Some examples

Non formal learning and information sharing

The ways in which women have organized themselves to use new learning technologies, particularly the Internet and the World Wide Web, for nonformal learning, supports the observation that women tend to use technologies for a specific purpose immediately relevant to their lives. For example, women are using the Web to exchange information on particular topics, such as personal and community health issues, 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 commonality with women with shared interests in all parts of the world.

One example is the development of an e-mail network for women in the former Yugoslavia, which helps women throughout the region, of different ethnic and social backgrounds, communicate their experience and work towards social change. Again, their focus is on the end-result of what they can do, rather than on the technology itself, as the author 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."⁵⁷

International networking

In 1996 the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Women's Networking Support Program, a global program to support computer communications for women, conducted a survey asking women to reflect on the program and give feedback on developments in the three years since the inception of the program. Respondents reported 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."⁵⁸ 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 being used as well. Respondents reported that they are able to act as a "bridge" to unconnected groups to share information. For example, a group in Russia uses information received by e-mail and reproduces the material in other formats, such as print and fax, for dissemination to other women on radio and television.

Network activism

In posing the question "What Do Women Activists Do Online", Scarlet Pollock in Women'space points to debating issues, developing priorities, mentoring, care giving, networking, promoting awareness and taking action.⁵⁹ Members of Women' space and other organizations such as Web Networks, have also assumed a role in the monitoring of government supported programs which are aimed at broadening community access to new technologies. For example, members have attended conferences sponsored by the Community Access Program to lobby for, among other things, program eligibility criteria aimed at increasing access of women and other disadvantaged groups.

The experience of non formal learning, both nationally and internationally, is a good example of what technology can do that could not be done before. A contextual approach entails understanding the social conditions peculiar to a particular time and space: understanding the context in which the relationship of women and technology develops allows us to incorporate the reality of women's social existence, their influence and opinions, into technological development.⁶⁰

The non formal learning community has also raised issues related to language as a barrier to access. Virtual Sisterhood (vs-online-strat) discussions are conducted in English but "virtual volunteers" are taking steps to make information available online in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.⁶¹