"This guide is aimed at hosts who want to hold and facilitate hybrid convenings/events, and is based on APC’s experience and learning from the last two years. After the pandemic, new ways to allow people to participate in convenings have arisen, as a means of reducing travel and minimising contact
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. We understand hybrid event as an event that has both on-site and online participants and/or speakers, and where participation and engagement are mediated through and by technology. Hybrid events have the advantages of allowing more people to participate (especially people with limited resources or in remote locations, those caring for others, or those unable to travel for any other reason), reducing event costs related to travel, and reduced impact on the environment. A hybrid event has elements of both on-site events and online events by design, forcing you to rethink the space as a combination of both worlds. One of the key learnings that we have had is that for those participants who are together in a room, it is very easy to forget that there are remote participants, as the physical space is so compelling. Therefore, this new format requires a double effort to plan, run and support the event in such a way that all participants feel part of the event and not disconnected. In this chapter we will share with you our learnings in designing and running hybrid events with different setups. Hybrid events can vary in participant size, duration and methodologies used. But we have identified at least three models of these type of events: one on-site group and several independent online participants connecting from their own locations and time zones; two or more on-site groups interconnected via internet in the same time zone, or across different time zones; remote session speakers addressing an on-site participant group. This chapter covers several aspects of a hybrid event that are suitable for any of the models that you might want to implement." (https://www.apc.org)
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"This assessment tool seeks to provide step-by-step advice and concrete recommendations for those wishing to develop a gender approach to cybersecurity policy. Building on APC’s previous work on a human rights approach to cybersecurity, online ge
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nder-based violence, and cybersecurity and gender, ranging from research to advocacy, this document is part of a framework we have designed to support policy makers and civil society organisations in developing gender-responsive cybersecurity policies. This framework also includes two other documents, and we recommend that those using this assessment tool consult them before putting the principles and processes we outline here into practice: a literature review that explores how cybersecurity as a gendered space has been addressed in research; a document identifying norms, standards and guidelines that cybersecurity policy makers and advocates can draw on when seeking to promote a gender approach within national or multilateral cybersecurity discussions." (Intgroduction, page 4)
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"Temporary internet disruptions and shutdowns pose serious challenges to the exercise of a wide range of rights and therefore cannot be justified under any pretext, whether these relate to preservation of national security, safeguarding the public order, or countering disinformation, among others. A
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ny measure that restricts people's ability to connect to the internet should be strictly justified through the principles of proportionality and necessity. The notion of network disruptions should thus take into account that partial disruptions can take place and have almost as much a deleterious effect on human rights as internet shutdowns." (Conclusion, page 27)
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"The pandemic made inequality, discrimination, exclusion and structural inequity more palpable, and rather than stagnating in indignation, it reactivated a sense of rebellion and contestation. The strength and sharpness with which we connect social justice, gender justice, environmental justice, eco
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nomic justice and racial justice with the potentials and limitations of digital technologies is undeniable. Using this intersectional lens, we need to document and build our own narratives about the challenges that we face related to the impacts of the pandemic and reflect on how our advocacy priorities as well as the ways we do advocacy are changing and keep being modified and adjusted. At APC we have strengthened capacity to design and implement collective and contextual community responses to the multiple challenges and crises that we face, while having a greater awareness of the kind of global responses that should be prioritised, based on shared but differentiated responsibilities [...] GISWatch 2021-2022 focuses on responses to some of the fundamental questions brought by the pandemic to inform civil society’s advocacy around digital technology issues and their potential to shape future horizons. As illustrated on our cover, a sustained struggle will be necessary in the years ahead, but not only in the public spaces. A nuanced approach to advocacy will be essential to open multiple ways to bring about positive change." (Preface, page 6)
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"The digital divide is not a problem the market alone will solve. We need to do things differently. Globally there is a growing movement of community connectivity providers — including community networks, municipal networks, cooperatives, and social enterprises — connecting underserved communiti
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es, often at faster speeds and lower prices than incumbent providers. These are the networks we need to promote, support, and invest in. Yet, almost all of them struggle to access capital. This is a nascent movement and the financial tools and capital stacks have not yet matured to meet the needs of these networks and the communities they serve. We now need to cultivate the financial infrastructure that will allow community connectivity providers to grow and scale. This report is designed to provide a foundation of understanding about what these providers look like, their various ownership and operating models, and how they can be financed sustainably. It is a practical tool for those who want to build networks and for funders and investors. The report’s 10 case studies show where and how community connectivity providers are already getting the job done and demonstrate how underserved communities can build their own internet infrastructure and take control of their digital futures. We hope this report will help more communities to achieve digital equity, catalyze more funding for community connectivity providers, and accelerate access to the internet and digital tools so that everyone can fully participate in our digitalizing world." (Foreword)
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"This submission focuses on Brazil's fulfilment of human rights obligations in the digital context and seeks to strengthen recommendations focused on guaranteeing universal access to the internet in order to enable free expression and association;
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access to information, knowledge and culture; and the exercise of economic and social rights in a manner that is secure, respectful of privacy and autonomy, and free of any kind of discrimination." (Introduction, page 3)
