Vifu: Virtual Community Building for Networking among Women

Abstract

While ICTs are being used to support development, women do not profit from them as much as men do. Therefore, we need to look into how Internet technology can be designed and applied to improve women’s lives and women’s access to information, education, and autonomy. This article suggests an ’avenue’ to empower women in the North and South (who already have Internet access) by building virtual international communities as one of the tools for women to participate in and benefit from international exchange. It describes the social and technical aspects of building an enabling environment for women called the Virtual International Women’s University (vifu). A development procedure characterized by inclusion, participation, user-developer-interaction, and transparency with the aim of enabling sociability and the transfer of technological knowhow is discussed. The article will argue that when ICTs are going to be promoted and used also for developmental issues, their specific technical and social design will play an important role for the success or failure of a certain initiative.