• The Sunshine Coast Women's Centre Online
  
• Save Our Hands
  
• Sea Change
  
  Part One
  Part Three

The Sunshine Coast Women's Centre is the first Women's Centre in British Columbia with a website.  We feel strongly that women must not be left behind on this next electronic wave.

We are one of the local "experts" when others (like the library) develop policy around public access, since we were the first access point (and still the only free one- women only, mind you). Free public access is critical because it puts the Net into the hands of a wider strata of society, which is essential for inclusive community development. No longer, then, is the Net a tool only for people who can afford a computer and Net access. The printing press needed the library to provide access to books for many more people. Likewise free public access to the explosion of information available on the Internet must be readily available.

The Ministry of Women's Equality is about to fund bunches of non-profits to get up onto the Internet and to get involved in training more people. First step is development of an interactive training tool. We're told it was to be finished in September.   The local Native Band and a disability coalition are hoping to join with us to do a joint funding/training application. It represents one of the first bridges we, as a fairly new Women's Centre, have been able to build with the local Band and we're very pleased.

Employment in this area is dismal and we see Internet telecommuting enterprises as an area to explore. Training and job finding for the women on the Coast are on the agenda for this winter. Around this issue, we've had a very positive meeting with a potential funder for a formal Internet Employment Training program and are hot on the trail of other funders for training and wage subsidies to kickstart this initiative. A part of this vision includes a 3-4 computer LAN here in the Centre, hooked up to the Net. We need equipment! Anyone have a couple of spare Pentiums languishing around?! Eventually we'll develop this as a self-supporting business and our ultimate goal is to grow a computing centre with a combination of public drop-in space and private offices and, of course, fantastic synergy!

This area has been chosen as the site for an annually held Community Development Institute which is a week of workshops put on and attended by people from all over BC. We are one of the local host organizations and will push for Internet as a solution to rural employment and as a community development tool to be looked at in workshops.

And of course there's the monthly WebWomen meetings where the newbies and more experienced amongst us share our frustrations and solutions. Generally there's a theme and we have handouts to take away and help women along their way. These will soon be available on the WebWomen site. Out of this month's meeting came the idea to create a mail list for members that will act as a forum for women to pose questions when they get stuck and need help. We have been doing weekly CyberCafes one day a week to give the totally mystified a chance to come and surf for several hours with a trained volunteer. That was in part to avoid tying up our one phone line but this last WebWomen group "passed the purse" and we ordered up a second line today. That means that the "I dunno - let's look on the Net." " Gee THAT"S what surfing is!" door can be open during all our drop-in hours. We've long since lost track of the total number of women we've taken anywhere from "Are you sure it won't blow up?" to "How do I FTP my site up?"

Another area we're going to explore this fall is getting teen women to hop on the information highway. We're hoping to open the centre for CyberChats on their pro-days and other neat things. What we're hearing is that the girls are, once again, intimidated by the boys in the classroom setting and are not using the 'Net much. Our sense is we need to offer them a female friendly on-ramp. Anyone got any ideas on how to interest teen women?

Then there's APIKRI (an Indonesian craftpersons marketing co-op) who now have a website. Three of their women visited us for 2 weeks last November on a project we called An Alternative Trade Exploration. One of the things we did was use their visit as an incentive to get on-line ourselves so that we could show them the Net at the end of their visit. One of them was the executive in charge of marketing. As we showed them a site with an Indonesian mask coming down the screen her culture shocked and exhaustion drooped eyes flew wide open and you could see the instant of recognition that this was a tool they could use to huge advantage. That was a very satisfying moment of International Women's Development. And a project that continues. We are now working with them to host their site here as the costs in Indonesia are much higher than in North America. You will eventually hear more as we go to the next stage of helping them market to women's groups in this part of the world.

So there's the nutshell version of what we've been up to in the last nine months (I'm sure that time frame has a familiar ring to it). Oddly enough it does feel as if we have finally birthed the many ways the Net thrills us and are ready to sit down and plan where exactly we are going with it next.

Email  Sunshine Coast WOMEN'S RESOURCES CENTRE: womens_resources@sunshine.net

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by Penney Kome

Quick, have you been sitting at the computer for an hour or more?
Then you need to get up and stretch.
Right now! Go ahead, you can finish reading this after you've stretched.

Good. Now that you're back, let's have a look at how you're sitting: shoulders relaxed, back straight, legs and arms loosely bent, chin tucked in. Right? No? Uh-oh. Frequent breaks and good posture are two important ways to protect ourselves against common injuries caused by working at computers.

Joking? NOT! Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs) can be excruciatingly painful, extremely difficult to diagnose or treat, and potentially permanently disabling. These mysterious career-wreckers go by many generic names (including Cumulative Trauma Disorders and Overuse Syndrome), involve a whole range of specific musculoskeletal disorders (such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tendinitis, Bursitis, and Tennis Elbow), and have definitely been linked to computer use as well as many other occupations and activities.

Small wonder then that several Web pioneers have created and maintained Websites dedicated to avoiding, treating or dealing with RSIs. Amara's RSI Page was one of the earliest on the scene.  The good news is that Amara recently announced that she can use her hands again without too much pain as long as she's careful. The bad news is that recovery took her years and years.

