[Imc-communication] [IMC-Tech] oy, I meant "where are we headed" essay for the "indybook

[Jay]

At 8/5/2006, John Milton wrote:
>Hi Jay:
>
>Should there be a chapter in there somwhere on "the dark side", maybe a 
>working title could be "The disfunction function" :{
>
>What I mean is that there have been many cases of collectives ripping 
>themselves apart, factionalising, etc. Enough that it should be documented 
>for future ref.

That sounds like a really good idea.  It would be a really fascinating 
chapter.  Useful too.  Even if it's not something that fits into the book, 
we should do a better job of documenting and learning from the network's 
dysfunction.
Jay

>Jay wrote:
>>Hi imc-communication and imc-tech,
>>This is Jay from the Philadelphia IMC and the new-imc working 
>>group.  I've been asked by the folks who are working on the "indybook" 
>>project (read below or look through the imc-commuincation archives for 
>>some discussion about it) to help work on a very short essay about the 
>>future of the Indymedia network -- how are we developing?  where are we 
>>headed?  what will indymedia may look like when we get there?  I'm 
>>talking organizationally, politically, technically, logistically, etc., 
>>as well as grand visions for where we're going.
>>My brain is not big enough to comprehend all the infinite possible 
>>answers to those questions, and I'm sure many of you have been thinking 
>>about similar things, so I think the only way for me to get a sense of 
>>where to begin is to ask for input.  Have you been thinking big thoughts 
>>about the future of indymedia?  If so, would you be interested in 
>>sharing  some of your thoughts with me?
>>I'm not looking to artificially inspire a big "where are we headed" 
>>conversation on either imc-communication or imc-tech -- this may be a 
>>good time for that, but it may not -- so please e-mail me directly if 
>>you'd like to share some thoughts: "idiot at jaysand.com".  (also, note that 
>>I'm not subscribed to the imc-tech list.)  If there's enough enthusiasm, 
>>maybe I'll put together a "where is indymedia headed" wiki where people 
>>can add their thoughts in a more public fashion.  Right now, I'm not 
>>looking for big public statements, just some of your thoughts to inspire 
>>the writing of a relatively short article.
>>If you'd like to be part of this in any way, e-mail me.  The deadline is 
>>September 1, so I'd like to start communicating really soon.
>>Jay
>>P.S. I don't know anything about the Indybook project, so don't ask me 
>>details.  Visit "indybook.org" for some more information.
>>
>>
>>>The following can also be found in English, Spanish and French (an
>>>hopefully more languages soon) at www.indybook.org.
>>>
>>>Susan
>>>
>>>
>>>Hello everyone,
>>>
>>>In winter of 2005, at the U.S. IMC conference in Austin, members of the
>>>NYC IMC print team spoke about conversations that they had been having
>>>with a left-wing indie publisher in New York called Disinfo about putting
>>>together a book on Indymedia. There were a number of concerns mentioned
>>>about the project as it had been conceived at that point. After months
>>>more of discussion and reflection we've come up with a plan.
>>>
>>>The purpose of this letter is to:
>>>
>>>    * Inform members of Indymedia about the project;
>>>    * Put out an initial call for submissions.
>>>
>>>In our proposal to Disinfo we wrote: "This book would not attempt to be
>>>the definitive statement on Indymedia. Rather, it would be an overview of
>>>some of the triumphs and struggles of the network over the past
>>>five-and-a-half years. Its entries would range from dramatic,
>>>stream-of-thought, first-person pieces to more analytic chapters on the
>>>meaning of Indymedia. The book, while thoughtful, would avoid being overly
>>>academic and would be graphic/picture heavy."
>>>
>>>We are excited at the prospect of being able to help the network begin to
>>>tell its amazing story to the world. The vast majority of the book will be
>>>original pieces written by IMC participants and friends of Indymedia with
>>>excerpted material from IMC newswires. While the book will be written in
>>>English, we want it to reflect the entire network, and so we will be
>>>soliciting submissions of material from all IMCs. In the coming weeks, we
>>>will also be sending out a questionnaire to all IMCs to find out a little
>>>about each IMC's history, current status, what issues you tend to cover,
>>>frequency of publishing, etc.
