Turning Information Into Action: ask me anything

I’ve been so (happily) immersed in an info-activism project with the Tactical Tech Collective for the last two months that I neglected to blog that I had moved to New York. I know. When your desk is Skype and your office is Twitter, where you lay your head starts to matter a whole lot less. Or seems like it does. Hi, from Brooklyn!

This next week is giving me a pretty much perfect opportunity to explain a little bit about what I’m working on: New Tactics in Human Rights and Tactical Tech are hosting a week-long online dialogue, “Turning Information Into Action,” from July 8 – 14th. It’s a mini-reunion from our camp in Bangalore this past February, and a chance for you to get a preview of the work we’ve done since on a multimedia guide for info-activists (otherwise known as, that project I try my best to articulate when I bump into you at a party). The guide has been my life for the last two months, and will blend both viral video and recipe-style cards to break down tools and techniques for using information/communication tech for human rights and social justice.

Documenting one’s life and work is one of my most enduring obsessions, as that’s been the crux of this project: speaking with advocates around the world about how they do what they do, their successes and their words of wisdom for those inspired to take up their lead. And for all the documentation of my own life I feel like such a natural at, documenting my advocacy work isn’t one of them. As a writer, I can just link you to a new piece — the back-and-forth of how it got there is just candy. (Though I do want to break down how my Slate story happened, because it’s still a story I keep telling.) It’s why I asked a friend to come livestream our vigil for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers: at least that would be live faster than I could type. But still, why we chose to do a day of action as a tactic, and who our audience was, and what targets we’d chosen for our intentions, and what we’d needed for support and resources — all that’s invisible. It doesn’t need to be. It’s not magic. But unless our campaign draws an audience of media pundits calling it a “revolution,” that sort of discussion rarely makes it online — and even then, they so often miss the point, and we so rarely have have the time to step back from the campaign to unpack the hype and respond.

So come ask me anything. Check these videos to get oriented to the kinds of campaigns we’ve been following. You don’t have to limit your questions for me to sex work advocacy — you can start with what’s up with the pink panties.

(Photo: por petite)