[Imc-research] Some ideas on indy research.

Thu Jun 9 13:49:11 PDT 2005

Greetings all,

So much to digest on this list over the past few days but I wanted to
just mention a few things quickly (temporarily avoiding the more complex
questions about research and the IMC) 

I am getting ready to launch a website that includes an IMC survey
(could this be any more appropriate to the past few days discussion!?)
The website will be to facilitate data collection for the research
project I outlined at the Researching IMC Workshop at the conference in
Austin.  The survey is a slightly different version of the one developed
by Eroc and Jeff in Austin (it can be found on the conference wiki).  

I have read over the conversation regarding survey research and
definitely have some thoughts (I will post some of those later) and I
appreciate the concerns.  However, after talking with many IMCistas over
the past few months and getting a great deal of support, I think I am
going to push ahead and put the site up.  HOWEVER, it would be great if
I could get some feedback before I let the network know the site is
up...would folks on this list be willing to have a look and let me know?
I would love for this to be as collaborative as a project as possible,
between folks on this list and others in the network that I have been
speaking with.  I would also like to put up some of the research
projects that have been shared on this list if that is acceptable to the
authors, they could then be moved to the site we are discussing here
later. 

As to hosting the site described below.  Our site was hacked last month
along with all the others and we have been making some substantive
changes before we put it back up.  We are also switching servers and our
new server could host the research site if the need still exists.  

Anyway, real great to see all of this enthusiasm a good discussion.

Rich
Tallahassee  

-----Original Message-----
From: Shayne O'Neill [mailto:shayne at perthimc.asn.au] 
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 12:53 PM
To: Aaron Couch
Cc: imc-research at lists.indymedia.org
Subject: Re: [Imc-research] Some ideas on indy research.

Awesome plan. I reckon perth can host it, as I can set up activismo III
which has a built in wiki system for story preparatation which we can
then
use to kick off and start really MESSING with the indy format. And
knowing
the system intimately, its prone to messing.

One of the things I'd like to look at is perhaps the idea of a 'critical
space' where the actual paramaters of text presentation themselves are
open to (mediated by techs and research gang) really being messed with
in
ways that perhaps wouldnt be apropriate in a "normal" indymedia. A place
where indy can "try" out some of the more obscure ideas out without
necessarily pissing over a local collective.

(Incidently , is that plan available in a html mockup. It'd take me
under
an hour or so to recreate it in our format).

I think we need to look at that ed policy and "theorise" it a little bit
first, right down to the concept of "wires" etc.

Incidently I like the idea of having a traditional forum. Forums have
that
nice thing that they arent as time-linear as a wire is. You can find an
old conversation and "bump" it to the top, rather than (like news) let
it
fade into the memory hole. That's interesting to me.

Or maybe we can even come up with a more interestng still idea.
Collaborative document forums. Like wires, but with stories that bubble
up
and down depending on interest and edits. I can code that.

We could even have a "wiki-afied" version, with editable (and lockable!)
documents that bubble around and are hyperlinked. No heirachy or
formality, just a wonderful soup of discussion and research with lines
of
flight between them. Anarchist and marxist texts swirling around each
other. Interlinked and yet antagonistic at the same time.

Fuck. Theres so many ideas we could implement if we are prepared to take
some risks and use this research to research.

Lets build an infernal machine and fill its brains with juicy think.

On Thu, 9 Jun 2005, Aaron Couch wrote:

> i think this is a GREAT discussion, one i'd love to see on the site
itself!
 in the interest of moving forward, i'd like to propose we try and apply
for
a new imc. the only thing we don't currently have is the host, but i
think
we can start the paperwork with the new imc list (not completely clear
on
how that works). below is the list of criteria, it looks like we are
almost
there. can anyone take the reins and send this to new imc (or review the
new
imc process, i'm not sure exactly how to move forward):
 1) an official mailing list
(WE ARE ON IT!)

2) mission statement
(SEE BELOW)

3) editiorial policy
(SEE BELOW)

4) plan for the site itself
(http://www.robertcouch.net/IMC)

5) way to host
(NO LUCK SO FAR)

Mission Statement:

The IMC movement is at a critical crossroads. We need to develop the
research tools and methodologies necessary to understand the ways in
which the movement is growing, how the application of radical
democratic principles are impacting our work, how people are using the
network, the effectiveness of our outreach etc. This site is about
how we can work together to create a more coherent, comprehensive
research program.

