| APrIGF 2022 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||||||
| Ms. Chinmayi S K | |||||||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||||||
| The Bachchao Project | |||||||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||||||
| Member and Founder | |||||||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||||||
| Female | |||||||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||||||
| India | |||||||||||||||||
| Primary Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||||||
| Civil Society | |||||||||||||||||
| List Your Organizing Partners (if any) | |||||||||||||||||
| Vasundhra Kaul, The Bachchao Project, vasundhra@thebachchaoproject.org Ng Yann Chwen, Horizontal, yannchwen@wearehorizontal.org Alvin Gallardo, iDEFEND, alvin.gallardo@protonmail.com |
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| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||||||
| Building Technologies for Inclusion in South Asia | |||||||||||||||||
| Session Format | |||||||||||||||||
| Fireside Chat | |||||||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||||||
| Online only (with onsite facilitator who will help with questions or comments from the floor) | |||||||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||||||
| The Global North has enjoyed considerable influence over technology building in the past, and continues to hold much sway. This can cause technology to be exclusionary and unbalanced, especially for communities that are not based in the same socio-economic context. With this session, we hope to introduce concepts that are inclusive and collaboration driven. In this session, we hope to cover some of the more practical aspects of building suitable open technology. The speakers here will discuss their individual and organizational experiences of building technology for inclusion. They will focus on case studies they have been part of, specific to the Asia Pacific region that have involved tech platforms. They will also discuss the the constraints and gaps present while building technology for this region, and highlight some efforts made to build towards inclusion. Our aim with this session is to discuss the different approaches the internet freedom and technology communities should take to ensure equitable access to rights. We will also consider how these efforts can be supported, and what kinds of policies foster this. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||||||
| In our time working with grassroot communities, we have seen the significant gap that exists between tool developers and users. The emphasis is placed on training the user population to better understand tools that are often created in the Global North, without attempting to contextualise them for a local population. These tools can then be seen as 'difficult to use' and 'complicated', further narrowing the population that is comfortable using them. There are two essential ways to address this issue; 1. Localization 2. Building from the bottom up Both of these techniques require an inclusive mindset, and a capacity to understand the other's position. It is also important to consider the kinds of tools that often fall under this category. More niche tools, especially those that focus on rights based action can sometimes feel too overwhelming for those who need the tool the most. In our work with human rights defenders, we have observed that most users are concerned about privacy and security, along with ease of use and simplicity. Only when these two needs are met is trust established, and users can get started with the tool. We want to use our discussions about the case studies and underlying issues to spur conversation during the session on how tool developers and researchers can work together to address the needs of specific communities. These groups include human right defenders, and especially those who work on the issue of gender and sexuality. Our goal here is to be facilitators of conversation, and hopefully discuss ideas about how to make the tool development process more inclusive and context driven. In terms of outputs, we hope to be able to form networks of tool developers in the Global South, especially in South Asia. We want to foster these communities and encourage community tool development by uniting user and developer allowing for trust between both. |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) | |||||||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||||||
| Chinmayi (she/her) Chinmayi is the founder of The Bachchao Project. She has a degree in computer science and has spent over a decade in technology for good and open technology communities. She was an OTF Information controls fellow in 2020. Chinmayi previously worked as an engineer with Nokia and founded Saakshin, a software services start-up in Bengaluru, India.She has experience in building technology interventions, interdisciplinary research, designing training modules, growing and supporting open communities. She has co-authored a manual on "Building Technology for Diversity and Inclusion 101". Last year, she was a part of study "Tailormade?: A study on usability of Tails in India". Vasundhra (V) (they/them) V has been working with The Bachchao Project on issues around digital security since 2020. They have, in that time, supported multiple human right defender individuals and communities. In addition to this, they have experience educating users on safe digital security and privacy practices, especially members of the queer and LGBTQIA+ community. They assisted in a pilot Training of Trainers fellowship program for grassroot members in 2021, where they carried out sessions on gender based violence and online harassment, among others. In the last year, they were part of a study on the use of Tails (a portable, secure operating system) in India, and co author of a report (Tailormade?') on the same. They worked closely with a group of users to understand what their needs were, and how the tool was meeting them, or failing to do so. V's prior experience involves work around criminal litigation, prison reform and internet shutdowns. Yann Chwen (they/them) Yann Chwen is a UI/UX designer at Horizontal, a non-profit that uses technology for human rights and justice. At Horizontal, they are currently working on Shira -- an open source web app that helps users develop their skills to detect and defeat phishing attacks. In designing Shira, they are practising Design Justice principles of centering community needs and expertise, working with advisors who represent various communities across Asia Pacific and beyond. Prior to Horizontal, Yann Chwen spent most of their time in community-based organizing, non-hierarchical collectives and using the arts for social justice. Their academic training in Race & Ethnic Studies and Cololonialism Studies grounds their work, as they approach every aspect of their design practice with questions of who truly benefits, who is harmed and who has ownership of the process. They live on occupied Temuan land known as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Alvin Gallardo (he/him) Alvin Gallardo is an activist, independent tech consultant and a digital security trainer who works closely with various CSOs, LGBTIQ, climate, environment and human rights organizations in the Philippines. Currently, he is a volunteer IT person for In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDEFEND). |
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| If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for. | |||||||||||||||||
| We would be interested in including speakers who come from experiences similar to ours. We would like to include additional speakers from the technology industry, academia, or someone who has worked with governments to build inclusive technologies. | |||||||||||||||||
| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2022. | |||||||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2022? | |||||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcript in English for all sessions. Do you need any other translation support or any disability related requests for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||||||||
| We would like the session to have a live transcript. | |||||||||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2022. |
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