>>>
>>>The book collective working on this project consists mostly of members of
>>>the NYC IMC print team, which also publishes The Indypendent
>>>(indypendent.org). Our research team will be seeking out material
>>>published on the newswires and other IMC publications during key moments
>>>in IMC history, but we're going to need help! Guidance on where to find
>>>great material will be much appreciated.
>>>
>>>We want to make clear that this book will have an open submission process;
>>>everyone reading this can and should contribute something about Indymedia
>>>if they feel so inspired and should pass this on to others who may also be
>>>interested. Please see below for submission guidelines, a general outline
>>>of the book, and details on the finance and distribution plan, as well as
>>>on the rights and permissions practices for the book. Please contact us if
>>>you can help with translating this document into other languages.
>>>
>>>After reviewing the following information, please send any questions,
>>>suggestions or submissions to indybook at gmail.com.
>>>
>>>Thanks for your time and consideration,
>>>
>>>The Indy Book Collective
>>>
>>>Outline for the Indy Book Project
>>>
>>>    * Introduction
>>>    * History
>>>    * Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges
>>>    * Case Studies
>>>    * Multimedia & Technology
>>>    * How-To (DIY)
>>>
>>>NOTE: The following chapter descriptions are subject to change as people
>>>send in queries and suggestions. Submissions can tackle one or more
>>>aspects of a chapter's topic or attempt to deal with the entire subject in
>>>one comprehensive essay. Please see below for full submission guidelines.
>>>
>>>Prologue: Excerpt from Subcomandante Marcos's 1997 statement on the need
>>>for a new intercontinental media network that enables ordinary people who
>>>resist from below to share their stories.
>>>http://www.tmcrew.org/chiapas/e_media1.htm
>>>
>>>I. Introduction
>>>An opening essay that touches on the significance of the Indymedia
>>>movement and places it in the larger social and political milieu of the
>>>early 21st century.
>>>
>>>II. History
>>>
>>>   1. Roots of Indymedia
>>>      A look at how Indymedia's emergence was rooted in a wide arrary of
>>>alternative media projects that developed over many years and across
>>>several continents.
>>>
>>>   2. Seattle
>>>      A look at the pre-WTO organizing that went on in Seattle, what
>>>people were hoping to accomplish, how it all came together, what it was
>>>like during the week of WTO and what lessons were learned from the
>>>experience.
>>>      Supplemental material: Posts and photos from during the WTO.
>>>
>>>   3. Exploding Growth
>>>      A look at how the IMC rapidly became a worldwide movement in the
>>>aftermath of Seattle.
>>>      Supplemental material: Indymedia timeline, photos of early IMC
>>>websites, publications, meetings, etc.
>>>
>>>   4. IMC and social movements
>>>      The IMC and the Global Justice movement both burst into the popular
>>>consciousness at the same time. How did the two movements grow
>>>together, inform and influence each other? How has IMC's
>>>relationship to social movements evolved over the years?
>>>
>>>   5. IMC and the Cyberleft
>>>      Explore the strengths and the weaknesses of the post-industrial
>>>Left, the rise of decentralized, Internet-based organizing, where
>>>Indymedia fits in this milieu and what it needs to do to avoid some of the
>>>pitfalls of other contemporary movements on the Cyberleft.
>>>
>>>   6. Indymedia and the Anarchist Tradition
>>>      A look at how Indymedia's organizational is heavily influenced by
>>>DIY anarchist culture.
>>>
>>>III. Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges
>>>
>>>   1. Who Makes Up Indymedia?
>>>      Demographics and geography: Why Indymedia tends to be made up of
>>>certain kinds of people (white, male, with access to relatively high level
>>>of resources), self-selecting filters; more narrowly focused IMCs versus
>>>those integrated into local communities.
