[Imc-birmingham] [Fwd: [Imc-uk-process] reviving/restructuring indymedia uk]

[dougbrum at tiscali.co.uk]

There are some good ideas here mate. But an area which may need more of 
a push is promotion. It seems that there are very few people who are 
dedicated (I don't count myself as one). This means a lot of hard work 
for a few people. Regionaly, could there be a re-launch as a group? Try 
to entice more people to be activily involved with Brum indymedia. This 
could coincide with a re-vamp of the brum site graphically and 
structurally. May be even running training workshops in ICT use for the 
heathens (I do count myself as one). 

Up the Proles!
D

>----Original Message----
>From: shiar at riseup.net
>Date: 04/12/2007 2:58 
>To: "Birmingham Imc"<imc-birmingham at lists.indymedia.org>
>Subj: [Imc-birmingham] [Fwd: [Imc-uk-process] reviving/restructuring	
indymedia uk]
>
>---------------------------- Original Message 
----------------------------
>Subject: [Imc-uk-process] reviving/restructuring indymedia uk
>From:    "Shiar" <shiar at riseup.net>
>Date:    Mon, December 3, 2007 6:43 pm
>To:      imc-uk-process at lists.indymedia.org
>         imc-uk-network at lists.indymedia.org
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>Hi,
>
>I've been silently following the recent heated discussions on various
>lists. Unsurprisingly, they often made me feel bad but also got me
>thinking about the present and future of Indymedia UK (and Indymedia 
in
>general). So here is a summary of what i think is the way forward. 
And
>forgive the long email but i think it's all quite important (of 
course ;).
>
>The problem(s)
>
>Although we're sometimes reluctant to acknowledge it, Indymedia, in 
my and
>others' opinion, is facing many dead ends: structurally, technically,
>politically and in its once-revolutionary presence and relevance to 
the
>movement(s). So unless we acknowledge these problems and seriously 
think
>of ways forward, we can only sit back and sadly witness it dying 
slowly.
>
>Behind these various problems, though, there is imo a bigger 
'problem':
>the fact that the project has grown so much since it started 8 years 
ago,
>and that the world has changed so much, that Indymedia sometimes 
feels
>like a real maze (or mess). Different people seem to want different 
things
>from this great project. I have often noticed that people mean 
different
>things when they say "Indymedia". So it is time, i would humbly 
propose,
>to 'break it up' and think differently.
>
>But before that, let me stress what i think can keep Indymedia
>"revolutionary" and "relevant":
>1.open publishing;
>2.the politics (radical, grassroots etc.);
>3.the collective, collaborative way of working.
>None of these is able to create an Indymedia or hold it together 
without
>the others. If one goes, what  remains is a masquerade.
>
>Break-up
>
>As I said, Indymedia has grown so much and there are already so many
>projects within it. However, some of these projects are imo 
fundamentally
>different from the others and have a different logic. It seems to me 
that
>keeping them 'in the same house' is the core problem.
>
>So my proposal is to break up Indymedia UK into sub-projects, or
>sub-sites, each with its own aims and editorial guidelines, target
>audience, dynamics and everything. And here is what I personally 
think is
>the best way to do that (of course, it's all up for discussion and
>improvement).
>
>1. Indyspatch or IndyNews
>
>We've already seen Indymedia dispatch and phone services during big
>actions. What i'm thinking of is a permanent dispatch facility, made
>easier and more open and widespread. Think of it as an alternative,
>grassroots, open-publishing news agency.
>
>I've thought about this quite a lot and it needs a separate 
discussion
>(how it would work, what kind of news etc.). In principle, there 
would be
>permanent number(s) and email address(es) where people can call, text 
and
>email their brief news as they happen and these go up automatically 
after
>some sort of confirmation (which would be the job of Indy
>admins/volunteers). More importantly, concerned people can receive 
these
>news on their mobile phones in order to go down, act etc. It would
>obviously have topics and regions, i.e. separate newswires or feeds.
>
>Anyway, the main point is: reporting on big actions is not enough any 
more
>imo; we need to think bigger and really be everywhere. It also 
restores
>the main function of Indymedia as a grassroots news 'service'.
>
>2. IndyReports
>
>The typical action reports and middle-column features. And we've 
already
>talked a lot about a non-linear design. No Comments would be allowed 
(this
>will happen elsewhere); only Additions.
>
>Regarding Features, I would argue that experience has shown that, 
unlike
>the Newswire, open publishing (or depending on activists) doesn't 
really
>work for features. So what we need, it seems, is a committed Features
>Working Group that sews reports together and is trusted by the rest 
of the
>collective to represent the views of Indymedia UK where it has to say 
more