Another veteran who still pops into RSI mailing lists from time to time is Paul Marxhausen, whose page is hosted by the University of Nebraska's engineering shop

Longtime Webmeister Dan Wallach created the very comprehensive "Typing Injury FAQ:General Information"

Both pages are strong on basic definitions, brimming with hotlinks to other sites, and come complete with a brief overview of how to make computer workstations safe.

While you're feeling strong, you can protect yourself by checking your workstation set-up against recommendations on either of these pages or check one of the ergonomics websites. Ergonomics, to refresh your memory, is the science of making the workplace user-friendly--fitting the job to the worker,not the other way around. ErgoWeb  offers an introduction to basic ergonomics, samples of proposed or implemented legislation from various jurisdictions, checklists for evaluating several kinds of worksites, and guidelines for safe computer work set-ups.

Worried about your workstation at your job(s)? The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) publishes documents about all kinds of occupational hazards, including what they call Repetitive MotionInjuries, and answers questions from workers who are worried that their workplaces might be unsafe. At this writing, the quickest way to get answers is to call the toll-free number, 1-800-668-4284. CCOHS also sells an RMI-prevention training course on multimedia ROM.

Most RSIs can be fixed if caught early enough. If your wrists, hands, arms or shouldersache already, you should take it very seriously. DON'T push yourself to work through the pain. Start a daily journal and jot down what body parts hurt and when--during the day or after activity or especially if some discomfort wakes you up--to take with you to the doctor, chiropractor or other health care practitioner in the next week or two.

One way to educate yourself is to boot up OrthoDoc: An Illustrated Guide to Muscles & Medical Massage Therapy.  With a little luck James H Clay's illustrations will show you all the probable sources of your pain, his rhetoric will convince you to try massage as a first resort (some extended health insurance policies cover massage), his list of therapists will include somebody near you--and you'll never even have to contemplate surgery.

Most doctors know only a very little about RSIs. You may be able to locate a well-informed doctor --one who comes recommended by other RSI patients -- by checking FindADoc at the University of Nebraska RSI Page or by auto email by sending a message to: mapaul@engrs.en;/edu    with the subject: Findadoc

The UNL page also has a link to the Association of Occupational & Environmental Clinics more than 50 clinics scattered through the US and a few in Canada, with a medical focus on workplaces and a Patient's Bill of Rights framed in the waiting room.

Or prepare yourself by reviewing one version of the basic medical model of RSI diagnosis and treatment. Turn to A Patient's Guide to Cumulative Trauma Disorder, from the Medical Multimedia Group

Cartoon characters Mac (a muscle) and Rudy (a nerve) illustrate the explanations. Mac and Rudy are also available in a free RSI-prevention screensaver

Standard medical treatment involves oral non-steroid anti-inflammatories (usually ibuprofen), splints or braces, and two weeks rest. DON'T wear braces while working, please. Bring your doctor a copy of  REPETITIVE STRAIN INJURY: A COMPUTER USER'S GUIDE by Dr Emil Pascarelli and health writer Deborah Quilter, which explains why braces should only be used at night or when resting.

Floundering? Not sure whether to follow the doctor's advice? Join the conversation on one of the RSI mailing lists. SOREHAND is based in San Francisco. To join the discussion, send an email message to:

listserv@itssrvl.ucsf.edu  In the body of the message type: subscribe sorehand Your Name

To join RSI-East send an email message to:

listserv@sjuvm.stjohns.edu  In the body of the message type: subscribe RSI-East Your Name

RSI-UK comes out of Great Britain, and you can subscribe by sending a message to:

listserv@tictac.demon.co.uk  In the body of the message type:  subscribe RSI-UK Your Name

Just read the postings for a while, to get a feel for the group you join. Then you can post your questions and see who answers.  They'll probably tell you: take frequent breaks. And sit up straight, eh?

Penney Kome: kome@freenet.calgary.ab.ca

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first appeared as the online magazine associated with Virtual Sisterhood.  
It will be a regular feature of Women'space to highlight the developments and projects of Virtual Sisterhood.

Virtual Sisterhood, a global women's electronic support network, is dedicated to strengthening and magnifying the impact of feminist organizing through the promotion of electronic communications use within the global women's movement. In our last issue of Women'space, Barbara Ann O'Leary discussed why she founded Virtual Sisterhood, described some of its current projects and how to get involved.

Virtual Sisterhood Web Site is where you can find links to all of the current projects, as well as to information about how you can join in this exciting process of global women's networking.

The Virtual Sisterhood Online Strategies Mailing List is currently discussing ways of working together online to further develop our global networking projects. To join the list, send an email message to:   majordomo@igc.apc.org  and in the body of the message type:    subscribe vs-online-strat

What's New:

The latest Virtual Sisterhood WWW Development Team project to put women's groups online is the Women's Internet Project which features the baskets of Kenyan women artisans. This is a project which was initiated in Beijing and reflects the commitment to help empower women globally. Your purchases will enable women to support themselves economically with their traditional craft.

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Part One Autumn 1996
Part Three Autumn 1996