[Imc-alternatives] my status, irc meet, conference call, wiki synchronization and stuff

strypey at riseup.net strypey at riseup.net
Thu Aug 2 02:45:57 UTC 2007 

Kia ora koutou

Warning - long email responding to lots of recent emails to this list!

My current situation is that I need to find a home and move within a week and I
have a bunch of university assignments due. Realistically I'm probably out of
commission for the rest of August and the first half of Sept. This is very
frustrating but as some clever bugger said, 'life is what happens while you're
making other plans'. I can be part of the weekly irc sessions and perhaps
contribute to making design decisions that way? Sorry, I probably can't offer
more at this time.

Jay, this list has muddled along for quite a long time. I remember a couple of
times when I was ready to park the list and give up on Alt-IMC ever getting off
the ground. But now I am have a really good feeling about where this project is
going.

Having coders and servers willing to provide the platform for our proposed site
is fantastic. Just having a group of people with experience in creating and
maintaining activist comms tools bouncing ideas around has been really cool.
It's helping me clarify my ideas about what net-based tools would be most useful
for activist movements and how we can create them.

I think it's important to remember that once we have a site up, we can always
tweak the interface, appearance, user-friendliness etc in response to user
feedback. We don't have to get it perfect the first time. Let's look at the
crucial features we have listed on the wiki (and add any that are missing) and
get a version 0.1 built and into testing, eh?

I think Aaron K's proposal for using his Activism Network software to create a
distributed network sounds like a killer idea. The fact that it's CMS agnostic
is fantastic. I definitely support incorporating this into the Alt-IMC and I'm
keen to see if we can integrate it into Aotearoa IMC when we switch to Drupal
(in fact would it be possible to incorporate it into DadaIMC in the meantime?).

Speaking of Drupal, let us know (imc-aotearoa-tech at lists.indymedia.org) if this
code sprint is going ahead. We may be able to contribute and we want to migrate
from DadaIMC to Drupal ASAP.

Jay wrote:
>> Actually, I think it's 10am on Monday morning for you.  It would be
Sunday afternoon in the U.S. <<

Yup, option 2 (22:00 GMT) is Monday morning (excuse typo). I logged in on Monday
while I was doing a shift at Oblong and had a quick chat to Dave. I will put
this on my calendar for next week, look forward to chatting to some of you?

Also, I like Aaron K's suggestion of a monthly voice conference too. There are a
number of ways we could do this.

* Skype - we know it works but it's proprietary software, using a closed protocol
* WengoPhone - open source Skype clone, uses Wengo's SIP server (or possibly
other SIP server)
* SIP - if someone knows of a free SIP server, you can connect with any SIP
client (there are various GPL SIP clients for all OS)
* Blasterisk - any netphone, uses open source Asterisk server (havn't heard back
from them about getting accounts though)
* Speak Freely is P2P (serverless) netphone licensed under the GPL (no versions
released since 2004 though): http://speak-freely.sourceforge.net/

Maybe we could consider and/or test some of these at the irc meets?

>> I think these should be combined.  Probably into a page called
"Alternatives Volunteers".  From this starting page we could have links to
sub-working groups - like the "Launch Team" or "Design Group" or others. <<

Sounds like a good idea to me. Any time people can put into tidying the wiki
would be much appreciated. Does anyone know of a way to synchronizing our
wikispaces on docs and openplans? If not, can we make a decision on which is
going to be our main space? Things will get messy very quickly if some people
are only adding to docs while others are only using openplans and it makes
unnecessary work for someone to have to manually synch them.

RnB
Strypes

BTW Here's another group of folks thinking about similar solutions to us:
http://journal.planetwork.net/page.php?lab=About

I have sent them the version of the invitation I found here:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-alternatives/2006-October/1009-ha.html

Is this the most up-to-date version? Can someone add this (or a better version)
to the wikis?

