[Imc-drupal-dev] Nex t Steps for a Drupal IMC

[Sofia JarrinT]

Hi Rob,

I am totally overwhelmed! I need a break...  I'm glad you guys are working on this. I'm going to stay away from it for a really good while.

I don't know if this helps at all with server/hosting space. I don't understand well what is needed, so maybe is no good, plus it requires a monthly payment. But they're pretty community oriented.

https://www.gandi.net/hosting/

peace,
sofia



----- Original Message ----
From: "robbt at azone.org" <robbt at azone.org>
To: imc-drupal-dev at lists.indymedia.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:19:16 PM
Subject: [Imc-drupal-dev] Nex t Steps for a Drupal IMC

Ok, so the grant was a whole can of worms, that at least brought attention
to a lot of different things.

Sofia thanks for taking the time to respond to everything and not get
overwhelmed by all of the criticism on the global lists, I didn't feel like
jumping into the discussion because it was too heated and my collective
hasn't officially met for a while to really come to any position.

I do think this shows a lot of the tension in the IMC network that make it
difficult for people to come to consensus. I think the most difficult part
is communicating over e-mail with people whom you have never met doesn't
really give a chance to build consensus. Also I think that the way I would
of went for the grant would of been differently, ie using a 501c3 and not
applying on behalf of a radical IMC, Boston IMC might of had better luck
applying on it's own, but we don't need their money anyways.

I think the biggest problem we are having is a lack of tech resources, I
suppose we should really do a network based inventory and see who has a
server that can offer hosting to new/languishing IMCs.

Our local IMC is hosted on a VPS (virtual private server) rented from a
small business that was just acquired by Rackspace (the company that gave
over the servers to the FBI back in London). I'd like to offer hosting to
other IMCs who are in need but I'd also like to be hosted by a more secured
server, so I feel like my hands are tied in that regard.

The other problem we have is most people have a limited amount of time they
can consistently contribute to IMC projects, especially techies/developers,
I know that I tried to spearhead the Drupal development but I was unable to
maintain the focus on it needed to bring it forward, and I have had good
conversations with people from other IMCs about having meet-ups but then
had no follow-up. One guy from Austin IMC ended up with the e-mail list and
never e-mailed everybody else so that we could maintain communication. That
kind of stuff happens a lot, and an e-mail list doesn't really mean
anything would of came through as seen by the listserve put forth about a
tech consulta.

We have a pretty good space here in Columbus, Ohio, our IMC that
piggey-backs off of a 501c3 that got funded to do election protection
related activities, and we could possibly host a physical conference, I'll
have to check with people. 

What I'd be really interested in setting up at this point would be a
code-sprint/developer weekend where people could get together to hammer out
what would make a really good Drupal install profile.

Perhaps the Imc-cms folks have the right idea, and I think there are some
good ideas with proof of concept code in there, although I think that
Drupal could also do the same things. What I would really like to see is a
set of standards/APIs developed using REST etc to make it so IMCs can more
easily share information with each other.

Is there anyone going to DrupalCon in DC this March ? Perhaps we could
organize a code-sprint at that, either before of after ? The meet-up we had
in Boston was good at least in the sense that I can put faces to some of
the e-mails I see (which is a great benefit).

Anyways I could draft an e-mail with a TODO list for putting together a
really good Drupal IMC site (our CbusIMC.org site sucks at this point) and
really I feel like concentrating on our own IMC makes more sense than
worrying about a global network. 

Really I doubt there are very few IMCs that don't get their $/funding from
capitalism or the state in one way or another, ie. most techies who pay out
of pocket end up working on capitalist funded projects to pay their bills
and then contribute back to the IMC network on the side. I know of few
squatter co-located servers that are off the grid yet still able to connect
to the internet, so we need to reanalyze how we get our shit together to
make this network happen.

I also really liked Yossarian's article and thought it made a lot of good
points, people use facebook/myspace not indymedia these days. We have to
figure out ways to compete and collaborate more with the the free software
movement and get support from them in order to make our network work.

Another interest criticism I read recently in the latest issue of
Turbulence was that Indymedia as a network had a lot of potential to be a
model for organizing in the future but it got caught up in reporting events
and didn't do enough analysis. This was in an article about styles of
organizing.

Ok, so I hope that these thoughts are helpful. Columbus IMC never
officially met to endorse the proposal and I'll clarify my ideas to the IMC
communications listserve especially in response to the corpwatch article
draft.

Robbt 

_______________________________________________
Imc-drupal-dev mailing list
Info: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/ImcDrupalDev
Imc-drupal-dev at lists.indymedia.org
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-drupal-dev