[imc-cms] hello from imc-alternatives

[Jay]

Hi imc-cms!

This is Jay from Philadelphia, and from the imc-alternatives project, 
which you may or may not have heard of.  (Imc-alternatives, I mean, 
not Philadelphia. :)

At techmeet, Strypey and Nick from the Alternatives working group 
passed along a proposal that would weave the planned Alternatives IMC 
into the tech group that is building Indymedia's new global CMS and 
architecture.  I'll post the proposal below so you can read it and 
get some background.

The Alternatives project is an idea that has been developing for a 
long while.  We're at a stage now where the only logical next step is 
to build our web site.  We have the means to do that on our own in 
Drupal, but are really intrigued by the unified CMS idea and would be 
very excited to work with you on that instead.

We're proposing that those who are building the new CMS use the 
imc-alternatives site as a "proof of concept" prototype to show that 
the new CMS and architecture can work for IMCs throughout the 
network.  In exchange, we would work with you on issues that we've 
been exploring for a long time, like content, navigation and design, 
enabling us to build a next generation IMC site from the bottom up.

We know there is a huge amount of work that needs to go into building 
the new CMS and that our proposal is far from the most important 
piece of that puzzle.  Still, I'd love to figure out a way, sooner 
rather than later (meaning within a few weeks rather than in many 
months), to reach a definitive decision about whether we can work 
together at this stage.  If the timing isn't right for this to happen 
we'd be sad, but then we'd know we should build our site in Drupal 
and join in the universal CMS fun later.

Ryan is on the alternatives e-mail list 
(imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org) and we've talked at length 
about all this stuff.  I'd also love to communicate with others who 
will be working on the new CMS so we can all get excited about the 
possibilities.

Please e-mail me or the alternatives list with any thoughts or questions!
Jay

***

THE ALTERNATIVES IMC -- A NEW GLOBAL INDYMEDIA PROJECT FOR A NEW INDYMEDIA

SUMMARY:
The Indymedia Alternatives project is a new globally-organized 
topic-based IMC that intends to be a "next generation" IMC site, both 
in its content and its technical architecture.  The Alternatives IMC 
will focus on positive steps people are taking around the world to 
create viable alternatives to the current social, political and 
economic structures.  It intends to not only be a hub for information 
about these Alternatives, but a networking hub for the community of 
those who are actively building them.

We are proposing that at Techmeet global IMC techies agree to join 
forces with us to build the Alternatives site as an example of the 
new, re-energized and reorganized Indymedia.

While imc techies have been working hard to reconceive Indymedia's 
global technical infrastructure, IMC Alternatives organizers, working 
through "imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org" list, have been 
reworking Indymedia's approach to content.  The proposed Alternatives 
site will have three sections:

-- "News": an open-publishing "SolutionsWire" and news features about 
Alternatives projects worldwide
-- "Knowledge": a place for sharing practical "how-to" information 
about how to build these alternatives, much like WikiHow
-- "Network": an area for individuals, organizations and networks 
working toward building these alternatives to have home pages, to 
have access to practical tools that will help them in their work 
(wiki project pages so they can work together online, a 
Craiglist-style database of wants and needs, etc.), and to 
communicate with one another and to develop a community that 
functions both online and in the real world.

Some basic design sketches can be found at: http://thunderwhip.com/imc/

General information about the Alternatives project can be found at 
"http://www.openplans.org/projects/imc-alternatives".

The Alternatives project looks forward to working with Imc-tech in 
whatever way is most productive for both it and the Indymedia network 
as a whole.  Feel free to contact the imc-alternatives list 
(imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org) or Jay 
jay at fundamentalchange.net with any questions.

Enjoy Techmeet!

***

-- Alternatives IMC History and Vision

The idea for an Alternatives IMC project began way back in 2001 when 
some organizers at the PhillyIMC, eager to post news on Indymedia 
that didn't focus on violence at anti-globalization convergences, 
developed an "Alternatives to Corporate Globalization" feature 
page.  This page had information about positive alternatives to the 
current dominant social, political and economic structures, presented 
in a way that was intended to inspire the sharing of information 
among those who were active in creating these alternatives.  The page 
presented a center column for a main feature and offered an open 
newswire for information about these topics.  Unfortunately, one of 
the first drafts of the page went up on September 10, 2001.  The next 
day, some stuff happened that provided a distraction from anything 
positive or particularly inspiring for a long time.  Oh well.

