[Imc-alternatives] any forward motion?

Mon Mar 3 14:08:38 PST 2008

I set up a IMC-Alt group on crabgrass, and they have polling features on
there that work pretty nice. Michael

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm finally getting around to reading my e-mails from the last couple
> weeks.  There's some great stuff here!!  Definitely some forward motion.
>
> I'll address the idea of our site name here, and Michael's other
> questions (regarding code choices, crabgrass and whatnot) in
> different e-mails.
>
> Basically, I've grown accustomed to "alternatives" and have become
> comfortable using it.  I also understand Michael's thoughts about the
> fact that "alternatives" is what we've been calling it, and that kind
> of fits.  However, I think this question will continue to float and
> float until we figure out a way to decide it openly and democratically.
>
> Strypey, since you brought the idea up, would you be willing to set
> up a poll and start coming up with ideas on how to reach a real
> conclusion on the name?
>
> Jay
>
> At 2/21/2008, lancaster-imc at riseup.net wrote:
>>Great to actually receive an email from the list. I posted twice and
>> never
>>saw it pop up. I am a non-tech, like Jay, but I feel I can be helpful in
>>many ways, including research, networking, artistically speaking
>> (design),
>>content production (site as well as publicizing the project via articles
>>to local newswires, etc), marketing and branding.
>>
>>I'm just not a programmer beyond basic html and css.
>>
>>So, on the topic of branding, I think it would be wise to stick with
>>"IMC-Alternatives," as that has been the name circulated via lists and
>>other discussions for the past year or so, and any change would be
>>confusing, to say the least. Plus, "Alternatives" is perfect, when you
>>consider its other applications, such as alternative energy, alternative
>>lifestyles, etc. The IMC-Alternatives Project will inspire the next
>>generation of IMC sites, and hopefully provide the cms code that can be
>>more regularly and easily updated for imcs, much like Drupal and other
>>long-standing codebases.
>>
>>So, I have a few questions:
>>
>>1. Is php cake the agreed upon cms language? If so, the LPIMC
>>(http://lancasterimc.wikispaces.com) tech has built a bare bones site
>> with
>>php cake and has promised to contact Jay soon, probably will work on this
>>project with the other techies. Currently he is building our new-imc site
>>in Drupal, but could be swayed to put energy into IMC-Alt--we have been
>>working on preparing our IMC, mostly in the support of community,
>>documentation, etc for the past year, and are very eager to launch. We
>>want to put our energy into something unique and sustainable. IMC-Alt is
>> a
>>very inspiring project.
>>
>>2. Is there any possibility of any level of collaborative or joint
>>connections between IMC-Alt and Crabgrass (built with ruby on rails) by
>>riseup? I think what they are doing with social-networking is going to be
>>amazing post-alpha, and I wonder if there is a way to create a code-based
>>connection, or in some other way learn from what they are building. I
>>guess I mention that, as a non-techie, because I wonder if what they are
>>doing with social networking could save some of the creative energy
>>towards developing the other aspects of this new IMC website model.
>>https://we.riseup.net
>>
>>3. Riley from IMC-DC joined the chat the other night, and said no one
>>(including me, oops) joined it. Will the regularly planned meet-ups be
>>beginning again soon? I recently joined the IMC-Alternatives project,
>> list
>>and the imc-cms list too.
>>
>>Peace,
>>Michael Hodgson
>>Lancaster Pennsylvania-IMC
>>http://lancasterimc.org
>>http://lancasterimc.wikispaces.com
>>
>> > Kia ora koutou
>> >
>> > I'm back with batteries recharged and share Jay's hopes that
>> > imc-alternatives
>> > 1.0 will hit the web in the near future. For now I'm happy to leave
>> the
>> > experienced geeks working through the imc-cms list to thrash out what
>> sort
>> > of
>> > software would be best to build our site on. I'd like to turn my
>> attention
>> > to
>> > the core business (excuse the yuk corporate speak ;) of an Indymedia
>> site
>> > -
>> > reporting news.
>> >
>> > Over the next few months I aim to pick up on a suggestion made last
>> year -
>> > writing the sorts of stories we want to feature on our proposed
>> > alternatives
>> > site and posting them to Aotearoa Indymedia. Ideally once our site
>> goes
>> > live, I
>> > would be able to continue doing this, and tag things when posting to
>> A-IMC
>> > to be
>> > automatically added to the solutions-wire on the alternatives site.
>> >
>> > For this to work I need to get the A-IMC geeks to add a tag to our
>> topic
>> > categories. So I reckon now would be a good time to confirm a
>> consensus on
>> > the
>> > name of our project and our site, so they can add that name as the
>> tag.
>> > Are we
>> > happy with 'alternatives' or do people have other preferences? There
>> is a
>> > list
>> > of the various suggestions that came out of the last brainstorm on
>> this at
>> > the
>> > bottom of this page:
>> > http://www.openplans.org/projects/imc-alternatives/the-website-vision
>> >
>> > If we don't have consensus on alternatives, what I suggest is we use
>> that
>> > polling tool we were using last year to set times for irc meetings.
>> Maybe
>> > we can
>> > vote to narrow it down to a shortlist, then see if we can get
>> consensus by
>> > discussion from there?
>> >
>> > RnB
>> > Strypes
>> >
>> > Jay wrote:
>> >> Happy new year everyone!
>> >>
>> >> This year, 2008 for all you Gregorians out there, is going to be the
>> >> year of the alternatives website's birth, I know it.  I'm currently
>> >> pinning my hopes on the imc-cms decision to happen really soon (Cake
>> >> is still the front-runner) and for the work around that project by
>> >> indymedia techies to catapult our project forward.  All this is a
>> >> matter for us to discuss on this list, of course, but I'm in the
>> >> hope-pinning mood today.  Below is an update from the imc-cms
>> process.
>> >>
>> >> At 12/31/2007, you wrote:
>> >>>> I was just thinking of y'all.  Any forward motion toward the CMS
>> >>> decision?
>> >>>> There doesn't seem to be much action on the imc-cms list.  Do you
>> >>>> think
>> >>>> things will pick up again soon after new year's festivities?
>> >>
>> >>> From Ryan:
>> >>
>> >>> Yeah, there's good news on this front. There has been a TON of work
>> >>> happening behind-the-scenes on the imc-cms project. I just sent an
>> >>> update e-mail about everything that's been happening to the imc-cms
>> >>> list. Check out these two e-mails:
>> >>>
>> >>> [1]
>> >>> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-cms/2007-December/1231-c8.html
>> >>> [2]
>> >>> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-cms/2007-December/1228-i9.html
>> >>>
>> >>> So, we have an architecture design that would make us 100% secure
>> >>> against server downtime, data loss and server seizures. While this
>> has
>> >>> been talked about for years, we now have actual software picked out
>> >>> for all the different tiers and we even have the beginnings of code
>> >>> prototypes.
>> >>>
>> >>> To illustrate how fast we can go on the front-end tier, Simon (who
>> had
>> >>> never used CakePHP before in his life) learned Cake and implemented
>> >>> almost all the features of an IMC. It took him about 3-1/2 hours to
>> do
>> >>> by himself. You can see this prototype online at:
>> >>> http://indy.anarcho.dk/
>> >>
>> >> etc.
>> >>
>> >> Let's finally make this happen in 2008.
>> >>
>> >> Jay
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> > http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-alternatives
>> >
>>
>>
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