Training Workshop by FIRE:

Interactivity in the Internet: 
Toward a Feminist Definition

San José, Costa Rica.  RIF/FIRE. 

Defining interactivity in the Internet was the focus of a workshop by Feminist International Radio Endeavour (RIF/FIRE) entitled, “Using Technologies for Political Activism,” which took place Nov. 2-7, 2003 in San José, Costa Rica.

However, the Internet is a system of communication and information flow based on the capacity of computers to enable users to “speak” to each other as with a telephone system, radio waves, etc.  Web resources that allow such interactivity include chat rooms, electronic forums, bulletin boards, and other interactive mechanisms built into web pages. 

But this marvelous technical process which never ceases to amaze particularly those of older generations who had in the past relied only on one-way flows of media, information and communication, also has a socio-political dimension.  As Internet users are able to interact technically, those who are communicating or producing the information are also developing relationships with each other.  And this is rarely acknowledged much less analyzed in depth.

Women can interact in the Internet by channeling information flows, and communicating with others by transmitting their productions, art, writing, actions, identity, programs and operating systems, etc.  Women who are often employed in a technical capacity as workers in the information industry play a critical role as facilitators of these processes, but all too often remain invisible, and even transparent!   

As María Suárez Toro explains: “For us at Feminist International Radio Endeavour  (RIF/FIRE), the interactivity of the Internet is more a socio-political issue than technical.  Although certainly there must be a technical two-way flow of information (involving computers, some software programs, networks, etc.), the relational process of interactivity as shaped through feminism becomes more important.

Suárez Toro continued, “From a feminist perspective, interactivity implies that as I acquire information through the network of the Internet, in that network I see myself, I look at myself, I find myself and integrate that sense of myself, because I present myself through my art, my thoughts, my feelings, my photos, my productions, etc..  And through that process I also find myself by interacting with others, through their productions, their identities as expressed in the Internet, their communications, etc.  And that is what connects us, that is the process of networking through the Internet.” 

“Thus the technical means of Internet interactivity (chat rooms, web pages, forums, listservs, webcasts, etc. are only tools that enable us to connect or limit us when we use it in only one direction rather than as an interactive process,” says Suárez Toro.  “As women we tend to convert the Internet to a mirror where we are able to connect with others, but also to identify ourselves through what we produce and through accessing information, but also to find ourselves through that interactive process.”

Based on this perspective, the RIF/FIRE workshop was comprised of a series of activities involving training in technical capacities, including how to download and upload information from the Internet, using technical resources and programs for creating web pages, and maximizing the use of search engines.  Women participants also learned to use chat rooms, electronic forums, listservs, and bulletin boards in Internet.

But beyond the technical training, a socio-political dynamic underlaid the workshop from beginning to end.  Women participants collaborated in groups to design political and social action campaigns on issues of their choice, and had the option to upload that information to the Internet, along with biographical information and photos of themselves as Web authors.  They also produced live webcasts in which they launched these campaigns, and also were able to design specific political actions from the results of the workshop based on their experiences and in order to promote their own rights and needs.

The technical training in the workshop was carried out with a training manual based on a technical design by the educator Julia Rivera, and revised by FIRE specifically for the event.  Communication during the workshop was carried out by means of an Internet server of FIRE in APACHE using the LINUX system, created with the support of Nomadic Solutions and a Microsoft server and software programs. 

The FIRE/RIF workshop was made possible thanks to the contributions of HIVOS (Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries); Genevieve Vaughan, international founder of RIF/FIRE; and by the feminist movement with its decision to incorporate new communication technologies in its political actions and efforts. 

Groups participating in the workshop included:

El Salvador:  Fundación Clic Arte y Nuevas Tecnologías;  CORAMS, Centro de Orientación Radial para la Mujer Salvadoreña.

Costa Rica: Fundación Acceso; Unión Mundial por la Naturaleza;

Guatemala: La Cuerda; Kaqla;  Voces de Mujeres; Red Mujeres al Aire, Contemporánea Consultoras;

Nicaragua: Colectivo de Mujeres contra la Violencia; Servicios Integrales para la Mujer SI Mujer; Colectivo de Mujeres 8 de marzo;   Asociación de Mujeres de Jalapa contra la Violencia Oyanka;   Fundación Xochiquetzal.

Honduras: Centro de Derechos de las Mujeres / CDM; Colectiva del Centro de Estudios de la Mujer/CEMH; Comunicación Comunitaria /COMUN; Enlace de Mujeres Negras/ENMUNEH

South America: Casa de la Mujer de Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Asociación Promoción y Desarrollo de la Mujer PRODEMU en Perú; Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Argentina.