Take Back the Tech wins Honorary Mention from Prix Ars Electronica 2008

The Take Back the Tech global campaign of the Association for Progressive Communications Women`s Programme was awarded an honorary mention by the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica International Competition for Cyber Arts for its innovative, collaborative campaign to end violence against women. The campaign was selected from more than 200 initiatives in the Digital Communities category, which `spotlights bold and inspired innovations impacting human coexistence and bridging the geographical and gender-based digital divide`. Prix Ars Electronica has recognised electronic and interactive art since 1987, in multiple categories which reflect the rapid transformation and possibilities of digital media. This year`s competition drew more than 4000 applicants, and included a massive youth freestyle computing contest. In the Digital Communities category, twelve honorary mentions were awarded. Take Back the Tech shares the honor with initiatives such as Drupal, the same open source content management system that the Take Back the Tech team used to host its work. Take Back the Tech is a global campaign initiated in 2006 that calls on all information and communication technology (ICT) users – especially women and girls – to take control of technology and use any ICT tool at hand – cell phones, blogs, chat rooms - to join the fight against gender-based violence. Take Back the Tech accompanies the 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women November 25 – December 10 with daily actions that explore different aspects of violence against women, inviting ordinary users of ICTs to to think about the technology they use through the lens of feminism and its potential impact on women’s rights and VAW. The campaign also encourages experimenting with new tools and spaces – be it charting women`s support services with interactive maps or using digital stories to document women`s realities. In 2007, local campaigners in more than 15 countries as diverse as Brazil, Bangladesh and the Congo (Brazzaville) took up the Take Back the Tech call and rooted it in their realities and languages, offering ICT trainings, debates, and taking the campaign to the streets with stencils, marches, and performance art. Take Back the Tech adaptable imagery popped up in Bengali, Spanish, Khmer, Portuguese, Korean, Catalan, Tagalog and other languages as local campaigners used the campaign to address women`s realities of violence in their countries. Take Back the Tech is built on the principles of collaboration, openness and activism. Many individuals, groups and organisations, motivated by their strong commitment to fight against violence, contributed not only their personal time, but also knowledge, imagination and energy into shaping this campaign. `Without the participation of countless individuals who have blogged, disseminated information, shared their ideas, knowledge and skills, taken action and created content, this campaign would not have happened. The Prix Ars Electronica recognition of Take Back the Tech salutes their efforts and passion`, comments APC Women website.