[Imc-communication] Belgium: proposal

[han at indymedia.be]

Hi Andres.  We discussed your questions briefly by e-mail and this is as
far as we got.

> 1. Would imc-be be willing to participate in / contribute regularly to / 
> cooperate with a belgian syndication site, once established?

The Liege & ovl dissafiliation proposal states clearly that want to
exclude all people involved in belgium.indymedia.org. 
This why we write in our proposal: "We would like it if the local imc's respect
imc-belgium as an autonomous imc, just like we do in relation to them.
The first step to be made is the mutual acceptance of the existence of
each other."

Yet, we never excluded or oposed that artickles, features,... would be
part if this syndication site.  Yet we always stated that for different
reasons for the time being we would not invest or take part in such a
project.

> 2. You say that your collective wants to retain the 
> belgium.indymedia.org url. What appropriate url would you suggest for 
> the syndication site?

For the time being we want to retain the url belgium indymedia.org as
the belgium collective is a national collective.  People from Brussel,
Liege, Gent (ovl), Antwerpen, Kortrijk (wvl), Tielt (wvl), Limburg, Leuven,
Aarschot, Charleroi,... participate in our meetings and produce
contributions on what happens in their region. 
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-be

It should be clear that is not up to us to make a choice for the url of
the syndication project, only those who are involved can make such a
choise.  So we can only "suggest".

be.indymedia.org would propbaly the best suggestion, it is not in use
and clearly states that it is belgium.  
But there are other options.
Belgie.indy, Belgique.indy are the dutch en french names for belgium.
Those collectives who are working on the syndication website eaven have
a concensus on the url www.mediacitivsm.be:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-be/2004-October/1014-k8.html   

> 3. Are there any circumstances in which your collective would consider 
> letting the belgium.indymedia.org url go to the syndication site, 
> adopting a different url for yourselves?

We feel it is impossible to answer such a question as we are we are
talking pure speculation.
We feel the first stepts to be taken are:
1. Mutual acceptance of the existence of each other
2. Start talking with each-other with or without (local)mediation
3. We also believe it's perfectly possible to work  together in some
fields/occasions/actions etc. imc-be is pro  collaboration on a
voluntary basis, with no strings attached. 

If these steps can be taken and receive time to develop nothing is excluded.

And if in the mean time some people want to start working on this
syndications project we will not oppose this...

Greets
		han