In recognition of the One-year Anniversary of the New Tactics interactive website, we hosted a “year-end review.”
We wanted to provide this opportunity to generate feedback from you, our New Tactics community members, about what New Tactics resources and tools have worked well for you. We have opened the “year-end review” with some general theme areas. This is a summary of the ideas and experiences shared in this dialogue.
First and foremost participants expressed a deep appreciation for New Tactics, for providing a forum for connection, information, reflection and discussion.
Organization and structures of dialogues
In terms of the structure, delegates also seemed to be in favor of a clearer “mission statement” for what was to be collectively achieved through the discussion and the sharing of experiences.
In terms of structuring online-discussions, participants expressed the desire to have a more structured approach, with an active online facilitator who could summarize the key themes and develop conversations around distinct themes, a moderator could also follow up on themes to ask questions. A moderator could also get more people to participate by asking direct questions. It was also suggested that a discussion could be more narrowly focused, for example by the use of a few case studies.
An approach that was favored in terms of preparation and participation was the use of conference calls prior to the dialogues.
Experience of participation in dialogues
The dialogues were suggested to be more interactive, perhaps through Ready Talk or a Skype like conversation.
It was also suggested that the dialogues had a tendency to become too intellectual, and that there is a need to encourage participants to be active and post comments.
Difficulties in participating in dialogues
Two problems that people were experiencing and that kept resurfacing was the issues of Internet access and time zone difference. In combination with the fact that many people expressed the view that one week was much to short for a online discussion, perhaps a longer timeframe would be a possible solution to these issues.
Internet Access
Time Zone Difference
Suggestions for dialogues
Participants also expressed appreciation for the inclusion of self-care strategies for activists, and the interest for further evolvement of this theme.
One contributor also suggested the video functionality as an option for the posts.
NEW RESOURCES AND UPDATES TO FEATURED DIALOGUE TOPICS
- an update on the librarian front
- ICT for Peacebuilding
- Update--Power of Place--Sites of Conscience programs, JANM
- Securely Documenting Human Rights
- Mobile Activism in Africa
IDEAS FOR GIVING PRACTICAL TIPS TO ACTIVISTS
There was a suggestion for action guides or resources to help guide activists in their endeavors. Another suggestion was to create a sort of Distance Learning module – an online discussion and advising interested activists, recommending and mailing available literature that can stimulate tactic development. For example through CD-rom, which would provide access for those with no Internet connection.
Another suggestion was to create a network to tap into the interests and resources of human rights professors and students, it could include forums where students could pose questions to activists, could also make connections between organizations and potential volunteers and interns.
IDEAS FOR IMPROVING OR ADDING TO THE WEBSITE
Again the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and participants found the website to be a great way for people around the world to share their experiences and ideas.
In terms of the website, most participants favored simplifying the technology and thus lower the barrier of entry. Also, some participants were overwhelmed by all the information on the website, and suggested that it might be organized in more subsections. Making navigation of the website easier, and perhaps including alternatives to the videos on the "how to use this website" link, since slow Internet connections will make videos inaccessible.
Another suggestion was to make the online dialogues more effective by using distinctive headings to separate the different topics.
One suggestion was adding new links and updated appendixes to notebooks. Another suggestion was to add a press section where people can store links and news articles that are relevant and a personal library where one could store information on the website.
Another concrete suggestion was to have an active editor, who could make texts more readable through formatting, highlighting through bold and italics, correcting typos, as well as encouraging contributors to make their comments sharp and concise. The editor could also summarize the dialogue once it was over and write a highlights summary.
A STORY ABOUT HOW NEW TACTICS HELPED MY WORK
These stories all identified how much New Tactics had helped in getting information of how different organizations were seeking to address problems they themselves were facing. How it gave them a venue for exploring more innovative and creative tactics, and considered using the dialogues as a model for their own knowledge sharing projects. New Tactics activities that were mentioned frequently were those dealing with innovative uses of technology, especially mobile phones, video and radio.
Each of the theme areas below begins with, "I want to share..."
- my experience participating in the New Tactics on-line community
- new resources and updates to featured dialogue topics
- ideas for giving practical tips to activists
- ideas for improving or adding to the website
- a story about how New Tactics helped my work
[Photo credit: rashida coleman-hale]
Please share your feedback, ideas and recommendations regarding your experience in participating in one of the TEN featured on-line dialogues over the past year; your experience of using or participating in the interTactica or other dialogues offered by other New Tactics members; your experience of using any of the website tools and resources.
<p>Just got five identical email messages in a faint, tiny, hard-to-read type. Is there some way this can be avoided?</p>
<p>At 9/23/2008 05:27 PM Tuesday, you wrote:<br />
>A New Tactics Community member wrote:Please share your feedback, ideas and recommendations regarding your experience in participating in one of the TEN featured on-line dialogues over the past year; your experience of using or participating in the interTactica or other dialogues offered by other New Tactics members; your experience of using any of the website tools and resources. =====<br />
><br />
>----------<br />
>You are receiving this email from a New Tactics dialogue. You can reply to this message to participate via email. By replying:<br />
> - Your message will appear on the New Tactics website,<br />
> - Your message will be emailed to other members subscribed to this dialogue.<br />
><br />
>To stop receiving emails from this dialogue:<br />
> - log in and visit <a href="http://www.newtactics.org/node/4875" title="http://www.newtactics.org/node/4875">http://www.newtactics.org/node/4875... />
> - Click on "Stop my email participation."</p>
Hi John,
Thanks for being the first person to add a comment to our "year-end review". You are asking a very good question regarding the message that you've received from the website. I don't know the answer but I'll ask Kristin, our website guru, to explore how this duplicate message problem occured.
Has that this problem happened to you before when our on-line dialogues have begun? Thanks so much for bringing it to our attention.
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
Hi John,
Sorry for the funny looking emails! This is certainly avoidable.
It looks like you received an email message for each comment that I added last night to the dialogue (I added the 'themes' as comments). This will happen when a user has their account set to 'Participate by Email'. Is there any chance that you had this on, and after receiving the emails you followed the link and clicked on 'Stop my email participation'?As of this morning, your account is NOT set to receive emails on this dialogue. I'm not sure if it was different last night.
