What are social networking services?

Social networking services allow its users to connect with each other and share information. When you sign up for an account with a social networking service, you build your network by adding on friends and contacts. The service allows you to publish and share different kinds of information and communicate with each other, such as photographs, personal data (e.g. email address, real name, relationship status, resume etc), status messages etc. Different social networking platforms offer different services. We are using the social networking services below to share information, engage in conversation and spread the word about Take Back The Tech! with campaigners.

Most social networking services are free. This is because the more people who join a social networking space, to more valuable and powerful it is. Since each person who is on a social networking site has their own network, the connection of individual users also means connecting networks together. This allows users to broaden who they can reach on the basis of recommendation and dissemination.

Before joining social networking spaces, take a moment to read the privacy agreement to have a better sense of what they do with the your personal data and information.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a service that lets you publish short text entries online (140 characters - like an SMS). The basic idea is that users are be able to post text messages using their mobile phones onto their Twitter account page. Twitter users can "follow" each others' posts. When you "follow" someone, their posts will be published on your Twitter page. If you are in a country where mobile phone operators have an agreement with Twitter, you can also opt to receive posts on your mobile phone. Twitter has become so popular that there are search engines dedicated to searching "tweets" - what Twitter posts are usually called. Users can also "retweet" a message to easily share it with their followers. Retweets help a particular message to grow.

We are using the hashtag #takebackthetech to connect with each other about our campaign actions, and to build a growing conversation about the issue of violence against women and ICT for 16 days.

If you are on Twitter, join us and make ending violence against women a critical priority in this space by adding a the #takebackthetech hashtag to your tweets.

Only tweets from "public" accounts will be aggregated on the campaign website. If you would like to join the campaign and have a private account (where only people whom you approve can become "follow" your tweets), consider opening a new account that is only for posts that are open to the public.

Find out more about Twitter here: http://www.takebackthetech.net/content/day-3-connect-amp-help-twitter-nu...

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a social networking space that makes it easy for people to connect with each other. Users create a profile page, and include as much personal information about themselves as they choose depending on how public they want to be on the network. The personal information helps other people to recognise them, and ask to be a "friend". Friends on Facebook can exchange photographs, play games with each other, share notes and more. There are countless applications that can be added to users' profile pages, such as "causes", games, quizzes etc.

Note that when you add an application, the application owner will be able to access much of the information in your page, including your friends. Some applications might use this to collect personal data for purposes other than for you to be able to use it, so add wisely :). Facebook also allows users to control their privacy setting, which means that users can decide which friends are able to see which parts of the information they have online. This can be useful for when, for example, you only want certain groups of your friends to be able to see particular photo albums.

We are using a Facebook application known as "Causes" to bring together all Take Back The Tech! campaigners on this social networking space. Help build the campaign by inviting your friends to support the Take Back The Tech! cause. Post messages, exchange ideas, debate about issues and share your action photographs. You can also donate to the campaign and help support local Take Back The Tech! initiatives.

There are also several Take Back The Tech! groups initiated by campaigners in different locations that you can join. Take Back The Tech on Facebook with us!

Take Back The Tech! Cause: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/40159?m=d9d59b6f
Take Back The Tech! Group (general): http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2268458091

Started a group? Add yours! Email us at ideas AT takebackthetech DOT net

What is del.icio.us?

Del.icio.us (pronounced as "delicious") is a service that allows people to store and access their bookmarks from any browser, and to share their bookmarks with other users.  It also enables users to organise their bookmarks according to "tags" - brief descriptive keywords that are self-determined. If a large number of users are tagging the same site, it signals its importance and popularity. Similarly, when the same tag is used for many sites, it also gives an indication on important, popular and emerging issues or topics.

We use del.icio.us to share bookmarks on websites or articles that is related to violence against women and ICT. If you're using del.icio.us, help build a library of resources on this issue. Anytime you come across a useful resource, include the campaign tag to share it with other Take Back The Tech! campaigners. Start by tagging your campaign website and www.takebackthetech.net.

The campaign tag is: takebackthetech

To set up your own del.icio.us account: go to http://del.icio.us. Find out more about del.icio.us on our 2006 daily action: http://www.takebackthetech.net/daily-actions/06/12/1

What  is RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". Basically, it's like a subscription service that delivers new content to you every time it is uploaded. Websites that offer RSS - there is usually an orange icon with lines that look like white radio waves inside - are websites that allow you to subscribe to their latest updates.

So instead of checking a website (or 20 different websites) every day to see if there are, subscribing to its RSS will automatically "feed" or send updated content to you when its uploaded. Updates will be sent to your RSS reader, which is provided by various platforms and services, such as Thunderbird http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/ (for feeds sent directly into your mailbox),  Google Reader http://www.google.com/reader/view/#welcome-page (for feeds that can be read from your web browser) or Live Bookmark on Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/livebookmarks.html (for feeds that are saved into your bookmarks folder)

You can subscribe to Daily Actions from to Take Back The Tech! website here: http://www.takebackthetech.net/rss/actions/daily