>>>
>>>   2. IMC and race/gender/class
>>>      How have issues of race, class and gender been addressed at
>>>Indymedia? Have advances been made toward creating a more inclusive and
>>>empowering culture for all inside the network? If so, where? And how? If
>>>not, why not?
>>>
>>>   3. Who's Reading Indymedia?
>>>      An examination of what fragmentary records exist to develop an
>>>estimate of how many people use Indymedia (both on normal days and when
>>>there are big protests happening) and how much impact the
>>>network may have. Also look at the challenges of moving from
>>>crisis-driven coverage toward consistent, daily activity.
>>>      Supplemental materials: Solicit responses from local IMCs throughout
>>>the network about how they've become more rooted in their
>>>communities and on what people consider to be the greatest obstacles or
>>>challenges they've faced in their work with an IMC.
>>>
>>>   4. IMC and the participatory journalism movement
>>>      Traditional journalism is facing unprecedented challenges from
>>>ordinary citizens seeking to "be the media" This chapter will
>>>consider the forces driving this, compare and contrast Indymedia
>>>with other citizen journalism initiatives and explore the unique
>>>contributions that Indymedia has made to the citizen-journalism
>>>movements around the world.
>>>      Supplemental Materials: Solicit responses from local IMCs throughout
>>>the network about what they see as their greatest achievements to
>>>date; stories they covered that made an impact in their community or
>>>country, initiatives they took to empower people to "become the
>>>media," etc.
>>>
>>>   5. IMC and State Repression
>>>      In 2005, British law enforcement officials seized the UK Indymedia
>>>server (which housed 20 other IMC websites) at the behest of the
>>>FBI...Indymedia has been targeted repeatedly by law enforcement
>>>since its inception with IMC journalists being beaten, tear-gassed and
>>>arrested while trying to cover demonstrations...IMC has also
>>>been subpoenaed for its weblogs by police looking to track the
>>>origins of specific posts...Seattle IMC in April 2001...NYC
>>>investigated by NYPD and Secret Service in 2004...Look at how IMC
>>>has responded to legal threats and how it radically decentralized
>>>its activities and decided to stop logging IP addresses.
>>>
>>>IV. Indymedia in Action: Potential Case Studies
>>>
>>>   1. Genoa G8 Protests
>>>
>>>   2. Indymedia in the Global South
>>>
>>>   3. Argentina Uprising
>>>
>>>   4. People Power in Bolivia
>>>
>>>   5. The Birth of Venezuela IMC
>>>
>>>   6. IMC in Africa
>>>
>>>   7. Chiapas: Indymedia Takes Root in the Home of the Zapatistas
>>>
>>>   8. IMC in the Middle East
>>>
>>>   9. From UK to United Kollectives: Decentralization in Britain
>>>
>>>  10. IMC in Europe
>>>
>>>  11. IMC in Asia and Oceania
>>>
>>>  12. Responding to 9/11: NYC-IMC
>>>
>>>  13. Responding to Hurricane Katrina
>>>
>>>  14. US Indymedia in the Bush Era
>>>
>>>  15. UC IMC Buys the Post Office
>>>
>>>V. Multimedia and Technology
>>>
>>>   1. Reflections on IMC Audio Projects
>>>      How have IMC radio projects both blended into and made unique
>>>contributions to the larger movement to free the airwaves from
>>>corporate and/or government-dominated broadcasting...Look at both
>>>ongoing projects and special projects around convergences.
>>>
>>>   2. Reflections on IMC Video Projects
>>>      Cable access shows...Vblogging...Video IMCistas have also
>>>collaborated to produce more than a dozen feature-length
>>>documentaries... Documentaries preserve a part of the movement's
>>>collective history, but what has been their overall
>>>impact?...Challenges of building distribution networks...a short
>>>history of IMC Newsreel, etc.