Otherwise, if you never chose to 'Participate by Email' in this dialogue, I would ask you to follow these steps: login, click on 'My groups' in the top right sidebar, click on 'My membership' next to the group titled 'New Tactics Community Members', and make sure your email notifications are 'disabled'. This will stop all email notifications from the website.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions - kantin@cvt.org.
Thanks!
Kristin Antin, New Tactics Online Community Builder
Throughout the time that I used the the New Tactics website, I was impressed by the breadth and wide variety of information that was available. I particularly liked the tactical notebooks as they served as good examples of specfic stratgies that yielded effective results. I think that having the tactical notebooks as a resource, can serve to inspire and provide ideas for other human rights activists. It would be helpful to have a better understanding of the categories into which the tactics are organized into, and perhaps then being able to look through a particular topic through this understanding.
I think the on-line dialogues were also very informative, but it would be great to find a way to make them more interactive. For example, perhaps a Ready Talk conversation could take place to have the participants in the dialogues verbally exchange ideas and field questions.
Maha Hilal
I want to share my experience participating in the New Tactics on-line community. To me this was a BIG learning experience and I must say the idea of pulling together different people with different experiences to share was one of the best. In a short period of time I was able to gather so much in terms of best practices which in turn helped me improve my trainings in non-violence. Just like mobilising resources for a particular purpose, I realised that it is equaly important to mobilise ideas (experiences) and share them for that matter, will help improve learning for purposes of peace building, non violence, human rights and even development.
This was a wonderful experience
Oluoch Dola
Chemchemi Ya Ukweli
P.O.BOX 14370 00800 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel:+254-20-4446970 or +254-20-2320346 or +254735244554
Email:oluochdola@hotmail.com
First of all, I would like to thank CVT for taking the initiative of developing this new form of interactive discussion, what we call new media in journalism language.
I was very happy to be involved in an online discussion with experienced resource people from different parts of the world. I especially liked the tele-conferencing, it was a 1 hour interactive discussion. I thought this was great.
I was recently in the US for about 4 weeks attending different meetings on US Foreign Policy and Human Rights and one participant from Tanzania googled my name on the Internet and then said to me: "Sharon, I really admire your work,. I see that you are published. I need to get to where you are". One of my Internet publishers is CVT so one may say that CVT is publicising my work which is great for me.
I would like to keep this short for now so that I do not bore my readers with long texts.
Sharon Lamwaka.
Great story, Sharon! Glad we can help publicize your great work!
This makes me think of the importance of highlighting and promoting the hard work of human rights practitioners. The is an important aspect of the New Tactics project - focusing on the creative tactics that practitioners are developing and adapting all over the world. I hope that this website can be a place for practitioners to share their stories - successes OR challenges - in order to 'publicize' themselves in the human rights community. And in the process - we'll all learn more about the issues that exist and the solutions that are available to us.
Thanks, Sharon! We hope to publicize your work more!
Kristin Antin, New Tactics Online Community Builder
Hi Kristin. It is amazing. This is a big platform when we can come and share our experiences. Thanks for building up this opportunity.
In Burma what we can do now is only reactive action. Thats really sad. We are trying to create the best way to use the video to develop the proactive action. We can do more effective work by using the video for human rights advocacy.
As a long term volunteer at New Tactics, and somewhat of a technophobe, I have been impressed and amazed to see the process of building this new website from the beginning. The old website was fine - a way to passively share information and get new ideas. But this online community feature of the new website brings a completely new dimension to how human rights activists around the world can communicate their experiences. It brings those experiences alive. As a global leadership instructor, I am always searching for ways to engage my students in real world issues without physically being able to leave the classroom/Minnesota. The New Tactics website and online community gives them the tools to do this. I send them to many websites as resources for their leadership development projects and invariably they are all enthused by the NT one and the interactive nature of the online dialogues. I look forward to an upcoming online dialogue for educators and hope that we can find ways to attract many more educators and students to the site as a fantastic classroom resource.
Thanks NT!
Only thing that cause great difficulty for me is the time zone
difference that prevented me form fully participating in the forum. So,
I think that the discusson can be even more fruitfull if we are all
online at the same time, or if more time is given to the certain topic.
Its proven that communities with access to communication technologies have greater opportunity for growth and development. This can be translated by the capacity of accessing information, sharing information and consequently be updated on the various themes. How can these technologies be made available to the 70% of the Mozambican population, which is rural based? In Mozambique, being located in a rural setting implies less access to the center of decision systems, less access to services and social benefits. While communities can have difficulties in accessing the communication technologies, the New Tactics project is empowering communities by providing a space when their representatives, such as NGOs, can disseminate their amazing work. The New Tactics project is giving an opportunity and a voice to several communities across the world.
Lucrecia Wamba
Country Programme Manager
Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT) Mozambique
Madhuri Mohindar, Breakthrough
I really enjoyed participating in the New Tactics 'Video Advocacy' dialogue. The range of practitioners and the exposure to the different ways video is being used - whether to empower communities or create awareness or be instrumental in creating actual policy change - was invaluable. It was also really helpful to see the range of resources used- both towards the conceptual elements of making a video and in the technical aspects including cell phone videos, tips on producing, and tips on editing. The internet offers such a wide variety of sources but its always useful to identify the ones that work for human rights video advocacy - especially when the research has been done and the tools have been utilized.
There was some distinction between distribution patterns - some people did more grassroots distribution whereas others did more online disctirbution. It would have been great for each of us to share these tactics to create broader bases for outreach in a more strategic manner. Also the videos were embedded after the posts which was a great idea, but sometimes peoples videos arent online but it would have still been great to view them. Also some of the people had a hard time accessing the internet - and so we lost out on some of their amazing knowledge about video advocacy.
Overall it was a great experience. The conversations and debates really took on some of the more challenging aspects of video advocay - and led to a more nuanced understanding of the most effective ways to use video for social change.
Video can be used in many ways. Online distribution or screening the video at the regional and international level is aiming for the awarness and calling for action for changes. When we distribute the video to the grassroots community we have another purpose. We call it grassroots community empowerment. People look to them as they are victims but they are struggle for change and they survive. They participate in the movement building by sharing information, being interviewed by some one they have never known. But they have courage to do. They talk about their suffering. It as the same as they have to suffer again when they tell their story, but they do because they have vision. They believe in changes. When they realised that the information they provided are being used world wide they feel that they are not excluded. Their understand that thier participation is important to bring change. This is how they build power.
