=forum2004>  forum in Barcelona (29-30-31 july 
2004), organized by the right wing Spanish government of J.M. Aznar, and at a possible European Social Forum on women?s rights (proposed 
during the European Social Forum in Paris,
December 2003).

PROGRAM/AGENDA : International media-activists at Digitales (to be discussed, brainstormed upon?. !)

workshops & introduction to media-activism :

*CandidaTV :
At a first workshop participants will learn how to manipulate a digital videocamera and make their first shots.
During a second workshop participants will learn how to download the shots from the digital videocamera on the computer and afterwards edit
the shots to a comprehensive clip. The last phase is the compression of the clip and its uploading on an internet site.

*Indymedia : 
The first part of the workshop gives an introduction to the Indymediasites and the working of Indymedia. What kind of information do
you find on Indymedia ? How does this information appears on the sites ? How the sites are sustained ? Several international indymedia 
volunteers will explain everything by reports, articles, projects, footage that have their name on.

During the second part of the workshop the participants are invited to take the tools at hand and launch themselves at media-activists by 
publishing a contribution on Indymedia. With the support of more experienced (indy)media-activists several teams will receive training on
the basis of text, photo, audio and edito. A report on what, how and why of the ?Digital days? must be the proud result of the first Indymedia
experience and an incentive to publish more contributions in the future and to collaborate with Indymedia for the reporting of bigger events.

* Mujeres en red :
 Feminist Hacklab ?reality hacking? : in this workshop the participants will learn how to use internet and free software to
take up direct action for the rights of women

* all other media-activists will show their site, explain their activities and encourage women to participate.

reflection & debate

* How can media-activism empower women to participate more into social, economical and political life ?

* How can media-activism empower women in Information Technology related fields ?

* Quantities : is participation of women in media-activism unbalanced ?

* Qualities : are women 'specializing' in certain areas of media-activism ?

* Networking and outreach : is the building up of networks between media(h)ac(k)tivists and the outreach towards 'newbies' a "women's
affair" within the media(h)ac(k)tivist movement ?

* Women's attitude : is there a "female" language - approach - regard on media-activism ?

* Gender discrimination : Indymedia and Pénélopes report discrimination by individual men and a patriarchal atmosphere within the movement. 
What are the experiences within the broader european media(h)ac(k)tivist movement ?

* Technology : Are women underrepresented in tech related issues of media-activism ? Is there a parallel/difference with the (under)presence
of women in general Information Technology related fields ?

* Solutions : how to deal with an unequal participation of women in media-activism ?

planning&organising of future workshops&meetings :

* Exchange of experiences of women's workshops on media(h)ac(k)tivism :
local and international workshops at media&hacklabs, media(h)ac(k)tivist meetings, no border camps...

* Overview of possible local and international events where we could build up 'female' medialabs

* Conception of a possible program/contents of these 'feminized' media(h)ac(k)tivist workshops/events

* Conception of a workgroup for organizing such an event

PRACTICAL INFO

*For those interested in coming over :

Digital Days are taken place at 20(evening)-21-22-23 january 2004  in 1210 Brussels, Rue meridien 10,24,26 & 30. When digitales are finished,
we are thinking on adding an extra brainstorming day at 24th January.

If you want to come, send a mail to lize at indymedia.be, so she can reserve for accommodation (at a price of 9,5 euro a night) in a nice big
youth hotel for groups where everybody will stay and where we can have additional brainstorming and meetings (internet connection available).

I have prepared a dossier to ask for some funding of travel expenses but nothing is sure. Considering we get some money, it will only be a
limited amount of money. As we would like to enable many interested women to participate in the meeting, i ask everybody to consider their
financial possibilities and judge for themselves if they need financial compensation for the full amount of the ticket or a contribution to the
ticket. Please indicate the concrete amount of money needed for travelcosts (for bus, train, plain tickets).

*For those interested in remote participation :

On 23/1 from 14-18H you will be able to follow and intervene our introduction&debate with the digitales public on IRC (server :
irc.indymedia.org channel : #digitales)

** important **
it would be great if anyone interested in building up this network could inscribe themselves  in the list of ?genderchangers? for
organizing/brainstorming upon this meeting and future activities of this network. Please send a brief statement about yourself, explaining who
you are, your interest and your possible contribution in the brainstorming of female mediactivism and in organizing future events.

Please all inscribe upon :
http://lists.genderchangers.org/listinfo/gca
please send all your mails on the brainstorming and conceiving the
agenda of digitales and the future of this network to :
<mailto:gca at lists.genderchangers.org> gca at lists.genderchangers.org

Hope to hear from you soon..
Kind regards,
Lize ? Indymedia Belgium

In collaboration with :
Rossella&Marina ? Samizdat net
Nathalie ? Chiennes de gardes
Montse ? Mujeres en red
Marijuana&Tibi ? Indymedia Italy
Anna ? Indymedia Germany
Frenesi, kry, tura ? CandidaTV
Otted, lemon ? New global vision
And many more to come and join our network?

-
http://www.fempages.org 