Tasharuk in 2014: Publishing topics on a monthly basis

 We launched Tasharuk last September to collect and share high-quality guides, reports, and other materials that can help citizens use social media for social change more effectively in the Arab region. Since then, and with the support of our partners, we’ve posted more than 400 resources in Arabic and English and received nearly 4,000 unique visitors.

While we’re off to a good start, we want to devote 2014 to making Tasharuk the most accessible and relevant place for learning about digital and social media advocacy on the Web. To this end we’re creating an editorial calendar to focus on a theme a month—in one of our 27 categories or on a topic that you suggest.

We’ll not only collect materials and content, but we also hope to create links and new networks among advocates, organizations, and new civil society groups by surveying experts and practitioners on the resources they like best and on the best examples and biggest challenges they’re facing in their field.

We’re kicking off the year by posting resources related to Media Policy and Internet Governance, including many of the media and telecom laws from around the region. We’re starting here to lay a strong foundation for citizens to raise their awareness about what laws govern media in the Arab world and how these laws and policies affect both our physical and digital lives. This way, we can better position ourselves to call for laws that guarantee our universal rights, including digital rights.

As we mentioned, we’re also seeking your input. Tasharuk is meant to be more than a website; it’s also meant to be a kind of network for media advocates across the region (changes to make the site more social are coming this year). We want to know what topics you’re most interested in and what kinds of resources and information you need to be able to be more effective in your media advocacy. We’ve provided a short form below where you can suggest a resource, which is the same as signing up.

This month we’re calling on you to share your media laws and analysis, as well as recent campaigns and tactics, the challenges you faced and the lessons learned. We’ll be sharing new content every day and will be sure to attribute your contributions to your initiative or organization. We look forward to hearing from you and to working together.