At PCATI we began to experiment with using video as an advocacy method. Being able to write about what we did and share it not only with NT but also with our staff and get feedback was very helpful. Mostly because it assisted me in pursuing our international advocacy goals and it helped me to put in perspective the tactic that we are using... mostly to understand its potential as part of our NGO's strategic planning... which we worked on thanks to the NT strategic mapping technique.
What is important is that by strategic mapping we learn to work on growth, flexibility and to avoid becomming embedded in tactics. Rather it is important to seek new methods...
Finally I want to point out that NT has pointed out the importance of self care... working in these fields can lead to frustration and burnout... among other things we have begun a weekly group exercise program... it allows us to exercise and to liberate our minds from some of the difficulties of the work we do.
Louis,
Thank you so much for sharing how PCATI is using the New Tactics "tactical map" tool for enhancing your NGOs strategic planning.
The New Tactics project has found over the years that one of the benefits of the New Tactics project is that we have served as a catalyst for a deeper sharing and reflection process. It has been exactly what you shared here - "Being able to write about what we did and share it not only with NT but also our staff and get feedback was very helpful." As human rights actvitists, we don't often take the time to reflect on our amazing accomplishments (celebrate) and apply what we've learned to the next process and action (strategic assessment).This process of reflection is extremely rewarding and helpful for staying on a strategic path. New Tactics has been very honored that so many people and organizations have let us be a part your process.
I'm also very thrilled to hear that PCATI has taken self care seriously and has instituted such a group exercise time. After all, we (physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually - along with our talents, skills, resources and relationship connections) are are the best and most valuable resource we have to offer. Self care is always an integral part of our New Tactics training workshops. Thanks so much for highlighting this!
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
Hi all
I participated in the Nonviolence Trainers dialogue, and found it a really enjoyable, interesting and informative experience. It's really very inspiring to connect with people who are doing such amazing work all around the world.
I found participating in the dialogue educational in terms of learning about the process and facilitation of online discussions - useful for work the Change Agency is currently involved in, and discussions we could facilitate in the future. One thing I really appreciated was the way Nancy highlighted emerging themes in discussion, and made links between different things ppl said, and other online resources.
One thing I'm conscious of with online discussion is a tendency for it to be very 'heady' and intellectual. As an educator/facilitator when I'm working with people in a group face-to-face, I'm trying to mix up the ways we work to cater for different learning styles, but that's pretty challenging online! I'm aware myself of feeling like I need to come up with something really profound in order to contribute it - and I know this is something that holds people back in an online discussion I'm currently involved in (on activism & anti-oppression ideas and practice - tCA's 'Liberation Book Club'). Putting something out there, in writing, with our names attached can feel intimidating - much safer to say something face-to-face, with body language and tone of voice, and the ability to quickly clarify or change our meaning if people react. I guess also a lot of us have been hurt by experiences in the education system which makes us very careful about what we write, and anxious to 'get it right'. So I see this as a real challenge to fresh and spontaneous online dialogue - and any suggestions ppl have would be very appreciated!
On a related note - I'm very passionate about activist self-care, but I found it a bit hard to engage with the online dialogue on this topic, even though there was some great stuff written. I think this difficulty for me is related to the emphasis on thinking/intellectualism in the online mode. When I run workshops with activists on this topic there is a lot of emphasis on feelings, being in our bodies, and being creative. I often pose the question 'What sustains you in your activism?' and get ppl to write or draw pictures. Perhaps online this could almost be like a PostSecret project - I'll keep brewing this idea.
Many thanks Nancy and everyone at New Tactics, for providing such a wonderful forum for connection, reflection and discussion. I'm so pleased we're all in this together, the work of creating a better world.
Holly Hammond
www.thechangeagency.org
Firstly congratulations to all of you at NTHR for your remarkable achievement
in connecting HR practitioners across the globe and giving us the opportunity
to share our experiences and learn from one another. Your online dialogues are
an innovative example of this. As with any new initiative there is always room
for improvement and this dialogue is clearly in the spirit of ongoing
improvement.
My participation in the Truth & Reconciliation Processes: Helping
communities heal through dealing with impunity dialogue was informative,
exciting, frustrating and ultimately a little confusing.
Informative: It was a great pleasure
to be in dialogue with the panel of participants you managed to put together.
Practitioners from a wide range of settings and a depth of experience all coming
to the topic from their own intriguing perspectives.
Exciting: It was wonderful knowing
that the ideas shared are being engaged with by colleagues on the ground who
are involved and are grappling with the issues that are similar to one's own experiences.
Frustrating: A key
frustration for me was that I did not have easy internet access throughout the dialogue
period as I was travelling. This together with the time zone challenge
significantly impacted my participation in the discussion. The frustration was
that reading through the dialogue, I was excited by key themes that were
emerging but were not carried through and the "opportunity" was lost
to engage and share experiences as the conversation was well developed in a
different direction. The result was that I felt I was not able to make full use
of the exchange of ideas. A potential solution could be to have an "online
facilitator" summarise the key themes and develop conversations around
distinct themes.
A little confusing: Given the
range of settings, experiences and needs of us as a panel of participants it
was not clear to me what we were collectively trying to achieve other than
share experiences. As we know many of the tactics used in one context are not
directly exportable to another context and for this reason I felt that we
needed to have some form agreement amongst ourselves about the flow of our
dialogue. This in order to give each participant an opportunity to describe their
particular challenges so that details of the tactical solutions can be better
understood and adapted to our various distinct settings. My confusion then was
around how we can talk about "solutions" without fully understanding
the context in which colleagues and operating and their specific challenges. Although
there is no simple solution, an online facilitator could play a key role in
ensuring that the dialogue script in not read by its uses, as a series of solutions
to what are ultimately complex problems.
I look forward to further participation and contribution to
this innovative initiate and have no doubt that the collective you receive will
build this initiative from strength to strength.
Regards
Paul
Thanks, Paul, for articulating all of the admiration and constructive suggestions that I also experienced in the "Truth and Reconciliation" discussion.
