Tactical Tech recently participated in the International School on Digital Transformation (ISTD), held in Porto, Portugal, July 25th to 30th. The six-day residential programme was organised by the UT Austin-Portugal Program, a cooperative endeavour between the University of Texas at Austin and some of the top universities of Portugal. The event brought together 45 emerging and established scholars, students and professionals from a variety of countries, who are interested in exploring and understanding how digital tools are transforming civil society.

27 July - Yesterday, Tactical Tech presented at the International School on Digital Transformation in Porto, Portugal. The event is an intensive six-day residential program bringing together emerging and established scholars, students and professionals from a variety of countries, who are interested in exploring how digital tools are transforming civil society. During the week, innovators in digital communications will serve as teachers and mentors, presenting current projects and engaging in discussion.

Grahamstown, South Africa, 5th-7th July: Tactical Tech unveiled the digital security “Eye-Tent” and the new animation series, Survival in the Digital Age, at Highway Africa, a gathering of over 400 journalists, educators, and other media and journalism enthusiasts. This was Tactical Tech's first of a series of “flash events”, a new approach to raising awareness and distributing information and resources on digital security for advocates and journalists.

Ono is a new a member of Tactical Tech's “Securing Advocacy” team. He is a friend of information users on a mission to explain how digital technology and communication might be putting them in danger. He is a robot created to spy on information users who is now using his abilities to help them instead. ONO is part of "Survival in the Digital Age", an animation series we've produced to raise awareness about the risks of using new technologies, and change the behaviour of information users. Ono's first job was at Highway Africa in Grahamstown, South Africa last week.

After the success of 10 tactics for turning information into action, Tactical Tech is starting work on a new info-activism resource that will support rights advocates to use information and digital technology. While this new project is still at the research and planning stage we are inviting you as friends, colleagues and networks to share with us any ideas you have for info-activism stories. What we are looking for are examples of where rights advocates have used information and digital technology in a strategic way to advance a cause or address an issue. You can find such examples on the 10 Tactics website. For example, the 350.org animation about climate change, this OneWorld SMS campaign for reproductive health and MySociety's TheyWorkForYou website which supports voters to demand transparency and accountability from their elected MPs.

This week Tactical Tech celebrates 100 worldwide screenings of 10 tactics for turning information into action, the documentary film about info-activism. Tanya Notley, the 10 tactics project lead, reflects here on the success of this project.

In the first month 10 tactics was launched, December 2009, interest about this film swelled and it was screened at 17 different events. 2010 has been no different and apart from the screenings, the film has been translated into 20 different languages.

Eager to ensure that this growth in content is available to more people who will benefit from it, Tactical Tech will imminently launch a new 10 tactics website. This website offers viewers the film with a choice of subtitles in: Belarussian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Hindi and English. Soon Burmese, Spanish and Arabic versions of the website will also be available. 

Maps can reveal inequalities, differences in perception and represent the issues and people that are often ignored. Teaching advocates how to use geographical mapping techniques equips them with a fresh perspective and a powerful tool for their work. Such was the philosophy behind the series of workshops, “Maps for Making Change”, organised by the Centre for Internet and Society in collaboration with Tactical Tech in India.

Today, the final bit of content from Tactical Tech's most recent project, '10 tactics for turning information into action', went online for the public to view and download. '10 tactics' is a set of resources, including a 50-min documentary film and 15 hands-on cards designed for interactive learning, to help rights advocates capture attention and communicate a cause using the digital technologies and information available to them.

From 22-25 March, co-founders of Tactical Tech, Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski were in Beirut training young activists as part of the British Council's Global Changemakers Programme. The participants consisted of a group of around 60 young community workers and social activists aged between 16-25 from 14 different countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

On March 2, Tanya Notley, from Tactical Tech, presented at the Cooperation 2.0. This was the third International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation organised by The CTIC Foundation (Center for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies), a non-profit organisation based in Spain.