Editorial Policy:

This site will be administered by anyone who asks for an admin
password. Those who have admin passwords will remove unwanted
content from the site.

This site will have a research newswire which will function
like most IMC newswires. The following content may be removed w/o
notice:

? Posts not pertaining to research of Indymedia,
alternative media, organizing, mainstream media, or related topics
? Borderline' advertising or promotional material (i.e. events
charging admissions that are not clearly fundraisers, ecological
service businesses, etc.)
? Destabilization posts intended to undermine the usability of the
newswire
? Copyrighted articles that have been copied and pasted that do not
contain a link to the original article
? Duplicate postings: two or more articles consisting of identical or
near-identical content
? Empty or incomprehensible postings
? Pornography and sexist/abuse posts
? Racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic and other 'hate speech' posts, or
advocating illegal activity
? Libel, slander, defamation and abusive personal attacks
? Posts of personal information designed to harass, intimidate or
otherwise threaten
? Bomb making instructions and similar paramilitary information
? Commercial advertising
? Misinformation intended to disrupt activist actions and discussions
(i.e. false information regarding an event, with the intent to disrupt
the event)
? Copy-written material in which the author has not given permission for
posting
? Posts where the admins have received a 'cease and desist' letter
from an attorney and chooses not to challenge it.
? Death threats including calls for the death of people

 On 6/9/05, Chris Anderson <chanders_imc at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I'd love to see some of Shayne's specific ideas put
> into practice.
>
> chris
>
> --- Shayne O'Neill <shayne at perthimc.asn.au> wrote:
>
> >
> > This is a rant;-
> >
> > I've been thinking quite a bit on directions for
> > indy, and it strikes me
> > that one of the current problems in advancement is a
> > good lack of space
> > where theoretical ideas for the advancment of
> > indymedia can be tried out
> > in a space where it is understood that what is
> > happening is research
> > rather than canonical indymedia 'practice'.
> >
> > Where advancement DOES occur, it tends to be
> > confined to technicians ,
> > often more interested in the technological minuatae
> > of how an indymedia
> > website runs, often without strong regards to ideas
> > of improving textual
> > practice and the like. Furthermore this has the
> > unfortunate side effect of
> > developing indymedia as a technological "platform"
> > rather than as a
> > jorurnalistic and activist "space". None of this of
> > course is to denigrate
> > the awesome work of the techies. (Being a techie
> > myself).
> >
> > What would be interesting is to follow a couple of
> > potential ideas
> > 1) Lets get published. By this I mean it would be
> > nice to establish an
> > online, peer reviewed (NOT 'elite' reviewed) journal
> > of sorts, perhaps
> > episodic and thematic, and with a focus on
> > experimental and radical
> > journalism.
> >
> > 2) But lets do this journal indy style. That is
> > without a 'heirachy' of
> > learned elders gatekeeping the whole thing, but
> > instead by nurturing
> > "open" editorial practices, perhaps with
> > technological assistance from a
> > CMS (perhaps an indy CMS tweaked for a more
> > formalised academic bent.) or
> > a comunally edited wiki.
> >
> > >From this second point, its here where we can start
> > really throwing around
> > mad capped ideas on ways to improve indymedia.
> > Really zany stuff. We could
> > replace 'sequences' of stories and 'heirachys' of
> > categorys with a
> > rhyzomic model of interconected theses. We could
> > utterly turf the idea of
> > atomic stories and allow wiki style editing of other
> > peoples stories. With
> > revisions and the like. All wiki stylee.
> >
> > There are plenty of ideas, and those there are 5
> > minutes worth of ADHD
> > rambling rather than a considered proposal.
> >
> > WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Imc-research mailing list
> > Imc-research at lists.indymedia.org
> >
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-research
> >
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Imc-research mailing list
> Imc-research at lists.indymedia.org
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-research
>
_______________________________________________
Imc-research mailing list
Imc-research at lists.indymedia.org
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-research