Women and Independence in Latin America: A New Multimedia Community-Contributed and Community-Driven Online Resource

The project aims to stimulate debate and research on women and Independence in Latin America by building on public interest in women's involvement in the Independence Wars, triggered by the bicentenaries, and women's unprecedented presence in Latin American politics today. To do this, an existing static, read-only web site will be developed into an interactive, commmunity-driven and commmunity-contributed resource which will encourage participation and ownership by Latin American women themselves.

The existing web site www.genderlatam.org.uk, resulting from the AHRC-funded project 'Gendering Latin American Independence' (2001-2006), consists of a wealth of data (2300 people, 3900 events, 330 images) which provides an important research tool. Since 2006 it has been widely disseminated across the UK and abroad, mainly in the context of the bicentenaries of Latin American Independence, to academic and general audiences with funds made available by the AHRC (pilot dissemination) and the University of Nottingham (Centre of Advanced Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures). However the web site was built in the early 2000s using the technology available then and, as such, is limited in coverage and above all functionality. The follow-on funding will enable a second stage of development with new technologies to provide new faciltilies to encourage public engagement thus radically strengthening knowledge exchange. The aim is to empower Latin American women so that eventually they can take ownership of the resource thus ensuring long-term sustainability.

To this end target users have been identified in the UK and in Latin America who will work closely with the project team to develop the resource by providing input, testing funcionality, experimenting and piloting. These users are a) Latin American women migrants in the UK who will be actively involved in the project by means of collaboration with the project partner, Latin American Women's Rights Service (London) and b) Latin American women in selected locations in Latin America who will be actively involved by means of collaboration with the second partner, the Women's Museums Network (www.womeninmuseum.net), principally in Buenos Aires. The expectation is to make this a three-way collaboration with LAWRS and the Museums, focusing on the theme of women and Independence in Latin America past and present. The target users sourced by the project partners wil be given password protected access to the developing web resource which will enable them to input, manipulate and interpret data in new ways. They will work with the team members to select and edit materials. The project team will establish a set of community editors (on the Wiki model) and opportunities for contributors to be promoted to editors within their ranks to support the site in future. A flagged and patrolled revisions system will be implemented to oversee the Facebook facility enabling unknown contributors to also participate.

It is enormously important that the activities relating to the development of the new digital resource feed into the educational programmes offered by LAWRS and the museums network which are specially designed to engage with and empower Latin American women. The project activities planned with LAWRS and the museums will form part of a larger framework already in place in the partner organizations which aims to promote debate on gender issues, improve women's rights and opportunities, and encourage learning about opportunities, aspirations and autonomy. The aim is to raise women's awareness of the contribution women made to nation building in Latin America, and the potential for women's political leadership in Latin America today. The users will be given scope to develop the resource in ways that are meaningful to them and will receive training in web skills from the project team. The joint project with LAWRS, entitled Libertadoras, will be captured in a photographic exhibition.

The potential for global impact of the new online resource (database and website) is immense and will be beneficial in particular to the UK knowledge economy and society. Beneficiaries include academia, third sector and the wider public, but also government agencies such as the diplomatic corps, local authorities in London (eg Brixton and Southwark with large Latin American communitites), the FCO, and other government departments that promote education and international understanding.

The interactive community-driven and community-led mode makes possible academic innovation in the sourcing, accessing and interpretation of knowledge and the framing of different kinds of research questions such as what do Latin American women today know about the Wars of Independence, how can they relate to those events, to what extent might they identify with the women who led the Independence campaigns, how can they recover and express this cultural memory? The resource will be of direct benefit to international and UK researchers and postgraduate across the disciplines, and will enhance academic collaboration with academic, non-academic and community-based partners. This collaboration can be further developed across the UK in future projects supported by Horizon.

The project strongly promotes user engagement through its strategic partnerships with LAWRS and the Women's Museum Network, which will each and jointly encourage user contribution to research activities (knowledge production, debate, comments) and user participation in events (educational, training, skills based and participatory). The resource is a powerful tool that promotes peer networks, sharing, and self-organization among target users such as the LAWRS and Museum participating groups of volunteers. It represents innovation in the dissemination and open-sourcing of materials, and develops new methods to identify research challenges, engage with others, stimulate creativity and dialogue and innovate across boundaries. The activities organized with the project team in LAWRS and the Museo, and the post-award photographic and video exhibition, will provide the main focus of impact generation during the nine months of the award. The collaboration of volunteers, their leadership and stake in the ownership of the resource, will enhance the capacity and sustainability of the digital tool which will continue to create impact in the foreseeable future. This will be measured by Googleanalytics, as it has been to date.

In terms of social benefits, through its public engagement the project will provide cultural enrichment especially for Latin American women migrants in the UK as a group and as individuals around issues of identity, inclusion, well-being and quality of life. It will directly contribute to their education, web skills and research skills training. The exhibition of photographs and videos made around their work during the project will be of direct benefit to the social cohesiveness of these groups and their understanding of the historical significance of Independence. The project will make possible close collaboration between women's groups in the UK and in Latin America leading to cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

The exhibition will engage with Latin American Women in the UK and explore the roles they play within their communities. Through the production of photographic portraits it will address women through the concept of the 'Latin American Libertadoras'. The settings in which each portrait will be taken are the choice of each woman to be photographed and should be a place that has strong meaning and relevance to the concept of 'Women and Liberty'. A short piece of text will accompany the photographs explaining their connection with the location the women selected, which Latin American 'Libertadora' figure inspired them the most and why? The women will discuss what they have gained from their involvement in the project.