Like Paul, I was able to take good things from the dialogue and I was honored to be a part of such a strong panel of discussants. The original questions designed to initiative the dialogue were powerful and thoughtfully constructed.
Given the depth of the issues that we were trying to discuss in this (and perhaps all of the other) series, however, I found myself struggling to find an entry point into the conversation. Not only was it difficult to fully share the complexity of the project I was to be representing, but it was almost impossible to fully appreciate the complexity of the other projects being discussed. Although this kind of a challenge is surely present in any discussion of this type, I wonder if it could have been useful to have focused the conversation on two or three diverse case studies and perhaps even a focused question or two about each case or across the cases? That way, we could have asked questions of those who represented those cases and we could have all been attempting to answer, more or less, the same questions.
All of that aside, I think this forum offers are great opportunity for folks to enage with others around these important issues. I just wish we all had more time to set aside for the discussions amidst all of our other work!
Jill Williams
Former Executive Director, Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Program Officer, Andrus Family Fund
jwilliams@affund.org
Jill and Paul,
Thank you so much for this thoughtful review and excellent suggestion. The idea of choosing a couple of cases that can highlight the complexity of issues surrounding truth and reconciliation processes, as well has the differences of approaces among processes is a very good. This idea can certainly be a useful way to help focus exchanges in other dialogues as well.
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
When I first heard of the name new tactics way back in 2004, I thought to myself what now? The name is thought-provoking. So in one's own work, you get thinking, what new tactics can I think of in my work?
CVT invited me with a colleague from Independent medico-Legal Unit (IMLU-Kenya) to make a media presentation at a workshop that they had organised in post-war Liberia in 2007. I learnt so much from that workshop but one thing that I would like to mention is never underestimate your audience no matter what. What I thought was so basic (for instance radio work) was a huge learning experience for especially those participants who were interested in using media advocacy as a human rights tool.
Now my organisation has hosted 1 person from Liberia on an internship programme and we have another pending to come to us for 6 weeks internship. This interest was generated after a CVT-organised workshop. This brings on board the issue of engaging in strategic and value-added partnerships.
Sharon Lamwaka.
l want to share my experience in participating in New Tactics online community. As a journalists and human rights activist operating in Africa’s most conflict prone environments, the online dialogue on the Use of Mobile phones enabled me to share my personal experiences and challenges in reporting new while having to deal with new directives imposed by national broadcasting banning all main stream media from broadcasting violent images from the post-election conflict in Kenya. In Kenya for instance, the communication minister and the director of communications ordered the stop of live broadcast and journalists were bared from recording images that depicted the violence.
This meant that Kenyans were being denied total access to news aired by the local mainstream media. After all, the internet and the webTV and the use of mobile phone offered a great opportunity to me and other Kenyans who displayed the power of citizen journalism.
Through the trusted mobilephone reporters and internet webcasts, citizen participation in democracy and promotion of human rights was realized in Kenya.
Although arguments suggested that it was a professional aberration for mobilephone reporters to relay any news content over which it has no editorial control and affirmed that such broadcasts posed a danger to national security and warned that contents that stepped out of line would face punishment, which was not specified.
The ploriferation of the media and the high number of mobile users have given rise to increased public awareness and participation in public policy advocacy throughout Kenya.
The new tactic online discussion on the use of mobilephones proved that unlike cultural imperialism, media imperialism has to do more with media control and ownership. Media imperialism goes further than cultural imperialism in that all aspects of production and dissemination are concentrated in the hands of the few multi-national corporations - thus creating imbalances in world media.
This dominance is maintained through international television markets. There, the big players in the business sell their products to all and sundry and they are willing to reduce their prices drastically to market their products to television stations in developing countries.
With technological, it is easier for journalists and human rights advocates to run a technological linkage taht operate to monitor human rights violations as they occur.
The lessons that l learnt from other participants offered me a great opportunity to streamline the use of mobile phone in championing human rights and democracy in Kenya.
Very insightful. It was great to share information this way and to find out more about the opinions of colleagues around the world on issues of common concerns. I think it is an efficient way to share information, best practices and to engage into meaningful dialog. Excellent tool. Wish I had more time to fully exploit it.
Myriam Montrat, Director General, Discrimination Prevention Branch
Canada
I also wish to thank the New Tactics staff for creating this interactive program. I am not a hi-tech person and at first I hesitated about participating. But I found the staff very helpful and encouraging and the instructions clear. When there were problems with the participation of a colleague from East Timor, the staff took the time and make great efforts to correct the problem and facilitate his participation. I appreciated this very much. Again I thank you for making my and others' participation in this new initiative as easy as possible.
I also found the entire experience informative and interesting. It was a thoughtful process -- reading the comments of others and then taking the time to respond. It helped me think through ideas I had on the topic. The one drawback of the process is the amount of material that is posted. It was difficult for me to read all the comments because of time limitations and other constraints. But overall, the program was challenging, informative and a way to build community.
Thank you,
Christine Vertucci, USA
Formerly in East Timor and the Philippines
Dear Nancy,
Sorry for delayed response.I am sending this comments from Mumbai, India.
When I joined New Tactics dilogue on how historic sites of conscience can play significant role in promoting contemporary HR issues taking cue from history of gross HR issues that originate from sites, I started with some expectations. Many of my initial expectations were fulfilled. I did observe renewed interest from HR activists from diverse fields on taking advantage of history of sites, organise innovative civic engagement programme to address contemporary sensitive social and political issues of democracy and civil liberties. I particularly observed interest in Bangldesh Genocide of 1971 and Liberation War Museums students programme through Travelling museum going to village schools. On the otherhand, my expectations of provactive debates and enquiries were not fulfiled
Thanks for allowing me to participate in the dilogue
Sarwar
Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR), Cluj-Napoca
New Tactics is a best practice example for me in supporting dialogue using online services: organized discussions on relevant topics in the field of human rights, key resource people invited to support sharing experiences, knowledgeable facilitation/moderation by Nancy and Kristin, an easy to use online platform, compilations of resources after each end of dialogue, a comprehensive database of tools and strategies for working effectively.
A very appreciate practice has been to constant communication that Nancy and Kristin have kept with me and my colleagues such that we may interact in the easiest way possible.