>>>
>>>   3. Reflections on IMC Tech
>>>      The creation of Active code and the open publishing newswire...What
>>>was novel about IMC in 1999? What was it doing on the Web that had never
>>>been done before?...Has Indymedia ossified or has it been able to keep up
>>>with a rapidly evolving web environment?...Evolution of IMC source codes:
>>>SF Active, Dada, Mir, Drupal, etc...Tech's early role in the network and
>>>the effort to move to a more transparent,
>>>democratic decision-making process...the challenge of
>>>archiving...Transferring computer equipment to the Global South.
>>>
>>>   4. How active is the IMC network?
>>>      Review the number of center column features being posted on local
>>>IMCs and use the http://lists.indymedia.org database to review local
>>>listserve activity at different IMCs over the past year, in addition to
>>>contacting local IMCs, to gauge how actively people are
>>>participating and how often meetings are being held (if they are
>>>being held).
>>>      Supplemental materials: charts, infoboxes
>>>
>>>VI. DIY
>>>
>>>   1. How to start an IMC
>>>
>>>   2. Different IMC models
>>>
>>>   3. The philosophy and practice of open publishing / moderation /
>>>dealing with trolls
>>>
>>>   4. How to build a radical paper
>>>
>>>   5. The challenge of distribution
>>>      Distribution is critical to IMC's impact ... a look at what
>>>alternative distribution channels are available, creating
>>>distribution networks, getting indexed by Google, etc.
>>>
>>>   6. How to acquire space, importance & implications
>>>      Indymedia started on the Internet and in many ways was shaped by the
>>>decentralizing logic of the Web. Yet, for many local IMC chapters, the
>>>need for an actual physical space to meet and work from is the most
>>>pressing dilemma they face. The solutions to this problem have varied
>>>widely.
>>>
>>>   7. Consensus and Meeting Facilitation
>>>
>>>   8. Living With and Managing Money
>>>
>>>   9. How to run a media convergence space (for big events)
>>>
>>>  10. Independent journalism tools and tips
>>>
>>>  11. How to avoid burnout / cultivating a healthy media collective /
>>>building long-term sustainability
>>>
>>>CONCLUSION
>>>
>>>GLOSSARY
>>>
>>>RECOMMENDED READING / RESOURCES
>>>
>>>INDEX
>>>
>>>SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
>>>We are soliciting a lot of different kinds of material for this project,
>>>so the style and content of submissions will vary greatly. Please follow
>>>the guidelines of each type of content submission. Ideas/pitches for all
>>>of the chapters outlined above are welcomed. With all submissions, please
>>>include a short introduction about yourself and your work with Indymedia.
>>>Submissions in English are easiest for us to handle, but we do have
>>>Spanish and French translation capacity at this point and we should be
>>>able to translate from more languages as we get the word out about the
>>>project.
>>>
>>>SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE: SEPT. 1, 2006
>>>
>>>Original Article or Sidebar
>>>If you are interested in writing something on an idea or issue mentioned
>>>in the above outline, or on something that you think should be included in
>>>one of the chapters listed above as an article or sidebar, but is missing
>>
>>>from our description or list of ideas for that chapter, please submit a
>>
>>>query to indybook at gmail.com before sending us a fully-written article. The
>>>query should include the basic idea of the piece, a short explanation of
>>>why it's important, and the approximate length you think the finished
>>>piece would be. Queries should be under 750 words. If you are planning to
>>>submit something in a language other than English, it is especially
>>>important that you submit a query (in English, if possible) first.
>>>Finished articles will range from 500-5,000 words, and should be fully
>>>researched and written in an engaging, straightforward style, i.e., not
>>>too jargon-heavy, either activist- or academic-wise. We are also exploring
>>>various Twiki-style technologies that make it possible for interested
>>>readers to comment on drafts of articles as they go through the editing
>>>process.
>>>
>>>Newswire Material
>>>If you have written/posted or know of material from an IMC newswire that
>>>you think we should excerpt for one of the chapters outlined above, please
>>>send us a sample of the text (no more than 250 words), a brief explanation
>>>(250 words) of the context of the post and why this particular post is a
>>>strong reflection of that event/issue, and the URL for the newswire
>>>article, if it's still online. If you are not the author of this material,
>>>please include any contact info you have for the writer.
