2011 VOF Week 1

Is that what it’s called?!
I have learnt a new term today. Web 2.0. I was shocked to discover that it has been in use since as far back as 2004! It is a great phenomenon! I was shocked because I have been using Web 2.0 sites since they were introduced. The first one I can remember is Hi5, a social networking site I signed up for in 2005.
What is really exciting about Web 2.0 is the fact that I can interact with people all over the world! I can find long lost friends, find opportunities, and learn new things (as I have learnt today). I can start a blog that will reach millions of people, even though I have no programming experience. Web 2.0 allows me to create what I want, it gives me the freedom to share my very being with the rest of the world.
Across the world today, women’s empowerment has been acknowledged as a solution to a lot of the world’s problems today. Web 2.0 allows women from all over the world to share their experiences and make people understand what they go through. It has been very common in the past to hear of how people are suffering and surviving on less than a dollar a day, but when you hear or read about an actual person that is living like that, it makes you want to reach out and help even more. I can have a blog where I detail every hour of my life as a single 30 year old mother living in Zambia, my struggles and triumphs, my tears and laughter, my sorrows and joy. This would better educate a person who would want to help out women in my country because they would understand what we need more than from watching a documentary about Zambian women on television.
Web 2.0 has allowed women (even if, like me, they didn’t even know a term existed for this kind of ‘freedom of speech and expression’) to describe in their own words what they go through, and what hopes and dreams they have for the future. I am glad that I can share my thoughts and voice my opinions. I am glad that even though I don’t have the latest gadgets to do this, I am able to achieve the same results from my mobile phone.
My country goes to the poll on 20th September. I have taken advantage of Web 2.0 technology to voice my opinion on candidates and their campaign material, I have questioned the practicality of their ‘promises’ and in some cases, I have gotten positive feedback. Politicians now know that they will be taken on if they fail to honor their promises.