Gathering and publicizing information and mobilizing communities for action to bring positive change into society are those most important functions of rights advocates as they witness and oppose violence, injustice and discrimination. Every activist has had his or her good and bad experiences and brilliant ideas that worked and brought people together to stand up and fight for the better and safer life and justice. I feel lucky I was a part of this huge event and had a chance to talk personally to experienced campaigners as well as to open source software developers.
The program of this camp was highly interactive. Everyone was experienced in some field and was ready to share the knowledge. Facilitators became participants and participants took up the roles of facilitating discussions. The whole camp ground turned into clusters of labs and discussion circles on various topics: tools and strategies of effective video advocacy, using mobile phones, effective presentation and storytelling, tools and ideas for cooperation and collaboration, publishing and ways of information distribution, decentralizing campaigns, strategic mapping, information and design and many more. For more information and examples of info-activism visit the camp blog here.
This Camp became possible thanks to Tactical Technology Collective in collaboration with Aspiration who came up with this special format of flexible learning process. Visit TTC’s websites to find more useful tips and links and manuals for NGOs here.
The organizers called this event an Info-Activism Camp. “Info-Activism is an approach which helps rights advocates tactically utilize information, communications and digital technologies to enhance advocacy work” – Tactical Tech believes that new technologies have significant potential to enhance the work of campaigners and advocates, giving them the tools to gather and analyze information and the means to turn that information into action. Read more about Info-Activism Camp here which became possible with the support of Oak Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Open Society Institute and Hivos .
In this issue of SWAN news we feature an example of an unusual solution to stand up against politicians who call to attack women who go to pubs with men and wear western clothes (see news reportage here).
Pink Panties Campaign on Valentine’s Day united more than 45000 people who were against attacking women and such discrimination. “Its success came from the fact that the campaign was innovative, almost bizarre, and appealing to the youth too. The cause got wide coverage, embarrassing conservatives justifying restrictions on women or religious-infighting among different groups in this diverse country,” says one of articles on Digiactivism . View video here and read a case study of this campaign below in Sex Workers’ Advocacy School.