[Imc-alternatives] okay, what do we have to do to get this to happen?

[Jay]

Hi all,

I don't know about the mood surrounding all of you in your various parts of the world, but folks around me in the U.S. are freaking out about the current economic implosion and about what the future will hold.  Over the last few days, for the first time in ... well, forever, people here, from politicians to members of the corporate media to my most mainstream relatives at family events, have begun to openly question the short and long-term viability of Capitalism as the dominant system of global financial exchange.  

Wow.  

If the global nosedive intensifies and broadens into all aspects of public and private life, people aren't going to be talking about alternatives to the dominant structure as a theoretical "what if."  They'll need to do something different, NOW.  Even if the G7 countries find a way to throw several trillion dollars at the banks and level out the stock markets, the question "if not the world we have now, then what?" is out there in the otherwise apolitical mainstream in a way it hasn't been for a long time.  (At least since the year 2000 when my grandmother asked me over the whitefish and lox platter at brunch, "What on earth can we do about the IMF?")   

So, what do we need to do to finally turn talk into action and get the alternatives site up immediately?  Certainly by the December deadline Strypey suggested, if not much sooner?  Do all the pieces of the global indymedia code rebuild have to come together for even the most basic site to go up, or can we start with something fast and on the surface that will allow us to stop talking endlessly about code and start doing the work of reaching out to people who are making a positive difference in the world to enable them to join forces through this project?  If it's a matter of the coders not having time, is this the kind of scenario in which hiring someone for a week to work full time on the nuts and bolts of this -- a techie friend who is between jobs, perhaps? -- will make all the difference?  If so, I'd be willing to take some money out from under my mattress and get it to someone to make that happen.  Or, if there's something else that will work, for
 gosh sakes, let's identify it and do it.

Techies of the world, I know you're overburdened and overwhelmed.  Is there some missing piece of the puzzle that others of us can fill?  What can we do to share the burdens or find new people who have the time to put in the immediate focus that will turn our talk into something tangible? 

Ideas?  Thoughts?  Help!  

Vascillating between overwhelming concern and kinetically irrational hope,
Jay