8 March 2010 – In celebration of International Women's Day, the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is launching its new website <http://ftx.apcwomen.org>. The FTX is both a training initiative for women's rights advocates and a community of feminist and technology activists. The FTX was developed by the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) in response to calls from feminist and women's rights movements for greater understanding of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women.

The FTX website features information and discussions on various issues relating to feminist practices and politics of technology through its sections:

• Feminist Exchanges: A community blog that is open to feminists and technologists that will tackle stories from the FTX workshops as well as discussions on feminist technology training and feminist perspectives on technologies.

• Grrls Guide to Tech: A listing of recommended training resources that have been tried and tested by feminist and activist technology trainers.

• Girls Who Tech: Profiles of FTX trainers, women who know a thing or two about appropriating technology for women's rights and empowerment.

• FTX Training Materials: Resources (presentations, training agenda, facilitator's notes) that have been used in FTX and other similar workshops, developed by FTX trainers.

The FTX website was initially developed to support the first global FTX that was held in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2008 in partnership with AWID and Women’sNet, South Africa. The global FTX brought together more than 100 advocates and activists from Asia Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America working on women’s rights, feminism and communication rights, to collectively build knowledge and capacity on how information and communications technologies connect with feminism. Held immediately prior to the AWID 2008 Forum on Movement Building with more than 1500 in attendance, FTX participants put new skills into practice in coverage at the AWID Forum. The documentation of FTX in 2008 can be found in: http://ftx2008.apcwomen.org.

Since then, FTX workshops have been conducted in Africa and Latin America with more workshops happening soon! The new FTX website will support the series of FTX workshops that will be held in 12 countries across Asia, Latin America and Africa between 2010 - 2011 as part of APC WNSP's project on using technologies to combat violence against women.

Join us by signing up at http://ftx.apcwomen.org. Or follow feminist_tech on twitter to get the latest FTX updates.