This is a call out for assembly of an advisory group of sex workers who are interested in informing the production of a resource for sex workers who use digital technology for work. I’m a Sydney-based sex worker and activist, and in the wake of FOSTA I have been putting a lot of my activist work towards advocating for a) better SW access to more secure digital tools and b) more awareness about the tools we already access.
The first project I’m working on is a digital security resource, for which I’m partnering with Thoughtworks, Assembly Four, and two other independent tech professionals. I expect that the website will roll out in October or November. In order to create the resource, I want to consult with my peers to help that to be as informative and accessible as possible.
I would like to welcome folks from all over the tech use spectrum – those who consider themselves relatively informed and tech-savvy as well as those who find themselves baffled on the regular.
Some of the things I’m interested in talking about:
- how we use the technologies we have
- our concerns about our privacy and security in using tech products and services
- what access barriers we have to certain technologies (including the learning curves of understanding what they are and how to use them)
- peer education strategies to improve our individual and collective digital security without losing our capacity to network with one another
Sex workers from diverse working modes, sex workers of colour, transgender sex workers, those with access issues (physical disability, learning disability, etc), and migrant workers to the front, please. This does not mean that I do not want to hear from anyone else – it just means that we need workers with different lived experience from my own (I’m a white cis independent pro domme) to have voice here, because whatever resources are developed from this effort need to try to encompass that experience to be valuable. I understand that no individual speaks on behalf of a whole community, and I can’t guarantee that every worker will benefit from every outcome we end up with.
Surveys and audio / video chat will be the primary modes of contact. The time commitment would be as little as 15 minutes filling out a survey to an hour doing a live call.
I am not in a position to incentivise your participation, which I regret. The resource will not be monetised and is pro bono labour for everyone involved. Your participation can be as anonymous as you stipulate. The advisory group will be credited in the final product, but individual participants will not be named without their permission.
To express your interest, please sign up here. Your details will not be shared, sold, or used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you have any questions about what I’m doing or how I’m doing it, please email me on gala at gala vanting dot info.
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