Every so often in subsequent years a small group composed of 
activists from around the Indymedia world communicated about the idea 
of reviving the Alternatives feature and expanding it into a global 
topic-based "Alternatives IMC."  The idea really picked up again in 
2005.  By then, the rest of the world had come around to the 
participatory "web 2.0" approach that indymedia had pioneered.  Also 
by then, IMC sites appeared to have stagnated technologically.  The 
Alt-IMC team decided to conceive a "next generation" Indymedia site 
that would bring Indymedia back to the cutting edge of internet 
technology, merging content about the same kind of inspiring 
information the PhillyIMC feature had presented with blogs, wikis and 
other participatory ways for users to contribute content.

But members of the Alt-IMC weren't just interested in updating the 
tech side of indymedia.  The global movement for social change is not 
what it was when Indymedia began.  For too many years the bulk of the 
movement has been reacting, reacting, reacting to all the awful 
things that happen in the world, focusing more on the uphill battle 
we all have to fight than on the actual change people are making in 
their communities.  We believe the global movement for change can 
advance beyond this reactionism by focusing on very radical advances 
by those who are working every day to bring about real fundamental change.

The Alt-IMC team wants to create a site that will be a useful, 
empowering environment for those who are working toward implementing 
these alternatives.  It will be not just be a news site, but it will 
be a place for people to learn about alternatives and to use that 
information, as well as web-based tools the site offers, to make 
change happen in the real world.  While the general public will be 
able to visit this site for news about alternatives, the core users 
of the site will be activists who will use the networking functions 
of the site to exchange practical information and develop networks 
that generate off-line social, political and economic change.

-- More Than Just a News Site: Merging "SolutionsWire," 
"KnowledgeBase" and "Social Justice Networking"

Indymedia has proven to be a great venue for exciting, albeit 
fleeting "breaking news" about progressive activism and global 
movements for justice.  However, on most Indymedia sites, when an 
article is bumped from the front page of the newswire it disappears 
into a deep abyss, likely to never be seen again.   This may be 
sufficient for those who visit indymedia sites to get the latest 
information, but not for anyone who wants to accumulate knowledge on 
any particular topic.

To enable the Alternatives IMC site to move beyond the use of 
Indymedia just for fleeting newswire articles, the Alt-IMC team wants 
to blend two types of information: the News (including the 
"SolutionsWire") and the "Knowledge Base."

The "News" section of the Alternatives site will include both 
breaking news (the "SolutionsWire") and longer features about 
Alternatives-oriented projects.

The SolutionsWire will be a traditional Indymedia open newswire 
available on the front page of the Alternatives site composed of 
alternatives-oriented news and information contributed by site 
visitors and users.  (Open indymedia newswires are still the heart 
and soul of the network.  We don't want to do away with the concept 
of participatory news, but to build on it.)

With little reason to stay on a local IMC site after viewing the 
headlines on the front page, most visitors surf away.  The Alt-IMC 
site wants users to develop a completely different relationship with 
Indymedia, and therefore, through the site, with each other.  So, in 
addition to the News section, the Alt-IMC site will feature something 
we're calling the "KnowledgeBase," which will be a place for users to 
develop a resource for accumulated knowledge about 
Alternatives.  This would be something analogous to WikiHow, with 
user-updated wiki pages featuring practical imformation and hands-on 
guides about how to implement the alternatives in question.  The 
knowledge base will grow and improve as more users become part of the 
Alt-IMC community, and become an indispensable resource for those 
want to generate change.

While interplay between the different kinds of information in the 
News section and the KnowledgeBase will be exciting, the Alt-IMC team 
wants the Alt-IMC site to be more than just a place for 
information.  The most essential element of the Alt-IMC site -- and 
its greatest departure from traditional IMC sites -- would be its 
emphasis on social networking ("social justice networking?") among 
individuals, organizations and even international networks of those 
who are working for change.

The Alt-IMC site would provide tools that would enable those who are 
working toward implementing the alternatives to meet each other, 
share ideas, work together on projects (through wiki project pages) 
and develop into empowering, cohesive communities.  Individuals would 
be able to create their own home pages, participate in developing the 
knowledge base and join groups of people who are working toward the 
same goals.  Organizations would be able to use the Alt-IMC as an 
internal home base, using the tools provided such as mailing lists, 
calendars, wiki project pages and on-line decision-making software, 
to facilitate their orgainzing.  Networks would be able to use the 
site as a focal point through which to communicate and make unified 
decisions.

