[Imc-communication] «digital struggles» focus within European PGA conference, summer 2006, France

[darkveggy]

Dear Ionnek,

Thanks a lot for your answer & contribution!

> this focus sounds really interesting - and timely!
> Hm. I wonder if we could use this pga conference focus as something of
> an informal indymedia gathering? Try to get lots of imcistas to come
> along with questions and provocations? Report on it widely beforehand,
> really get into the questions?

That is exactly what I would love to see happening!

A series of meetings within the french-speaking Indymedia community
(francophone) already started to tackle around some of the concerns I
expressed, but I feel the need to address these issues on a wider scale.
The transnational hackmeeting in 2004 allowed such a discussion space to
collectively face data retention policies, but as far as I know, it
wasn't continued nor publicised much.

> I feel more and more that having strong alternative servers is crucial
> - and to see them as part of movement infrastructure, just like
> squats, social centers, etc.

So do I. One of the other focuses in Dijon will precisely be « the
preservation of autonomous spaces », to face the fact that threats
against squats & alternative structures are on the rise all over Europe,
to share experiences and shape strategies.

It seems equally important to me to address the defense of our
autonomous structures in digital land, and possibly link those
complementary perspectives.

> I was wondering what you refer to when you say: "a new mediactivist
> "trend" is popping up around indymedia"? The blogs? A changed attitude
> of media activists? Different relationship between "indymedia" and the
> "rest of the movement"?

Sorry, the mail was quickly written, and this passage definitely lacked
a necessary explanation. By "mediactivist trend", I meant the separation
of activism into distant categories, such as "action making" and
"alternative journalism". I consider the latter to easily carry some of
the flaws of mainstream reporting, namely to document an action from an
outsider's perspective, while Indymedia was initially meant to facilite
direct communication by activists.

By "mediactivist trend", I was also explicitely refering to a situation
where an increased number of people coming to Indymedia from a media
background, without being rooted at all in activist communities, which
can bring to decreased levels of trust & communication in between
Indymedia & other activists as a result. Regular conflictual issues
include taking photos (or not) during actions, or having more people
with cameras than people who actually carry the action itself.

Of course, the validity of this observation greatly varies from place to
place, but I and others have witnessed a large enough number of such
occurrences to feel the need to discuss it, and to interrogate
Indymedia's identity, mission and operation in the process.

> And you ask "how can hacklabs/open-access space bring together geek &
> activist cultures"? - yes, sometimes I wonder if the mixing and
> merging of arts/activism/geekism/ of some years ago has given way to
> more separate, specialised movements and cultures? "Professional"
> activists doing the action, "professional" alternative journalists
> taking care of the reporting, "professional" geeks running the server
> infrastructure for the alternative media?
> 
> In the UK, some from the indymedia collectives are under the
> impression that indymedia is seen as a service by many activists who
> are not involved in the day-to-day running of the project - and not as
> the hands-on diy-venture of some years ago. Professionalisation? A
> good thing, a bad thing?

I see we share the same concerns on these issues! :)

> Dunno if this list is the place for a conversation about such
> questions...

I hope others within the Indymedia network are interested in discussing
all this, and possibly use the « digital struggles » focus in Dijon to
meet and work things out altogether. Ionnek, would you feel like making
this a proposal to various Indymedia instances?

Thanks again for the feedback,

-- 
d a r k v e g g y - gnupg key @ http://garlicviolence.org/gpg.asc

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