>than mere facts (the process of feature-writing will still be public 
and
>open, of course).
>
>3. IndyPost
>
>We've kind of talked about this when discussing the proposed Other 
Press
>topic. But, in addition to commentary on and links to reports in 
other
>alt. media and blogs, this could be the place for what i call Edited
>Reposts (i've done it quite a lot): reposting mainstream news after
>stripping it from the editorial distortion and manipulation; in other
>words, re-writing news we don't normally get from a radical, 
grassroots
>perspective.
>
>The idea is that, while action and community news help cover what the
>mainstream and corporate media  ignore (censorship by omission), this
>would help challenge them in their own game as well, i.e. in the 
things
>they do cover but in a biased or distorted way.
>
>Middle column Features could be, for example, Indymedia 'critiques' 
of
>mainstream coverage of certain events.
>
>4. Indyscussion or Indymedia Discussion Forum
>
>We have discussed comments a lot and tried to come up with solutions, 
but
>they remain one of the biggest and most annoying problems for admins 
and
>'target readers' alike. However, we can't deny people's need to talk 
and
>comment, and i personally think it's  a good thing and sometimes
>good/useful results may come out of it. So the idea is to provide a 
sort
>of open discussion forum for people to discuss the content in other 
Indy
>sections.
>
>This could (or should) be moderated on a more user-based basis (like
>people voting if a comment is offensive etc.). We could also have 
such
>features as the "most popular", "most fruitful" etc. which would help 
us
>get a better idea of our readership, interaction and so on.
>
>5. IndyFoto
>
>Apart from a Photoreports Wire, this could have other interesting 
features
>like Photo Features; featured photo(s) of the day; collections of 
pics on
>certain topics etc. etc.
>
>6. IndyVideo
>
>Similar to IndyFoto. It would also be nice to have a built-in player 
(like
>YouTube) and some encoding/decoding code (like G8 TV, i think).
>
>Ideally, there would be dedicated video-makers piecing together 
videos to
>produce more Indy 'video features' or films.
>
>7. IndyRadio
>
>More important than producing radio shows by certain committed
>individuals, in my opinion, would be allowing people to record and 
post
>their own audio reports and commentary. Then we could easily have 
'audio
>features' pieced together from these audio reports and comments.
>
>8. Indy Calendar
>
>This already exists (thanks to Yossarian) and would ideally become 
the
>'calendar of the movement'.
>
>9. IMC UK History
>
>This, too, was created by Yossarian and others a while ago. However, 
i
>can't see much point in it if we don't really use it to eagerly 
document
>what we do and use this to reflect on and research what we do 
ourselves,
>rather than leaving it to alien academics.
>
>10. Collaborate Workspace
>
>We haven't really worked hard to promote the collective/collaborative
>production of media, the way Wikipedia has done, for example, 
although we
>do have a vast wiki site (i'm not talking about dedicated IMCers). 
Even
>features are often written wholly by one single person, with the 
others
>not even bothering to fix typos.
>
>So I propose we have a section on the UK docs.indy (or even a 
separate
>wiki) as a Collaborative Workspace for 'normal' contributors, where 
they
>can collaborate on writing articles and other things.
>
>11. Have I forgotten anything?
>
>
>Technically speaking
>
>I am aware that all this is very ambitious and needs years of work to
>realise. I am also aware that we already have a shortage of techies 
and
>we're hardly coping with what we have now. But i am hoping that these
>proposals would re-awaken the interest in our techies and bring some 
news
>ones.
>
>Also, there's already a lot of work and thinking being done on new 
Content
>Management Systems (CMS). But IMO we don't really need to have one 
CMS for
>everything; it just makes things more complicated. A lot of these 
things
>already exist. We just need to feed them into each other where 
necessary
>and make sure we keep them under the same umbrella (mutual links, 
similar
>designs etc.).
>
>The startpage of Indymedia UK could simply be nice links to these
>sub-sites, perhaps with a startpage-special for a big current event 
or
>something.
>
>As for regions, I would propose non-linear startpages with sections 
for
>each of these projects. For example, regional newswires could be 
split up
>into two: regional IndyNews and IndyReports (articles from the
>corresponding wires that have that region ticked). It is, of course, 
up to
>the regional imc's what they want to do with their sites.
>
>What's next?
>
>Well, endless discussions on lists then a network meeting where these
>proposals are blocked or, if decided, working towards materialising 
them
>over the next 10 years ;-).
>
>-- 
>Shiar
>
>P.S. Please forward to your local IMC's but all discussions should 
take
>place on the imc-uk-process list.
>
>
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