Since the inception of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the Council of Europe, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) have been working on a joint initiative on public participation in internet governance. The three entities have held joint workshops around this theme at both the Rio de Janeiro (2007) and Hyderabad (2008) meetings of the Internet Governance (IGF), and a "discussion paper (paper 1)" was presented.

What is “harmful content” on the internet? The definition is contestable, subjective and open to a range of interpretations, and the majority of interventions to combat it are mostly concerned with obscenity and child pornography. Sexual rights workers are troubled by the growing role of conservative forces – supported by religious extremists – and their attempts to encourage new legislation that would treat all online sexual exchanges as sexual predation and all adult content on the internet as pornography. This protectionist approach overshadows other important aspects of the internet that directly impact on internet users’ lives and their ability to access to vital information on sexuality, sexual health and sexual rights. EroTICs, an exploratory research just starting at APC, aims to narrow the gap between political assumptions and a better understanding of content and “harm” based on women’s real experience of sexuality online.

While the existence of a “digital divide” between ICT “haves” and “have nots” exists, the additional gender divide is often overlooked and women, particularly women in developing countries, are far less able to benefit from and influence the male-dominated ICT development than their male counterparts. Through skills diffusion and capacity building, the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) seeks to empower women’s rights organisations, advocates and feminists sidelined in the growth of the global digital commons. The Exchange has been developed in response to the expressed needs of feminist and women’s rights movements for greater understanding of emerging ICT and applications. At the same time, the Exchange is an opportunity to foster exchange between feminist and women’s rights movements and the ICT4D community through the participation of individuals involved in ICT for development projects who are looking to get a stronger understanding and integration of gender analysis and feminist values within their work.

GEM is an evaluation methodology that integrates a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for social change. GEM provides a means for determining whether ICTs are worsening or really improving women’s lives and gender relations, as well as for promoting positive change at the individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.

GenderIT.org is a website for women’s movements, ICT advocates and policy makers who want to ensure that ICT policy meets women’s needs and does not infringe on their rights.

The global civil society community and other stakeholders have expressed their commitment to play their role as Global Information Society watchdog.

The Internet Governance Forum is a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue space convened by the United Nations Secretary General in 2006 to “foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the internet”. APC has found that the IGF is an experimental and influential policy forum for achieving our mission of ensuring open, universal and afforable access to the internet for all people.

ItrainOnline is a partnership involving eight organisations with particular experience in capacity building in development contexts. It aims to assist civil society organizations (CSOs) and other development actors in developing countries to confront the challenges posed by new information and communications technologies (ICTs). In seeking to overcome skills gaps in development, it connects people and know-how with the needs of ICT learners and trainers.

The ItrainOnline Multimedia Training Kit (MMTK) is a collection of workshop kits to help trainers working with telecentres, NGOs, community media organisations and the development sector to present effective training courses on a wide range of ICTs and non-ICT topics.

Marginalised women, teenage girls and women in armed conflict in more than ten countries will be the people most likely to benefit in a project launched in January 2009 by the APC women’s programme to tackle what the UN has called a “global epidemic of violence against women”.

This two-year research project examines the nature and extent of media piracy and the effect of anti-piracy legislative and enforcement frameworks on access to knowledge in South Africa. The research was carried out by researchers from APC and several South African universities, and forms part of a larger study by researchers in Russia, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Hungary, on media piracy in their countries.

In order to reduce poverty and foster inclusive development through affordable access to the internet, APC is working on a resource kit for realising a universal access agenda, present promising options, experiences, lessons and opportunities in pro-poor access provision in developing societies.

The Rapid Response Network (RRN) is an initiative that is aimed towards ensuring that rights of expression, communication, association and protest on the Internet are protected. More specifically, to enable people and organisations to use information and communications technologies for social justice and equality. APC has long been concerned with trends that show that such rights are being violated. As one response, some APC members and partners, have decided to act as a “Rapid Response Network” (RRN). Members of this network have the ability to rapidly mirror a threatened website throughout the world, and raise awareness about the issues involved.

APC has been commissioned by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) to investigate the potential for the use of ICTs for advancing democracy. The study is intended to look beyond the simple “use” of ICTs (mainly internet and mobile phones) for democracy and are digging deeper to find out how ICTs permeate the different levels of society. Among others, the study assesses how civil societies and citizen-based initiatives participate in the democracy process, and the potential ICTs have to promote democracy in terms of outreach and advocacy.

“Take Back The Tech!” is a global campaign by APC WNSP during the 16 days of activism against gender violence each year. Starting in 2006, the campaign calls for everyone – especially women and grrls – to reclaim technology for the fight against violence against women – using cell phones, instant messengers, blogs, websites, digital cameras, email, podcasts and more. It creates awareness on how ICT are connected to violence against women, strengthens the ICT capacity of women’s rights advocates, creates original and varied content and is building a community to strategise around eliminating violence against women through digital platforms. Different groups, organisations, networks and individuals have also initiated local “Take Back The Tech!” campaigns to further advocacy and urgent issues on violence against women and ICT in their specific context.

While the media sings the praises of Facebook and YouTube for social networking online, APC is concerned with what web2.0 tools can do for people who don’t have good internet access and equipment. In mid 2007, APC joined a partnership of like-minded organisations with which it organised a large conference around this preoccupation. At the same time, APC started working on several initiatives related to the application of web2.0 tools for development work.