I encourage this community to grow and this practice to expand and become sustainable.
Also, outreaching and making it more visible will make it possible to have a broader diversity of participants.
Best,
Corina
First of all it was great to have so many skilled and knowledgeable persons "in the same room." There were many unique contributions to the discussions - each of which has been saved for us and others to review and re-engage.
I am really glad video advocacy was selected as a feautured dialogue. As technology changes and more and more activists are able and willing to use video advocacy in their ongoing campaigns, our individual and collective understanding of the work is continuously being developed and evaluated. To keep up with these developments and new ways of thinking, it is necessary for us as practioners to take stock and look ahead. This, I feel, is where New Tactics came in.
For those who observed the video advocacy dialogue, I hope the conversation and the resources generated were insightful, and they have been put to good use.
As feedback, it would be great to have video functionality as an option for the posts (check out seesmic at http://www.seesmic.com/). I know for the past dialogue I could have posted links to a video post, but for a future dialogue on any topic, it would be quite cool to use video as a primary medium of coversation among the practioners. Using video would not replace a text-based conversation however. I believe a transcript of the video conversation would be needed and practioners could have the option of using to text to share additional resources with the dialogue. Just some thoughts on using video as a tool for practitioners to communicate online!
Thanks New Tactics for organizing a great dialogue!
Ryan Schlief
Asia Coordinator
WITNESS
80 Hanson Place, 5th Floor
Brooklyn NY 11217 USA
+1.718.783.2000 x333
www.witness.org
Hi all,
humbling to considered part of this online community - like being at a conference when all these inspiring people are present...
I've utlised New Tactics for a number of years now - downloading and using some Notebooks and resources, many of which i've shared with others. I've participated in two online dialogues - the protective accompaniament one and later the training for nonviolent action. Both i found useful in different ways. I've appreciated the care and expertise fo the new tactics staff in finding and inviting the featured practioners, crafting the topics and the sometimes vigorous encouragement to keep the dialogue flowing. I think the element of staff 'facilitation' before, during and after each dialogue is the crucial factor in their success. The global nature of the community (although i dont really have a sense of how exactly representative or diverse the online membership is) is a well developed aspect from what i can tell - and again - something that the staff seem to have cultivated carefully and well from where i sit.
I've also appreciated how NewTactics seem intent on moving beyond the 'mainstream' human rights community into movements and activist networks not nominally considered 'human rights' in the narrow sense. I think that is really important strategically and hope it continues to bear fruit as we learn from one another.
The technical aspects and problems i'm sure their are technical fixes for - i can only imagine what sort of cystal clear video dialogues we could be having in a few years time!
Anthony Kelly
www.thechangeagency.org
Hi everyone. Mi name is Pablo, I joined the on-line dialogue on HIV and Human Rights, which I found very interesting and useful. Conceiveing this resource as a political tool in order to come into contact with people and organizations all around the world, and learn about their experiences and strategies, is in fact, original and innovatlve. The development of this kinds of tools is essencial in order to connect people who fight against human rights abuses in different contexts, with a varietty of resources based on creativity that depend mostly on profound compromise. Learning from each other is not only strategical, it helps us grow as people and as organizations. Probably in the future all of this experiences might converge in joint work strategies, but that´s another step we must decide all together. Even though, I must agree with Lucrecia that technology devices involved are not allways available all over the world, therefore entire communities are actually isolated, we also have that problem in some regions of argentina. Anyhow, as she exposes, if we are connected, we can not only share their work but also propose them new means and strategies that have been proved to be succesful in other places of the world with similar contexts.
I would like to thank Kirstin and Nancy for their patient support and encouragement, and congratulate all of you for the great work you are doing. Best wishes to everyone, I hope to see you soon in another dialogue and continue learning from you.
Hi! Last September I have been invited by a friend of mine Mr. Madacki to participate in Information is Power online discussions. It's been a very good experience as well as interesting source of information about how various partakers debate librarianship and human rights issues certainly the most relevant topic for understanding present and future professional demands. Being interested librarians' activism I believe this forum is a great opportunity for networking of all those interested in exploring new tactics of librarians' practices in times when "librarian work routines have been reengineered by eliminating their role as gatekeepers of the culture" but besides networking this forum’s strength is also in enhancing of critical thinking needed for repolitization of information work as precondition for deconstruction of its ideological content. Thanks for creating it and supporting dialogues worldwide. Mario Hibert, University of SarajevoFaculty of PhilosophyDepartment of Comparative Literature and Librarianship
Just to give a brief comment. Due to technical reasons and time difference, I failed to participate in the dialogue recently organised. It would have been a great opportunity to chit chat with other colleagues around the world on the issue of torture. Perhaps, next time such a dialogue can be better arranged.
Margaret Donaldson, Director, Race Discrimination Unit
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), Australia
Participating in the new Tactics from on national Human Rights Institutions was the first time I had participated in an e-forum. I found the experience very useful and it enabled me to compare how other organisations dealing with similar issues to those I face within the Australian Human Rights Commission are addressing these issues.
With this in mind I am keen to apply this technology to a number of areas of our work at the Commission to build a community of interests around issues of common concern. At the Commission we are presently considering developin g an e-forum on issues concerning sport and racism to enable sporting codes to share the work they are doing in this area. Another issue for an e-forum is diversity and the ways that employers are supporting and encouraging a diverse workplace.
Without the first hand experience of participating in an eforum that New Tactics gave me I would probably not be considering this format as an important component of my work
Cheers
Margaret
Margaret,
Thanks so much for sharing this great story about how your experience with participating in the New Tactics on-line dialogue has provided with you some ideas for experimenting with this technology tool within the Australia Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Regarding your idea about presenting ways in which sports can be utlized to combat racism, I'd like to recommend the information collected by Ashoka during their 2008 Competition that may be of use as you explore ideas in Australia - http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/competition/sports
I'd also like to recommend the New Tactics tactical notebook from Rafal Pankowski of Nigdy Wiecej (Never Again) in Poland, Breaking the Silence: Using popular culture to engage young people in human rights reporting.They engaged football (soccer) teams and young people as volunteer reporters in their efforts to raise awareness about racism.
