Feminist practices of technology: What's your approach? Celebrate International Women's Day by creating a buzz and add your take on how you use the internet, mobile phones and other communications technology for women's rights and empowerment on Twitter! #takebackthetech #iwd #feminist_tech

If you use the internet regularly, chances are, you will be searching for information using either Google, Yahoo!, Bing or ASK. Google is by far the most widely used internet search engine all over the world. This also means that these search engines are effectively the primary gate keepers of content we find online. Iit's worth reminding ourselves that we don't have to be limited to the gatekeepers we are used to all the time. We can explore  many other ways of categorising and presenting the wealth of information available, and we don't necessarily need to place all of our trust in one particular corporation. Chart a different journey into the world wide web.

What does it take to end violence against women? Sometimes it takes a large action: ratifying a convention, making a change in law, committing through policy and more. Most of the time, it takes small gestures: in everyday actions, everyday words, everyday interactions with the women and men around us, and within ourselves.  And sometimes, it might take just that one unlikely, but great and timely idea to start changing things. Join in the global brainstorm. What's your idea for ending violence against women?

The internet has become an important public space especially in contexts where other channels for information are regulated through law, custom or norms. Sexuality in particular, is an area that is subjected to close scrutiny and policing in all parts of the world, in different ways. It is often difficult for women to find safe spaces to find information related to sexual reproductive health or sexual pleasure from the diverse perspective of women and girls, or to engage in open conversations about these matters. At the same time, the internet has also enabled the flourishing of pornography. The dominant forms of pornography are often created for the male audience, with disempowering sexualised representations of women. This is also the basis in which calls have been made to regulate the exchange of information and communication over the internet, and for its censorship. Women are more often than not, absent in these discussions. What is the problem with online pornography? Speak for yourself. Join the great debate.

The UNAIDS 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update indicates that the number of people living with HIV worldwide continues to grow. Analysis of HIV prevention programmes reveals that integrating measures to address gender inequality and norms - including violence against women and exploitative forms of sex work - are critical in long-term solutions to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. One of the main reasons is because unequal power relations between women and men make it harder for women to negotiate for safer sex and condom-use with their partners. The risk of not having this conversation however, is very high. HIV can stop with each and everyone of us. Exercise control over what happens to our own bodies, and claim our right to define how we choose to engage in sexual relations. My body, my terms. Let's talk about safer sex! Spell out the terms on when and how you want to have sex, and break the stigma around HIV - get tested!

Digital technologies have blurred some of the lines that we think of as dividing what is private, and what is public. When you are in a cybercafe, having an online chat with your boyfriend, is it public or private? When you put something up on Facebook, to be seen only by people who are in your network, is it private or public? When you shoot a picture of yourself with your mobile phone, and MMS it to a friend, does it become public because you lose control over how the image might continue to be circulated? You decide what is public or private. Draw the line. Make it known.