Jay wrote:
> At 7/27/2007, you wrote:
>> Kia ora koutou
>>
>> Option 1) is 2am for me which isn't ideal.
>> Option 2) works out as 10am Sunday for me, which I can do. Not this
>> weekend though as I have a volunteer shift ushering at the film
>> festival starting at about half 10.
> 
> Actually, I think it's 10am on Monday morning for you.  It would be 
> Sunday afternoon in the U.S.
> 
> Jay
> 
> 
>> I will also attempt to login to irc and sit in the alternatives
>> channel during Linux Play at Oblong, 3-7pm my time (3-7am TUC).
>>
>> About navigation and design, I've been thinking again about what the
>> next step beyond open-publishing is. I think it might be open design.
>> Check out www.zoho.com. Especially Zoho Creator. This web application
>> enables people to build their own web application by drag-n-drop. This
>> rocks!
>>
>> What I really need is an open source, non-profit, web application I
>> can customize to log me into my text, voice and email account, join
>> pre-determined rooms in irc, provide links to forums I'm following,
>> check the headlines of any blogs or newswires I want to follow (eg the
>> AotearoaIMC and indy.org newswires and features, maybe slashdot etc).
>> I need an interface I can build out of virtual lego blocks with no
>> prior knowledge of the internet, a sorting tool I can use to manage my
>> involvement in alternatives projects while avoiding information
>> overload and reducing the amount of time I need to spend online to
>> contribute to globally effective local action.
>>
>> So what we - as a group - need to design, is the tool that welcomes
>> people and teaches them how to build the infospace that will be useful
>> to them. Of course all this customization will require login accounts.
>> Being an Indymedia site, we also need to provide both content and
>> services which can be used anonymously, to protect users in
>> politically compromising situations. So the welcoming and teaching
>> tool also needs to provide these.
>>
>> It's late and I need to get some sleep but I hope to see some of you
>> in the IRC sometime. I'm probably the outlier in time zones but
>> luckily I keep some whacky hours, just got to remember to login to irc
>> ;)
>>
>> RnB
>> Strypes
>>
>>
>>
>> Quoting Josef Davies-Coates <josef at uniteddiversity.com>:
>>
>>> 2) works best for me. I'm usually asleep at 10am on a Sunday :)
>>>
>>> Saying that, I can't really commit to either, although I can promise to be
>>> around in the channel pretty often because I'm often on IRC and
>>> automatically join alternatives channel whenever I boot up chatzilla :)
>>>
>>> Josef.
>>>
>>> On 27/07/07, Jay <jay at fundamentalchange.net> wrote:
>>>>  Here are some suggested times for weekly check-ins about the Alternatives
>>>> project using http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html.  Please
>>>> indicate which would be best for you.  Since the world is round nowadays,
>>>> there is no good time for everyone.  We could come up with other 
>> suggestoins
>>>> or alternate between these suggestions every so often.
>>>>
>>>> 1) Sunday -- 14:00 UTC
>>>> -- Sydney: midnight Sunday/Monday night
>>>> -- Amsterdam: 4pm Sunday afternoon
>>>> -- London: 3pm Sunday afternoon
>>>> -- Philadelphia: 10am Sunday morning
>>>> -- Seattle/Portland: 7am Sunday morning
>>>>
>>>> 2) Sunday/Monday -- 22:00 GMT
>>>> -- Sydney: 8am Monday morning
>>>> -- Amsterdam: midnight Sunday/Monday
>>>> -- London: 11pm Sunday
>>>> -- Philadelphia: 6pm Sunday
>>>> -- Seattle/Portland: 3pm Sunday
>>>>
>>>> Please let me know if either of these works for you.
>>>>
>>>> Jay
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> At 7/21/2007, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>> These tools may be handy to help organise a suitable time:
>>>>
>>>>  http://www.meetomatic.com/calendar.php
>>>> http://doodle.ch/
>>>>  http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html
>>>>
>>>> Josef.
>>>>
>>>> On 21/07/07, *Jay* <jay at fundamentalchange.net > wrote:
>>>>  Hi alternatives,
>>>>
>>>> At the PhillyIMC web meeting on Thursday we talked about the need to
>>>> add some structure to our communication and really get down to
>>>> business on developing the alternatives site.
>>>>
>>>> I proposed that we (the alternatives IMC team) come up with a time
>>>> each week that we would use for a regular check-in via IRC, and may
>>>> by conference call if the need arises.  These wouldn't be weekly
>>>> "meetings," per se, but we'd have an established time each week when
>>>> anyone who is around could meet be in the #imc-alternatives chat room
>>>> and talk about the week's progress.  We'll then post a short update
>>>> to the imc-alternatives list.
>>>>
>>>> With such an international crowd, finding a time for this regular
>>>> check-in may be tough.  Strypey, maybe you and I could throw around
>>>> some potential times and suggest them to this group?
>>>>
>>>> Jay
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Imc-alternatives mailing list
>>>>  Imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org
>>>>  http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-alternatives
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Josef Davies-Coates
>>>> 07974 88 88 95
>>>> http://uniteddiversity.com
>>>> Together We Have Everything
>>>>
>>>> Have you watched Money as Debt yet?
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/money-as-debt/
>>>>
>>>> Other must-see movies:
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/crude-impact/
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/the-corporation/
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/the-future-of-food/
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/the-end-of-suburbia/
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/the-power-of-community/
>>>>  http://uniteddiversity.com/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised/
>>>>
>>>> What are the most world changing links?
>>>>  http://del.icio.us/tag/100links
>>>>
>>>> More:
>>>> http://del.icio.us/qopi
>>>>  http://youtube.com/jdaviescoates
>>>>  http://myspace.com/jdaviescoates
>>>>  http://people.tribe.net/jdaviescoates
>>>>  http://jdaviescoates.stumbleupon.com/
>>>>  http://www.linkedin.com/in/jdaviescoates
>>>>  http://www.nm-x.com/person/josef-davies-coates
>>>>  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=649756717
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Imc-alternatives mailing list
>>>> Imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org
>>>>  http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-alternatives
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Imc-alternatives mailing list
>>>> Imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org
>>>> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-alternatives
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Josef Davies-Coates
>>> 07974 88 88 95
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com
>>> Together We Have Everything
>>>
>>> Haven't you seen Money as Debt yet?
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/money-as-debt/
>>>
>>> Other must-see movies:
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/crude-impact/
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/the-corporation/
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/the-future-of-food/
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/the-end-of-suburbia/
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/the-power-of-community/
>>> http://uniteddiversity.com/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised/
>>>
>>> What are the most world changing links?
>>> http://del.icio.us/tag/100links
>>>
>>> More:
>>> http://del.icio.us/qopi
>>> http://youtube.com/jdaviescoates
>>> http://myspace.com/jdaviescoates
>>> http://people.tribe.net/jdaviescoates
>>> http://jdaviescoates.stumbleupon.com/
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/jdaviescoates
>>> http://www.nm-x.com/person/josef-davies-coates
>>> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=649756717
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You
>> can only be
>> the Revolution. It is in your spirit or it is nowhere."
>> - Ursula K. LeGuin (The Dispossessed)
>>
>> mobile: 021 11 77 578
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>>
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>> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-alternatives
> 
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