The Alt-IMC will encourage individual users and active organizations 
to build community through the site, and to develop this online 
community into off-line communities that will generate actual 
change.  While this does sound different than the focus of most 
current IMC sites, if you remember the earliest days of Indymedia and 
of "anti-globalization" as a whole, the most exciting and empowering 
part of Indymedia was not the random accumulation of information, but 
the communities of activists that came together locally, nationally, 
and globally, through IMC sites everywhere to use that information to 
make the world a better place.  Connecting through IMC sites inspired 
people from around the world to develop consciousness of ourselves as 
being part of a powerful and growing movement.  The Alt-IMC team 
believes in the vast potential energy of this kind of global 
community; we would like to see the "next generation" Indymedia sites 
enable this community to redevelop, to nurture it and to provide 
tools that will enable it to continue to accompish great things.

You can see some basic design sketches for the Alternatives site here:
-- the home page: http://thunderwhip.com/imc/Home-Page.jpg
-- the main news page: http://thunderwhip.com/imc/News-Page.jpg
-- the main networking page: http://thunderwhip.com/imc/Network-Page.jpg
-- an article page:
http://thunderwhip.com/imc/Article-Page.jpg
-- conceptual map: http://thunderwhip.com/imc/conceptualmap.gif
-- notes (http://thunderwhip.com/imc/Notes-about-these-sketches.jpg)

For more detail about how individuals and organizations could use the 
Alt-IMC site is at 
"http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-alternatives/2007-March/0331-t1.html". 
More about how networks could use the site is at 
"http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-alternatives/2007-April/0406-y0.html". 
Also, here is a list of "user-stories" that Josh M and others 
developed to aid in module development by attaching narratives to the 
different proposed uses of the site: 
"http://www.openplans.org/projects/imc-alternatives/user-stories"]

-- The Tech Infrastructure and Game Plan

The Alt-IMC team is composed of inviduals from around the world who 
are or have been involved in the Indymedia network.  Some of us are 
technically non-proficient, and will focus on content 
development.  We also have volunteers who work in Plone (like Dave 
from EngageMedia), Drupal (like Ekes from the imc-drupal-dev list) 
and Indycore (Dimitris from Athens).  We talked extensively about 
which codebase to use for the site, and came to the initial 
conclusion that Drupal had a substantial development community, and 
the quickest learning curve for new users.  We didn't consider 
working in CakePHP, though now we're learning about the benefits of 
the CakePHP framework.

Over the last several months the Alt-IMC team has been in 
communication with the PhillyIMC, which is rebuilding its website 
using Drupal.  The general plan has been for the Alt-IMC to use the 
basic PhillyIMC drupal installation as a start and add modules that 
would allow our site to fulfill more and more of the things outlined 
above as we go along.  We have also talked about blending this Drupal 
site with already-established activist/social networking software, 
such a ActivismNetwork: 
"http://www.activismnetwork.org/ourproject.html"  (Aaron K., who 
developed Activism Network, is part of the Alt-IMC team), or 
something like Crabgrass (http://crabgrass.riseup.net).  This would 
enable us to not have to develop our own networking software from scratch.

A few months ago the PhillyIMC's Drupal site opened.  So far the 
Alt-IMC team hasn't put much energy building upon it.  We are still 
discussing the idea of trying to work within whatever unified CMS 
framework the core indymedia tech team chooses.

-- A Pitch for Indymedia Techies to Try Out the New Unified CMS by 
Building the Atlernatives IMC Site.

Whatever code is chosen as Indymedia's unified CMS, after discussing 
all the implications, the Alt-IMC team may be interested in offering 
itself up as an exciting test site to be built in that code.  We 
understand the appeal of remaking current IMC sites with new 
underlying code.  After that work is done, or ideally, as it's being 
done, we believe the Alternatives IMC would be a tremendous test site 
for the new unified Indymedia CMS.

** So, we propose that the global indymedia techs enthusiastically 
join forces with the Alternatives IMC group to build a dynamic new 
site that will represent an advance for Indymedia, both in content 
and technology. **

As described above, the Alt-IMC site will blend of a traditional IMC 
news site with the kind of activist networking that made Indymedia 
such a community in the first place.  The Alt-IMC will be both new 
technology for indymedia, and an exciting political advance, taking 
focus off of "what we're against" and shining a light on "what we're 
for."  Working on the Alt-Indy site would enable Indymedia techs to 
be involved in both "Web 2.0" and "Movement for Global Justice 2.0".

  A wikipage with basic information about the project can be found at 
"http://www.openplans.org/projects/imc-alternatives".  The 
Alternatives IMC team communicates via the 
"imc-alternatives at lists.indymedia.org" list.  Please send relevant 
responses to the list.

I'm not personally on any of the imc tech lists, so if you want to 
communicate individually please cc me on any responses, or feel free 
to contact me at "jay at fundamentalchange.net".

Thank you so much for your time.
Jay