[Imc-drupal-dev] Fw: hello from imc-alternatives

[Sofia JarrinT]

Some background info... This is exciting stuff!



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Jay <jay at fundamentalchange.net>
To: sofiajt at yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 10:07:13 AM
Subject: hello from imc-alternatives

(sofia,
This is something we sent around to imc-tech and imc-cms a few months ago.
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.

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-techies 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.

***

-- 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.

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.

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.

Thank you so much for your time.
Jay