>>>
>>>BUSINESS MODEL
>>>The book's target retail price is $14.95. We can buy the books (and return
>>>any unsold copies) for $7.50. We will set up a website for the book and
>>>ask local IMCs to put a button or some sort of permanent link to it on
>>>their home pages.
>>>
>>>We would sell the book through our website for $12 plus $3 for shipping
>>>and handling. All the profit, i.e., $4.50 per book, would go to Global,
>>>preferably to assist underfunded IMCs in the Global South. If we sell
>>>5,000 books over time, that would mean $22,500 for Global. Any royalties
>>>made from the publisher's sales would also go to Global.
>>>
>>>The publisher of the book will be Disinfo (disinfo.com), a lefty,
>>>for-profit publisher based in New York that has put out titles like: Why
>>>Do People Hate America? The Vigil: 26 Days in Crawford, Texas and
>>>Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. We've approached non-profits like
>>>South End Press and New Press, but they've shown little interest. It's
>>>also been suggested that we self-publish, but upon reflection, we realized
>>>that the quality of the product would be compromised, the size of the
>>>print run greatly reduced and we would have to create our own book
>>>distribution networks from scratch.
>>>
>>>Disinfo has offered a $12,000 advance to be paid in three installments:
>>>$4,000 upon signing the contract, $4,000 upon delivery of a completed
>>>manuscript and $4,000 upon the book going to print. Five percent, or $600,
>>>will go to our fiscal sponsor, UC-IMC, for processing. No one will be paid
>>>for any work. Photographers in the Global North will be asked to
>>>contribute their work. The only exception we are considering is paying
>>>photographers from the Global South a modest fee, recognizing they are in
>>>a unique position of having high expenses in a developing economy.
>>>
>>>Written contributions will not be paid, but will include the author's
>>>byline. Members of the book's editorial collective will be working on an
>>>unpaid, volunteer basis. The rest of the money would go to the NYC-IMC
>>>print team to help cover ongoing media-making expenses, particularly for
>>>newspapers and poster projects.
>>>
>>>One question, of course, is why the initial funds go to the NYC-IMC print
>>>team. The project represents an enormous burden upon our limited
>>>resources. Two of our most experienced editors and coordinators, Susan
>>>Chenelle and John Tarleton, will be devoting the next year to the project.
>>>We will need to solicit unpaid design and production work from our
>>>volunteer staff. The same goes for the content editing, copy editing,
>>>proofreading and fact checking phases. Then we need to build a website,
>>>set up a merchant account and handle all of the order processing -- all of
>>>which is also unpaid. Finally, the fulfillment aspect will be an enormous
>>>burden. Packaging, addressing and shipping thousands of books will require
>>>a huge commitment of work hours from everyone at the project. Again, no
>>>one will be paid for this work. The funds will go directly to other
>>>media-making only.
>>>
>>>RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS
>>>We will secure the permission for use of written material where possible,
>>>and will very much appreciate assistance from IMCistas in contacting
>>>writers of material we would like to excerpt from the newswires. Where
>>>explicit permission cannot be obtained, we will excerpt or quote a minimum
>>>amount that would fall under US "fair use" provisions. We will be
>>>approaching photographers directly to secure permission from them to use
>>>their photos. No photos will be used without permission.
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>IMC-communication mailing list
>>>IMC-communication at lists.indymedia.org
>>>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-communication
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>imc-tech mailing list
>>imc-tech at lists.indymedia.org
>>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-tech
>
>--
>Peace: John Milton
>
>email: john at johnmilton.ca
>mobile (Canada): 905-537-8472
>web: johnmilton.ca
>
>Encrypted email welcome. PGP key on my website
>Fingerprint: 40D8 5835 7230 8EE1 E968  1E7A 5CF1 68A6 C0E2 F9DC
>
>Koan for our times: "Are we smarter than yeast?"
>
>