Monday 28 August 2006
Gender Goes Wiki
UN-INSTRAW Creates a new
Interactive
e-Tool to Promote
Trainings
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Through a free Internet
downloadable wiki software, this kind of website allows users to add, remove,
edit and change all content quickly and easily. “There are two key aspects that
make a “wiki” different to a “normal” website. First, anyone has the right to
contribute to it, and that is actually what makes the wiki“, explained Anna
Maron, UN-INSTRAW wiki specialist. “Second, there is the lack of hierarchical
structure. Unlike in “traditional” websites which show the track you followed to
get there, all the pages in the wiki are linked in a network”, she
said.
In its efforts to
embrace the new technologies for empowering women, the UN-INSTRAW has developed this first-ever “wiki”
specifically devoted to gender issues for all NGOs, popular organisations,
universities and UN agencies around the globe. Organisations can publicise their
training courses, publications and other capacity-building materials, in English
and Spanish and soon in French.
With currently more
than 300 resources, UN-INSTRAW’s “Gender Training Wiki” shows an interactive world
map displaying institutions offering gender trainings and upcoming
capacity-building events. This new technology tool also contains an
automatically generated calendar of trainings, a section for upcoming online
training courses on gender, a directory of institutions providing training
courses in that field as well other gender related training materials.
Through the use of the
wiki tool, UN-INSTRAW aims to increase the visibility of gender initiatives by
breaking through the “unidirectionality” of the Internet and promoting greater
participation of Internet users. “The “wiki” can help to create a two-way
communication through which it is easy for anyone to add information on new
training activities or materials. Changes, such as the editing of dates or
places can be easily done from your own computer”, Natividad Fernández of UN-INSTRAW’s Capacity-building Unit pointed
out.
“Creating this virtual
community of knowledge opens up the ownership of the tool to belong to everyone,
not just UN-INSTRAW that set it up. This way information on training reaches a
wider audience and the materials are more rapidly disseminated”, she
added.
For technical details, please contact Nati
Fernández (nfernandez@un-instraw.org) or Anna
Maron (amaron@un-instraw.org). The
UN-INSTRAW’s Gender Training Wiki can be visited at following URL: http://www.un-instraw.org/wiki/training/index.php/Main_Page