Nonformal Learning and Information Sharing
The ways in which women have organized themselves to use new technologies (particularly the Internet and the World Wide Web) for nonformal learning supports the observation that women use technologies for a specific purpose immediately relevant to their lives. Women are using the Web to exchange information on topics such as personal and community health issues and justice issues including abuse and violence against women. They are also using the Internet to establish lines of communication that transcend regional and national boundaries, establishing a community of women with shared interests in all parts of the world.

One example is the development of an e-mail network in the former Yugoslavia which helps women throughout the region, of different ethnic and social backgrounds, communicate their experience and work towards social change. Their focus is on the end result of what they can do rather than on the technology itself. As the author of an article in Women/space notes, "Exercises used during the training do not exalt the technological wonders of e-mail or the computer, but are focused in daily, practical applications that are relevant in women's lives."²

International Networking
In 1996, the Women's Networking Support Program of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) conducted a survey asking women to reflect on the program and give feedback on developments since its inception. Results indicated that "despite the obstacles, women have made great strides in adopting electronic communications, and have benefited from the support and facilitation provided by proactive initiatives like the APC Women's Networking Support Program."³

In response to the survey (100 responses from 28 countries), e-mail was identified as the most commonly used tool, with electronic conferencing, mailing lists and Web sites increasingly used as well. Respondents also reported acting a "bridge" to unconnected groups to share information. For example, a group in Russia reproduces material received bye-mail in other formats, such as print and fax, for distribution to other women through radio and television.

Network Activism
In response to the question "What Do Women Activists Do Online?" Scarlet Pollock points to debating issues, developing priorities, mentoring, care giving, networking, promoting awareness and taking action.⁴

Members of Women' space and other organizations such as Web Networks have also assumed a role in monitoring government supported programs aimed at broadening community access to new technologies. For example, members lobbied the Community Access Program for, among other things, program eligibility criteria aimed at increasing access of women and other disadvantaged groups.

The nonformal learning community has also raised issues related to language as a barrier to access. Virtual Sisterhood discussions (vs-online-strat) are conducted in English but "virtual volunteers" work to make information available online in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. ⁵