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Brief evaluation of the Know How Conference
300 women and men from 87 countries, representing international women's networks, national and local women's information services, lesbian archives, Indigenous women's organizations, governments and UN organizations met for 5 days in August 1998 to discuss women's information; a milestone meeting in the development of women's information.
The program
The Know How Conference approached the visibility and accessibility of women's information from within the local, regional and global framework.
The five organization levels are:
The participants defined the conference program. In response to the call for proposals more than 70 people from over 40 countries proposed papers and most of these were presented during the conference. An international group of people co-ordinated the workshops. This ensured global representation.
The Indigenous women's pre-conference was held on Saturday and Sunday in the reading room of the IIAV. More than 30 women attended it from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The manifest, a document produced by the participants of the pre-conference, is attached to the draft declaration of the Know How Conference.
While the Indigenous women were meeting at the IIAV (22 and 23 August), other conference participants arrived and on Sunday afternoon converged on the Women's Centre, where registration activities and an information market took place within an informal but very pleasant atmosphere. This gave participants the opportunity to meet people they had closely communicated with for many months during the conference preparations.
The Know How conference program (24, 25 and 26 August) consisted broadly speaking of a morning program of keynote speeches, an afternoon program of workshops (although two workshops were held in the morning) and a lunch program in which individual centres or their projects were presented. The information market continued throughout the 3 days.
Workshop coordinators drew up the conclusions of their workshops with the participants. These conclusions were incorporated into the Draft Declaration of the Know How Conference on the World of Women's Information.
Most participants partook in one of the tours of the IIAV which were held in English,
Spanish and French.
Listserv
As of 26 October 1998, 164 people from more than 40 countries (because some people use a server outside their own country it is not possible to say exactly how many countries are represented) participate in the listserv. The listserv has a facilitator who stimulates discussion where necessary. Regional co-ordinators watch developments to ensure participation of (important) organizations in their region. The Know How organizing committee deliberately remained in the background of this communication tool, in order to be able to follow discussions rather than define discussions.
The listserv will continue. The lesbian archives will develop their own listserv, co-ordinated by the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York.
Web site
The primary task of the Know How web site is to increase the visibility and accessibility of women's information. An important task is also to provide information on the Know How process. The invitation, in three languages, was published in full. In July the site was updated to include information on the program, this time only in English as funds were lacking to finance two other language versions.
Immediately after the conference, the minutes of the workshops were added and at the end of November all keynote speeches available in electronic form.
The site will continue to publish Know How process information.
Photo exhibition
Photographer Angele Etoundo Essamba was commissioned to develop an exhibition of fine art photography for the Know How Conference. The photographs express the involvement of African women in international communications.
Artwork: Ode to the Participants
Nita Dales (Amsterdam) was commissioned to create a 'document' that would welcome participants to the conference they, together with the organisers, had built. All envelopes sent to the office were used in Ode to the Participants. Visitors to the IIAV did feel welcome when they walked into the lobby of the library and, on a giant 3 metre x 14 metre cloth could search for their own envelope. The artwork is on display until the end of 1998.
Visas and other restrictions
Several participants were unable to attend the conference because they were refused an entry visa. The responsible authorities feared these women would try to get political asylum in the Netherlands. Despite our efforts to intervene in this outrageous situation, two colleagues in Pakistan and Nigeria were denied entry into the Netherlands. We intervened successfully for passage of a Palestinian colleague, for whom we had to buy an extra ticket. One colleague was unable to attend as the airport in Congo was closed due to war. Many other colleagues were unable to receive our mail due to the wars raging in their countries. The returned mail is now part of the document 'Ode to the Participants'.
Indigenous women
The Know How Conference was the first global women's conference in which Indigenous women were equal participants in all levels of the organization and program. The Know How organizing committee was very satisfied with the co-operation with the Inheemse Raad of the Netherlands and hopes to continue this co-operation in future activities as defined by the Draft Declaration of the Know How Conference.