It's very exciting to hear about your ideas that emerged from your experience with the New Tactics project, thank you for sharing this and let us know how the e-forums work out for your efforts!
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
Ladies and gentlemen the only good thing we can do to ourselves is never to allow the idea to loose momentum and so far I am happy with the response, well done lets keep it up. This is just another way of doing what we normally do, GOD BLESS us and I personally wish all of you well and enough.
Oluoch Dola
Chemchemi Ya Ukweli
P.O.BOX 14370 00800 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel:254-20-4446970 or 254-20-2320346 or 254735244554
Email:oluochdola@hotmail.com
Christine Jesseman, Head of Programme: Research, Documentation and Policy Analysis. South African Human Rights Commission
Dear CVT and fellow members,
I would like to thank CVT for the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of stakeholders from many different backgrounds, and to thank the members who have contributed to this learning experience. There are many advantages to such interactive debates and discussions. Where else can one be in the same virtual room, for example, as a human rights activist from Canada and a lecturer from Kenya? A further benefit is the opportunity this format provides to digest and to ponder, and then to respond or contribute in a more reflective manner. The online dialogues have also provided me with the opportunity to share the work and experiences of the South African Human Rights Commission and to provide food for possible future collaborations and shared learning.
With thanks,
Christine Jesseman
In the year under review i have found the online New Tactics project as a useful tool in promoting Human Rights work at the global level. the various discussions and sharing of experiences are definitely the required elements to strenghten human rights work and also to open the door for effective networking amongst human rights activists.
What i also found interesting is the striking communication technique amongst the participants in the online discussion with particular attention to details and analysis of issues to bring out key learning points useful for the advancement of human rights.
The workings and frequent follow up by the New Tactic team is also worthy of commendation and emulation
Mufuliat Dasola Fijabi
Women's Rights Advocate, Lagos Nigeria
My experience with New Tactics has been that it touches so many different aspects of human rights work. The many ways it cultivates new ideas, the advice it gives to human rights movements, and the connections it fosters for activists.
For me the most valuable part of New Tactics was that it supplies an endless stream of encouragement. At times when I have felt alone in the wide world of human rights activism (because it's a broad field, very easy to feel alone in) New Tactics has been an instant link in finding people who care about the same issues that I do.
More than that, it provides me with new perspectives on issues that I never even realized were human rights issues to begin with. For me the most notable example was human rights and librarianship. It makes perfect sense now, but I never thought of librarianship in that focus. Knowledge is power though especially in human rights work.
So my experience in New Tactics feel most marked by the encouragement and new perspectives that I gained from my participation. Many times in human rights issues, your own passion must go towards educating other about an issue that might not have a lot of information out there. With New Tactics there's still the opportunity to do that, but I have relished feeling as though this is a community where people are aware and engaged in the same issues as you, and yet still offer plenty of opportunities for my own learning.
I think the concept behind these dialogues is really great, I only wish I had had more time to contribute and also to read everything others were posting. I felt like the initial conference call to discuss the themes was very useful and a great way to get the dialogue started. I probably would have been more inspired to post comments had I received more direct questions. I wonder if the dialogue would generate more contributions if it had an ask the "expert" kind of framework. I realize the point is more about dialogue, not just providing one answer, but maybe a hybrid of the two would generate both dialogue and engage someone who just wanders in and may feel overwhelmed by the quanity of what is there, even with a relatively small number of posts.
Sorry to be so late in posting ideas—I echo the participant who recommended longer times for online discussion, as a week can be very short indeed, especially for rich, complex, interesting topics to unfold (and for activists to carve out the time to think about them)!
I am new to New Tactics, having just participated in the HIV Prevention Dialogue—and am very impressed with the website, staff, topics, discussion, and global reach of New Tactics. It is so challenging to find space for activists from around the world to interact and share successes and challenges, and this is a real hallmark of New Tactics. Physicians for Human Rights is trying to figure out how to better connect our US and East Africa constituencies, and this kind of model is great for both global sharing and more concentrated advocacy planning and networking. Ever think of hosting smaller groups within your site who may not otherwise have the technology to connect? That could be a real boost to regional groups trying to make a difference but separated by not only miles, but the digital divide.
So many excellent ideas and feedback have already been shared. I agree with Hardy Merriman's three points regarding narrowing topics (and/or providing more targeted questions), summarizing dialogues and providing clear avenues for follow up. For instance, HIV prevention is a massive topic—it might be better to look at one part of the world, or one area of the epidemic, or one set of questions rather than the wide world of prevention. I also agree with Dan that more time would be excellent—as more people contribute, the content gets so much richer, and thus attracts even more in depth dialogue. The great content speaks for itself, and the more who know about it and contribute, the better—so I am happy to help spread the word!
Thanks to Kristin and Nancy for giving feedback on the suggestions above, and indeed, on everything that happens on the site—the staff are really plugged in and supportive, which makes participating quite a pleasant experience. As someone new to this community, I look forward to participating in upcoming dialogues, and going back through existing ones, as well as exploring the tools available and using them at Physicians for Human Rights.
Participating NT Discussion - Simply the Great
Human Rights are always the matter of concern anywhere and anytime. And firstly, I would like to thank CVT and NT for their generous efforts to bring the expertise as well as experienced sharing related human rights issues among all. I personally would like to thank CVT/NT for providing me an opportunity be apart of it.
Different ways, methods and tools to address the issues related to human rights are simply the great. It has provided me a wide range of learning as well as experience. At the same time the success stories could give us an opportunity to replicate in our context. As my country, Nepal is under peace building process, therefore my concern is primarily focused in the issues directly related to peace building, rule of law, protection and promotion of human rights, transitional justice, reconciliation, rehabilitation and reintegration of war/arm conflict survivors and other victims, etc. At the same time, I also like to highlight the role of NHRI in all these efforts. And I am very pleased to see the discussion topics particularly of transitional justice and role of NHRI and experts’ views and sharing. They are very useful lessons and tips for me.
Coming to New Tactics relevance and assistance in my work, first of all it is simply inspirational to me. It’s unique way of presentation and collection of resources, best practices and tactical tools/notebooks are admirable. In turn, such resources have been always helpful to people like us working further in human rights concerns. Therefore, I would like to suggest New Tactics to continue such discussion in future as well with covering diverse types of human rights including child and women’s rights, peace, non violence, rule of laws, transitional justice, humanitarian concerns in the conflict and post conflict situation, etc. I hope and expect that New Tactics would have continuous upgrades in its website and also able to cover diverse interests and concerns.
