[Imc-africa] Larger story on WSF and Indymedia Convergence

[Jay]

Hi Danielle, Dunk and everyone,

Many good thoughts to both of you and to everyone inside and outside 
of Kenya who worked on this project.

At 1/30/2007, Danielle Chynoweth wrote:
>That's right - I couldn't even upload that one story to the site - it
>sent it to this list.
>Thanks Dunk.
>
>I have a great interview with Macheria - 1.5 hours of eloquent
>commentary - which I can get to you.  We uploaded 10-12 pieces to the
>radio streaming server - not sure what lines got crossed with that.
>
>At some point, with 20+ African delegates asking for radio production
>training - and many all night editing workshops, I had to decide -
>should I take several days to wrestle with the internet only to fail
>again or forget web access and focus on training and relationship
>building?  I did the later - as did most of my cohorts.  Too bad for
>the international community who heard nothing about the WSF - either
>from Indymedia or the likes of NPR.  In the long run, I think our
>focus on skill sharing, building IMC Kenya, and finishing the
>stations, was the right thing.

Dunk, I hear your frustration with not being able to get good content 
to use for the global radio project.  Danielle, I also definitely 
hear what you're saying about having to make the choice about where 
to put your energy while you were (are?) in Kenya.

This discussion reminds me of the issue that has come up time and 
again since the start of Indymedia -- is our goal to be independent 
journalists, to get the word out about un-reported essential events, 
or are we involved to be media organizers, to spend our time 
empowering others to make media themselves.  The two approaches 
aren't usually mutually exclusive, but sometimes with limited hours 
you have to make a distinct call.

My personal take is that I believe the investment of time in 
skill-sharing and teaching will absolutely pay off in the long run, 
and in ways far beyond the effect of immediate reports from the 
WSF.  The obvious hope is that the work the wsf-imc did to share 
skills with IMC-Kenya will enable Kenyan IMC activists and people 
from Kibera to engage in a long-term relationship that will enable 
the Kibera story to be told.  I'm getting the sense the WSF-IMC did 
great work in this respect.

On the other hand, I think we're all definitely looking forward to 
seeing and hearing reports from the WSF-IMC come out over the next 
couple weeks.  My advice to those who were in Kenya, from my having 
gone to convergences and having come back with raw media in hand, is 
to push through your exhaustion and excitement right when you get 
home and do as much editing as you can as fast as you can, until you 
drop!  Otherwise, in my experience, great raw interviews will sit 
around forever and never see the light of day.  :)))))

I'm sorry to hear there wasn't any kind of alternative forum with the 
Kibera residents.  I don't think planning a comprehensive alternative 
forum is something the IMC could have done, so my disappointment is 
directed at the WSF organization which seems to have been both 
overwhelmed and non-responsive to Kibera from the beginning.  In the 
end I see Danielle met with Macheria and I hope others from the IMC 
met others from Kibera to connect them with the IMC-Kenya's ongoing 
work, so I really hope that kind of connection will continue in 
Nairobi and make something positive come together in the long run.


>Now the dilemma is that I have stepped out of one community - IMC
>Kenya, which is largely NOT online - into this community, the online
>one.  Our discussions will largely be about, but without input from,
>the on-the-ground community in Kenya.  We have a contact list from our
>work and I hope to send an invite to join this listserv to all our
>contacts to try to bridge this gap in conversation.  I think we should
>also adopt the communications technology of choice in Kenya - text
>messaging - as we continue the conversation.  Anyone know how to send
>out mass SMSs to a list of numbers for free?

I don't know much about SMS, but I agree that we should definitely 
use the communication mechanism people in Kenya, rather than just 
assuming there's as much internet connectivity there as anywhere 
else.  If posting to the Kenya indymedia site was so difficult during 
the forum, with all that attention focused on building Nairobi 
infrastructure to support the WSF, I can only imagine how hard 
regularly updating the site from Nairobi could be.  I'm sure that was 
something people discussed over the last couple weeks, and i don't 
know if anyone came up with any good solutions.

Jay

>- Danielle
>
>
>
>
>On 1/30/07, Fun Peace <fuspey at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > i was the one who posted the article on imc-kenya and i tried to update the
> > site with any relevant info that was coming from wsf or about it, ie our
> > work in barcelona and others in france and any links to reports in other
> > media. i also tried to report from kibera what i heard back from macharia
> >
> > havent heard much back from imc-africa, would be interested in hearing
> > their/your views of our attempts to horizontalise wsf, our 
> attempts at the 3
> > way radio show,  and how better output while wsf was on could have been
> > achieved:  i checked the ftp folder and found no audio so we could not play
> > files, in the end we played some stuff from cameroon.
> >
> > dunk
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Danielle Chynoweth <arthousefarm at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  I strongly oppose a story about the robbery as the key story about the
> > Indymedia convergence and WSF. For those who experienced it, this
> > robbery was a minor set back, and paled in comparison to the breadth
> > and depth of work we did together.
> >
> > Our reporting focused on work in the slums - voices largely excluded
> > from the WSF, conversations about Indymedia in Africa as part of our
> > convergence, and interviews at the WSF of people working on grassroots
> > social movements around the world.
> >
> > I have 20 hours of audio, by African delegates new to Indymedia and
> > audio production, that due to many technical complications in Nairobi
> > did not make get condensed into a piece. I am also working on an
> > article. I would like to see coverage that stitches together many
> > voices and perspectives.
> >
> > In retrospect, I wish my one article that made it through to
> > kenya.indymedia.org (20+ uploads failed, this one succeeded) that
> > mentioned the robbery had never gone through.
> >
> > I have many things to say on this list - observations,
> > recommendations, stories. In the coming days, I hope to get a chance
> > to say more.
> >
> > - Danielle
> > - Urbana IMC
> >
> >
> > --
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:59:16 +0300
> > From: "Josh Marcus"
> > Subject: Re: [Imc-africa] BLOCK Re: PROPOSED: WSF IndyMedia
> >  Center/Radio Station Robbed by Gunmen
> >
> > Hello there,
> >
> > I'd like to support Peter's idea of a broader feature produced later,
> > which can include more of the reporting done from the WSF. I was a
> > part of the convergence in Nairobi (and am now in Maseno near Kisumu,
> > with the team helping to build a second station) and we have a lot of
> > great coverage -- including mp3s of the Radio Huru broadcast -- which
> > we have not been able to get online due to the scarcity of good
> > internet connections. It would be great to give us a chance to get
> > that online -- and for others to get their coverage online -- and put
> > up a representative feature of the full convergence and the coverage
> > that was done.
> >
> > --j
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