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"In this submission, the Association of Progressive Communications (APC), EngageMedia and So
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utheast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) examine Indonesia's compliance with the recommendations received during the third Universal Periodic Review cycle in 2017. This submission will focus particularly on digital rights including freedom of expression, the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs), including women human rights defenders, violence against women and misinformation." (Introduction, page 2)
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"[This is] a series of short issue briefs for funders on potential priority areas for funding activities or initiatives that would bring the work of digital rights organisations and environmental
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justice actors closer together. Each brief states the key problem from the perspective of the APC network, suggests mechanisms or processes for engagement and actors we feel are worth engaging, and includes specific recommendations for donors." (Overview, page 3)
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"This joint stakeholder report focuses on key issues relating to human rights online in India, including internet shutdowns, digital exclusion, freedom of speech and expression online, online harassment and hate speech, privacy, surveillance and data protection. The report draws on extensive and ong
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oing monitoring of the situation of human rights online in India by a number of civil society organisations and a desk review." (Introduction, page 3)
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"The FIRN meta-research aggregates and examines feminist research from the global South focused on questions around unequal access to online participation, the implications and impact of datafication, online gender-based violence, and gendered digital economies in the global South [...] While the re
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port shows how feminist theory and methodologies circulate differently in different parts of the world and communities of practice, it's also testament to a shared political conviction to challenge the status quo and work towards a more feminist internet." (Foreword, page i-iii)
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"Feminist internet research considers how gender justice can be achieved in the ways we belong, work and make on the internet and shows that this is not possible without considering the economic and environmental dimensions of the internet as well as the intersectionality of discriminations and viol
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ence that women, LGBTIQA+ people and others face on the internet, based on our various identities as well as our structural inequalities. Feminist research finds that while state and development actors promote the "empowerment" dimensions of women and other marginalised groups of people gaining access to the internet, the lack of an underlying rights framework results in such access not coming hand in hand with relevant freedoms and protections that would ensure meaningful and sustainable access." (Overview of findings, page 14)
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"[…] This project looks at experiences and observations of what it means to speak truth to power and receive hate as it is manifested through varying degrees of violence, across a variety of instances. Drawing on the responses of 15 interviewees, this qualitative research report presents 3 section
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s in understanding 'Hated Speech': (a) Forestalling Speech, (b) Speech in Polarised and Reactionary contexts, (c) Speaking For Oneself In One's Voice. The report ends by Enunciating Hope, offering a reflection on possibilities and pathways for solidary-building and reflexive collective action." (Executive Summary, page 2)
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"This article is an outcome of an actionresearch project that gathered community members, farmers, technologists, agroecologists and community network practitioners to make possible a community network in the quilombo of Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca, located in Barra do Turvo city, São Paulo state,
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Brazil. The quilombos emerged as refuges for Black people who escaped repression during the entire period of slavery in Brazil, between the 16th and 19th centuries. The inhabitants of these communities are called quilombolas. With the 1988 Constitution, they gained the right to own and use the land they were on, but not without plenty of political struggles. Today Brazil has more than 15,000 quilombola communities. Within quilombo Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca there is a group of women that takes part in a network called Agroecological Network of Women Farmers (RAMA in Portuguese – Rede Agroecológica de Mulheres Agricultoras), and one of the issues they faced collectively related to difficulties of communication [...] This essay explores positive and negative aspects of our practices in the design and nurturing of the Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca community network, the use of feminist and popular education methodologies, respect and appreciation of local knowledge, and the importance of considering gender, race and colonialism as oppressions present in the places where community networks operate and are needed. We share these reflections so that they can be useful for other community network activists, advocates and groups when it comes to their technological practices and methodologies. In our search for socially, culturally, ethically engaged and responsible definitions of technology, we come across our own gaps and prejudices: especially how to see and work on racial relations and, crucially, how community network practitioners ignore their own prejudices." (Pages 1-2)
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"The objective of this study is twofold –firstly to understand how women have found self-expression through community radio as a frugal technology and how, in turn, it has helped them serve the community and empower other women in the community to find their voices. Secondly, this study examines h
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ow radio stations in remote rural locations have enabled local communities to voice themselves which in turn has facilitated flow of information between the local authorities and the people during the pandemic. We have documented eight case studies of women broadcasters in different community radio stations across India. These case studies substantiate that women have overcome various societal and cultural barriers to associate themselves with community radio as a technology. These women act as agents of change in their communities and are followed as role models for other women and girls. It is observed that women in their roles as radio broadcasters feel enabled, empowered and are able to impact the community. All the women interviewed in this study felt comfortable using technology to record, edit and broadcast programmes. While they did not have any prior experience of using technology, they were quick to learn and adapt. Through our interviews we were able to infer that radio as medium supports frugal technology for its operation. Indeed, technology has the potential to empower people, it is evident that frugal technologies like community radio treat people as agents and not as mere users." (Abstract, page 6)
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