Finally, I would like to thank CVT/NT for the opportunity and Nancy for her encouragement. And, I do hope and wish for this effort to walk a long way.
Dinesh Narayan Suddhakar
suddhakar2000@yahoo.com
Consultant
Capacity Development of National Human Rights Commission of Nepal
Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur,. Nepal
www.nhrcnepal.org
Being a resource person on the New Tactics online dialogue on video advocacy was an important sharing experience. The practical tips and sharing of opportunities and challenges was interesting and useful. Not least, I importantly learnt how one can host a successful, partcipatory online dialogue (many I have taken part in have been sporadic and generate little substantial discussion). Emerging from the dialogue were several areas of convergence for our respective work and possibilities for collaboration. I hope that the networks that were formed bloom into partnerships.
Hakima Abbas, Fahamu www.fahamu.org
Please share any updates, new resources and connections, or ideas from the dialogues that you used or discovered regarding any of the TEN featured on-line dialogue topics. (Note: if you have ideas for future on-line topics, please add that to the “My ideas for improving or adding to the website” theme.)
Since I participated in our dialogue a year ago, there is news on the library worker front that I would like to share - and that relates to information work and human rights. The story begins on June 26, 2005 when the American Library Association’s (ALA) Council adopted a precedent “Resolution on Workplace Speech” in company with a policy incorporated in the ALA Policy Manual.” The language reads as follows: WHEREAS, The American Library Association is firmly committed to freedom of expression (Policy 53.1.12); and WHEREAS, The library is an institution that welcomes and promotes the expression of all points of view; and WHEREAS, Library staff are uniquely positioned to provide guidance on library policy issues that is informed by their experience and education; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That ALA Council amends Policy 54 (Library Personnel Practices) by adding: 54.21 Workplace Speech Libraries should encourage discussion among library workers, including library administrators, of non-confidential professional and policy matters about the operation of the library and matters of public concern within the framework of applicable laws. Stateside, the Canadian Library Association (CLA) has no such policy on its books. However, the CLA’s Code of Ethics begins with the directive to uphold the CLA’s Statement on Intellectual Freedom. Since at least the 1970s, our librarians have embraced a core value of intellectual freedom, which of course includes the freedom to read. But while our librarians are longstanding advocates of their patrons’ freedoms, historically they have been less clear about the principle of intellectual freedom as it applies to their own institutional or “inside” culture. The librarian’s practice, however, is arguably limited if she or he is not able to exercise fully freedoms of thought, conscience, opinion, and expression in the workplace – all of which are human rights that underlie intellectual freedom. These limitations will detract from the ability of the librarian to provide the best levels of collections and services possible. This situation is now under scrutiny in Canada in light of ALA’s 2005 resolution. And on Thursday, May 22, 2008, at the CLA Annual Conference in Vancouver, the Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom hosted a landmark session titled “Inside Talk: Freedom of Speech in the Library Workplace”.
The session probed such questions as: What are library and information workers talking about on the job? Whose voices are coming through the library channels? To what extent is self-censorship or inside censorship a common practice? What is and is not acceptable when librarians participate in citizen journalism that criticizes employers in the blogosphere? And in a professional community that holds intellectual freedom so dear, why did the ALA see the need to adopt a 2005 Resolution on Workplace Speech? Should the CLA adopt a sister-resolution?
Prior to the conference, library activists in Canada and the United States rallied interest in the session via two key blog postings. The first notice, titled “Employee Expression in the Library Workplace, Encouraged or Censored?,” was posted on May 15, 2008 to the Concerned Librarians of British Columbia blog. (This is an advocacy group of Canadian librarians formed in 2004 whose goal is to heighten awareness on current issues as they pertain to the profession). The second notice, titled “Freedom of Speech in the Library Workplace”, was posted by Rory Litwin on his highly visited Library Juice blog on May 19, 2008. Rory wrote: “I don’t often blog conference programs, but this is one I want to highlight, in part because I’m hoping that it will generate some papers and activities that will be helpful to people outside the conference and I want to let people know about that possibility. … ALA affirmed the right of librarians to intellectual freedom on the job, which is great, but despite that affirmation it is something that needs more discussion and advocacy in order to advance. I hope that this program will be helpful outside of Canada and I look forward to hearing about how it went.” The latter post was filed under” Intellectual Freedom, Labor Issues, The Profession.”
To find out more about this session and how it unfolded, you can read my guest editorial titled CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN THE LIBRARY WORKPLACE in Progressive Librarian #31, Summer 2008. (The same issue of Progressive Librarian includes the full text of Kathleen de la Peňa McCook’s CLA session speech titled “Workplace Speech in Libraries and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.) You can also read a similar account from me of the session titled THE LIBRARY PUSH FOR WORKPLACE SPEECH to be published in the upcoming 2009 Freedom to Read Week Kit published by the Freedom of Expression Committee of the Book and Periodical Council (Canada).
Toni,
Thank you so much for sharing this exciting news. What better place to be fostering freedom of thought,exploration and expression but in a library setting. I'm especially encouraged to learn that the American Library Association adopted such a resolution in 2005 - particularly in light of tremendous pressures being exerted upon libraries at that time. That was a courageous position to take. It's wonderful to hear that Canadian librarians are taking up the discussion and moving it forward as well.
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR), Cluj-Napoca
Human rights field and peacebuilding learn very well from each other. One aspect that helps both fields is the use of ICTs.
Please visit this site on ICTs for Peacebuilding. This will help to broaden the views on how ICT can be useful in our fields.
