Every part of the GlobalVoices Exchange gathering in Marseille was valuable, from the quick conversations to the actual resource in construction. A reunion with Global Voices family! The first talks identify common themes in between the people present and the contexts they work in: surveillance, online harassment against women activists, questions about how to measure the impact of our work, even some internal issues of great importance as dealing with the impostor syndrome, does any of this ring a bell?

As days went by, we started to work keeping in mind the idea of a resource that could be useful for ourselves as trainers, and one that could help us solve the problems we have faced when working in online campaigns with other activists. What have been the challenges in our contexts? What barriers are the activists in our region struggling with?

After thinking about existing resources, we identify gaps to be filled and spaces where we could contribute. Nowadays, with the increase in the offer of guides and tech tools for activists and advocates, it has become more important to teach others how to strategically chose the options that best suits their needs. This is very important as sometimes activist can end up using one tool because they think it is safer to use that exact one, but if they don’t actually understand how the tool work they could end up doing the completely opposite and exposing themselves. We also discussed how to generate a resource that speaks in the language that we activists speak, one that meets the needs of practicality and time we have. If one thing became clear during the workshop in Marseille is not wanting to reinvent the wheel.

Whether through a recipe or guiding through questions, there are several points we need to follow when we're putting together an online campaign. And yes, that also includes intersections with offline. When was the last time you though what makes you organize? What is it that makes you plan a campaign? As we work in the resource there are many thoughts from that week to keep in mind to reach our goal.