Advocacy organisations around the globe often operate amongst great challenges including strategising on how best to disseminate information to citizens, communicate with governments and others around the globe, and keep track of complex and diverse datasets. Maps provide an incredibly efficient and intuitive medium for sharing data and information and therefore using maps and mapping technologies can be one way of meeting those challenges.

This report was compiled by Tactical Tech in collaboration with Melissa Gira. It explores the ways in which sex worker health and rights advocacy groups currently use information and communications technology, and to discover how they could benefit from technology and training in the future. It was commissioned by the Open Society Institute’s Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP).

Tactical Tech is happy to announce the web release of the Portuguese version of the Audio/Video NGO-in-a-box, tailored for distribution in Brazil. To create the Portuguese language edition, Tactical Tech teamed up with Casa Brasil and Estúdio Livre who labored hard to translate all the content over the last year, mostly working as volunteers.

The Audio/Video edition of NGO-in-a-Box is a toolkit that lowers the entry level for NGOs, non-profits and media activists wanting to use audio and video for social change.

You can view the site here pt.av.ngoinabox.org

The Audio/Video edition of NGO-in-a-Box is a collection of Free and Open Source Software tools, guides and tutorials for multimedia production and distribution. We've just updated the edition with some new tools, revised the versions of the software, added the ability to browse the content by tags and also included some new categories .

You can see the updated version at av.ngoinabox.org

Tactical Tech and Women'sNet are pleased to announce the web launch of the latest edition of NGO-in-a-box, the BaseBox. base.ngoinabox.org

The BaseBox is a collection of tools for the day to day running of small to medium sized NGOs. Produced by Tactical Tech in collaboration with Women'sNet, the BaseBox aims to make it easier to set up base, find the right software and learn how to use it.

The booklet has been released and is also available for download here

Modern life is saturated with ever increasing amounts of information, advertising and media with little time to digest what is being said. Against this background, NGOs and advocates too often find the information they want to communicate, either buried in long reports full of professional jargon and statistics, or overlooked in an endless stream of media releases. Whether communicating to the public, staff, donors or government officials, information design can help NGOs communicate with more impact, increase accessibility, and present issues powerfully.

Tactical Tech travelled to Nairobi, Kenya in June 2007, to work with Kenya Treatment Access Movement (KETAM) to help them develop an information strategy for their campaign to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention for all Kenyans. The information strategy will focus on improving communications with the partners of the campaign and KETAM's ability to engage government officials, along with conducting outreach to communities and people impacted by HIV.

meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Tactical Technology Collective was invited to contribute to a three day meeting called "Advancing Global Advocacy on Sex Workers' Health and Human Rights"in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as part of a larger project aimed at increasing the ability of sex worker advocates to utilize information and communications technologies. This project is part of Tactical Tech's Movement Building Program, providing longer-term needs-based mentoring and capacity building for specific issue areas and networks.

iCommons recently named Tactical Tech and it's NGO-in-a-box project as one of "5 Resourceful Sites NGOs Can’t Live Without". Check out the article on the iCommons blog.

a new resource - http://replication.tacticaltech.org

We would like to announce that we have just finished a new resource. A resource that we hope all of you might like, it is called the 'Source Camp Replication Materials'. It is a website where you can find information, templates, tips and secrets about organising Source Events. To date we have organised five events; Summer Source in Croatia (2003), Africa Source 1 in Namibia(2004), Asia Source in India (2005), FOSS road in Tajikistan (2005) and Africa Source 2 in Uganda (2006). We are in the process of scoping out an Asia Source 2 event as well as an Arab Source, and you will be the first to learn about them when we are sure if they