Best,
Corina
It has been a busy year for the Japanese American National Museum since our participation last year in the “Power of Place—Sites of Conscience” dialog. This year, 2008, marks the 20th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided for an official government apology and reparations for thousands of Japanese Americans who were unconstitutionally removed by the U.S. government from their homes on the West Coast and parts of Hawai`i during World War II. To commemorate this important occasion, the museum presented a series of programs These programs—which have include film screenings, panels and symposia, and displays—have addressed such topics as the role of grass-roots activism in achieving redress, the role of women in the redress movement, and the connection of Japanese American redress to other American reparation movements. The next program in the series is coming up on Saturday, October 25, 2008, and it will explore the WWII rendition of Japanese Latin Americans. http://www.janm.org/events/2008/redress/programs/
The museum also presented a major national conference in Denver over July 4th weekend. Titled “Whose America? Who’s American? Diversity, Civil Liberties, and Social Justice,” the conference brought together scholars and educators, students, multi-generational families, and community members to examine the connections between the Japanese American World War II experience and the historical and contemporary issues surrounding democracy and civil rights. By focusing on the significance of particular places to individual and community history and memory, many of the discussions and events—including a visit to the site of Amache concentration camp—had direct pertinence to the New Tactics discussion “Power of Place” from last year.
http://www.janm.org/projects/ec/conference/
This URL will take you to a page rich with resources from the conference. It includes links to articles written by conference participants; a slide show of conference highlights; participant comments and stories; photo essays; and audio files of selected panel presentations. Among the features that are of particular relevance to the “Power of Place” dialog:
http://www.discovernikkei.org/nikkeialbum/en/node/1018
A photo album and family history created by Mitch Homma, documenting the entire WWII experience from the FBI arrest of family members to their eventual incarceration at Amache camp in Colorado.
http://www.discovernikkei.org/forum/en/node/2514
“CSI: Amache”—an essay by Gary T. Ono about his experiences participating, with his grandson, in a 2008 archeological dig at Amache, where he had been incarcerated as a child.
http://www.janm.org/django/projects/ec/conference/events/54/
Audio of panel presentation “Reconciling a Contested Past: The Santa Fe Interment Camp Marker,” which involved different perspectives on the hotly debated decision of the City of Santa Fe to place a commemorative marker at the location of a WWII Dept. of Justice camp.
http://www.discovernikkei.org/forum/en/node/2582
Article by Debra Redsteer, “Leupp, Arizona: A Shared Historic Space for the Navajo Nation and Japanese Americans.”
Debra Redsteer’s article ends with a passage that emphasizes the importance of place(s) as markers of important events—events that reveal past struggles and also the historical connections between the experiences of different communities. She writes of the former Leupp Isolation Center in Arizona:
“Once Old Leupp was a bustling place with people abounding there, but now it is almost deserted. At one time, the area saw an Indian boarding school and, at another time, an isolation center, but what these two developments—occurring at two different historical moments for two different racial-ethnic groups—shared was the experience of forced imprisonment. The land in which the Leupp site is set is harsh with periodic flooding, vicious windstorms, extreme heat and cold of the high desert, and very little rainfall. The Navajo residents raise a few goats and contend with their hostile environment by trying to better their lives. The reminders of rubble, which are part of the landscape, convey that the Navajo is not alone in enduring discrimination and hardships, for Japanese Americans, in the early 1940s, suffered injustices here as well. The rubble thus acts as a reminder to future and present generations of Navajos and Americans of the frailty of American civil rights.”
Thank you so much for this incredibly moving update and excellent resources from the “Whose America? Who’s American? Diversity, Civil Liberties, and Social Justice,”conference. The work of the Japanese American National Museum is an excellent example of how to bring about dialogue and a different understanding around painfully different perspectives of historical events.
These are great ideas that that others might find very useful in their work on issues as diverse as discrimination, curtailment of civil liberties, oppression and imprisonment as well as community engagement, reparations and reconciliation work.
Thank you for sharing this inspiring update. I'll also link your post back into the "Power of Place" dialogue.
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
I have recently learnt through a close ally, Shailja Patel, of the free software program called Martus designed to document human rights violations and securely store this information for human rights defenders. Over the last year, we have worked with several human rights defenders and social justice activists who have been victims and survivors of arbitrary detention and police violence, we are sharing this tool with them to see how they might best use the software. The website is: http://www.martus.org/index.shtml
Hakima Abbas, Fahamu www.fahamu.org
Hakima,
Thank you so much for bringing back into the dialogue the Martus software system for documenting human rights violations. There is an excellent summary of the importance of secure documentation and the benefits that Martus can provide that was provided during the New Tactics first on-line dialogue that featured - Information is Power: Librarianship and Human Rights.
An additional benefit is that Martus is based on open source
technology, each improvement to the software benefits all users who can
download the latest release for free.
Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager
During the dialogue on video advocacy, the use of mobile phones as a tool for advocacy came up. Individuals and organizations are now using this tool, given its widespread availability, in the promotion and protection of human rights and to generate citizen media, through initatives such as WITNESS' video hub. But, there are still limitations in terms of accessibility, availability of complimentary technology etc. for those of us in the global south. In Africa, the potential impact of mobile technology for change is
great, given the widespread availability of the tool, however, the
power has yet to be harnessed. I noticed that New Tactics had a 'using mobile phones for action' dialogue and provides resources on your site. Merging some of the suggestions in this dialogue, I wonder if there is room to development /adapt and widely disseminate new tactics resources on mobile activism, perhaps through distance learning, face to face workshops and online. This would be particularly interesting in Africa.
With the support of HIVOS, Fahamu and the Tactical Technology Collective partnered to hold a workshop in May 2007 on Mobile Activism in Africa. It was a fantastic convening of activists across Africa who have used mobile technology in their advocacy, to provide services, to mobilize constituencies, and to deliver vital information. The most important aspect of the workshop was the peer-learning, best practices and tips and techniques shared among participants from across Africa. In addition, participants looked critically at the limitations and challenges of this tool, asking the question is mobile technology really revolutionizing our activism and what is the concrete impact of their use.
As one of outcomes from the workshop, Fahamu is producing a book called 'SMS Uprisings: Mobile activism
in the Africa' which will be edited by Black Looks blogger Sokari
Ekine. The book will bring together the experiences of activists using
mobile technology in Africa as well as provide understanding of the
socioeconomic political, and media contexts which make it particularly
useful to activists.
In addition, Tactical Tech has developed and tested a mobile advocacy toolkit 'Mobiles-in-a-box' which is available to read in draft form on the project wiki and will be launched in September 2008 in English and French.
Hakima Abbas, Fahamu www.fahamu.org
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