Web 2.0, who said women can't?

As content creator platform, web 2.0 opens a path of unlimited choices for societies and women in particular. The fact that my ability to build and shape my own vision of any idea, experience, business and even personal thoughts and publish it in the cyberspace empower my confidence and encourage me to speak for me. I think web 2.0 is a supplement for our modern lives. Information monopoly became history, and there is less parental control by some sort of authority deciding what to include and what to exclude from our knowledge.

What excites me the most about web 2.0 is the reconstruction of values and traditional thoughts in a certain society; let us take the participation of women in the Arab spring as an example. Facebook and Twitter among other platforms erased gender, age and social status and allowed all people to participate in change. Women are participating in protests and in the new political movement in the Arab revolutions more than any other time before, even many strict families now are proud of their women joining the new civil movement. This is a step that prepares a base for new humanitarian sphere. I believe that web 2.0 will be a major gate to assess and elevate the work of NGO’s, social and civil movements to create what I call “online unions”. Me, you, all of us, no matter who you are and where you came from you will be able to reinforce human rights.

Web 2.0 can help many women around the world in finding a job, getting a suitable training and allowing them to continue their schooling, bringing women together from all around the globe to exchange experiences and raise their voices in a beautiful collective brainstorming, pulse wire as an example. When I was 21 years old, I was searching for any job to help my family and pay my college fees, web 2.0 at that time was not spread, internet itself was limited to people who can afford it in Syria. I only had to check the gazette every week and draw circles around the “I can do this” jobs. It was terrible because many employers appeared to want a very “multitasking” women. Nowadays, A program like The Jamiix Counseling Service for strengthening young people’s resources, would had helped a young woman like me simply through mobile phones to enhance my future options.

As a translator, web 2.0 tools helped to improve my carrier. I read Wikipedia to understand better the subject I am translating. I am also a member in a translators's community where I can discuss with other translators certain terms and methods. Facebook now is an essential tool to me especially when activists in my country are using it to post latest news, developments and footages of the ongoing revolution.

With all the options and chances web 2.0 offer, who can say women can't?