Web 2.0 is a set of application tools and technologies which allow for participatory information sharing,user-genrated content design and collaboration. Examples of these tools include blogs, Wikis, Twitter, Facebook, search engines, video sharing sites like You Tube just to mention a few.
With web2.0, the power is in my hands because it gives me the opportunity to generate and share information in my own style and design. I can write and express myself and my views freely without any one editing or influencing what I should write and not write online. I am able to connect with people and make friends I have never met worldwide and engage in topical conversations and important issues, ask questions and get feedback. On top of that web 2.0 platform is free and I don’t have to pay for space to have my content published as long as I can access internet.
Likewise, web 2.0 presents opportunities for women’s empowerment globally in that for long the mainstream media has suffocated women’s issues and concerns by either ignoring or giving them little attention. Web 2.0 therefore offers an alternative media for women to bring out their voices and concerns to the world. Women can now write, report and publish news on and about women as they unfold in their communities and bring their views in the global arena thus exposing under reported issues that are affecting women as well as creating awareness. As a result several issues affecting women have been exposed for example Shekina’s story of beast ironing in Cameroon on her Pulsewire blog, Noha Atef blog which exposed human rights abuses and censorship in Egypt, Halima Rahman personal experience with female genital mutilation and many more stories.
Further more, web2.0 enables women across the world to connect, collaborate, share information, ideas and strategies online. By doing this, women are organising, building movements and online communities such as Pulsewire, Ushahidi
to name just a few and hence creating a critical mass of change markers around the world.
All in all Web2.0 has offered me an opportunity to learn and acquire new knowledge and skills; connect and make friends with people from different walks of life and share ideas. I have been empowered to participate in generation of woman-centered content online and share it with people worldwide. I now have a voice and the world now knows me.