Lesbian women
In many countries of the world, lesbian women cannot openly collect and disseminate information without fear of attack. Even in so-called progressive countries lesbian information centres and archives face many forms of discrimination. A strong network of lesbian archives grew during the conference and the network plans to organize a lesbian pre-conference prior to the next international meeting of women's information specialists.
Literacy
The Draft Declaration urges information specialists and governments to continue to develop information services that benefit both literate and non-literate women. Special attention must be given to developing radio as a means of collecting and disseminating women's information.
Networking
In the participant evaluations of the meeting and in the many letters we received thanking us for organizing the Know How conference, the value of the conference in building networks is named as one of the most important conference outcomes. Many of the conference participants already knew each other through existing networks, such as women's health networks, ISIS, and APC. The conference afforded these people an additional opportunity to meet to discuss the issues of these networks. New networks, including the Indigenous women's information network and a network of lesbian archives, were formed.
Publicity around the Know How Conference
In the Netherlands, articles on the Know How conference were published in De Volkskrant, Trouw, Financieel Dagblad, Bibliotheekblad, Allochtonenkrant, Informatie Professional, Op Gelijke Voet, and Indigo. In Belgium: Uitgelezen. In Germany: Emma. In the Republic of Kazakhstan: article in the Green Women magazine. We have seen an article by Wendy Thomas (Schlesinger) in News Fronts International. There was also a publication in Vietnam. Shirley Walters had an article in Voices Rising (Uruguay) and Mapping the World was announced in Kinesis, Vancouver. Consultores Tres (Peru) published and article on the conference. Internationally, the IWTC did an article specifically on Mapping the World. In November the Surinamese newspaper De Ware Tijd (Surinam) published a large article on the conference. There were a number of radio programmes in the Netherlands, including the World Service, with items on the conference, and the BBC's Everywoman devoted a program to the conference.
Do you know of other articles published? Please let us know! And if you would like copies of the articles, we refer you to the women's information center in the country in which it was published. They will be pleased to send you a copy.
A number of video tapes were produced during the conference. Adele Patrick of the Scottish Women's Library can be contacted.
The IIAV intends to continue working at the forefront of developments in women's information. We have set up a "thinktank" within the organization which will, in the coming three months, develop the financial and strategic framework in which to do this work Knowledge Management is a tool we are thinking of using.
Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge Sharing, or Knowledge Management, is a way of getting organized to create, capture, distill and disseminate relevant knowledge, utilizing a range of new electronic and non-electronic media. The first women's information services began more than 60 years ago. The global community of women's information services has a pool of knowledge based on many years of experience and from learning embodied in the people that staff them. An international knowledge management system, consisting of on-line resources and informal networks of professionals, can be created to capture and organize this wealth of information so that it can enhance the value the services bring to their clients.
Focal points of the 'Knowledge Sharing' activities of the IIAV
The focus will be twofold: the continuation and expansion of the Mapping the World of Women's Information Services database and website; and increasing the accessibility and availability of women's information as expressed in the Declaration of the Know How Conference on the World of Women's Information.
Focal point 1: Mapping the World of Women's Information Services
Mapping the World of Women's Information Services consists of a database, a website and a book providing information on women's information services throughout the world.
The Mapping the World of Women's Information pilot project was presented to the participants of the Know How Conference on 24 August 1998. In continued cooperation with UNESCO we will concentrate in the first part of 1999 on developing the African component of the database. We welcome input from the Know How 'network' in developing priorities within that work, and in developing priorities for completion of the database.
Focal point 2: Continuing the process of communication among women's information
services
The aim of this focal point is to improve the availability and accessibility of women's information through developing a strong network of women's information centres and to support these centres in their task of collecting and disseminating information.
Three main task areas can be defined:
The Declaration of the Know How Conference can be read as an outline of the work that needs to be undertaken. Our aim is to do this work in French, Spanish and English.
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This page last updated on January, 1999. Copyright © 1999 IIAV.