[imc-st.louis] Minutes from IMC meeting 9/9/07 (public)

[Ben]

Minutes from IMC general meeting @ CAMP 9/9/07

Present: Nikhil K., Don F., Lisa B., Keith B., Digger, Ben W.

Next IMC general meeting: Sunday 10/14, 7pm @ CAMP

All editors!  Please login into website reboot.stlimc.org and try out 
the forms for submitting features!

*IMC Communication...
*For those interested, please subscribe to our /public announcement/ 
list at imc-stlous at lists.indymedia.org. Many folks use this list, not 
just core IMC folks. Subscribe by going to URL 
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-stlouis

*Proposal for Collaboration with other Groups...
*Upon decision by collective (not just editors), IMC can provide 
sections of the website, e.g. a blog or a "media partners" column, to 
organizations, social justice groups, media groups, bloggers, etc. that 
share affinity with STLIMC.  These sections would be distinct from the 
feature column (which is maintained by editors) and the newswire (open 
posting), and they would be maintained/moderated by whichever group, 
/not by IMC editors./  Why do this?  IMC website is designed to put 
content online quickly, and this capability could be extended to groups 
who do not have the web resources or tech savvy as IMC volunteers.  
Likewise, these sections could provide such groups with channels for 
press releases and similar communiques, which may not meet threshold for 
feature content (e.g. in-depth reportage) but still merits publishing 
online.  Why not just the newswire?  Authorship on the open posting 
newswire can be uncertain.  Furthermore, having multiple groups 
contribute content under umbrella of IMC could promote 
cross-pollenization between those groups.

...

Inspiration for this proposal: Counterpunch and Z Magazine, which print 
only some of their submissions, but still publish most (all?) of those 
submissions online.

Open question: how to encourage reciprocity from group who share space 
on IMC? 

*Creative Commons License...
*Although similar to copy-left and anti-copyright, CC is now widely used 
to preserve some rights on a creation (e.g. attribute the author, no 
derivative works) while still allowing the content to be legally shared 
w/o arcane restrictions of copyright.  It is highly encouraged that 
folks contributing to IMC (editors, media partners, etc) opt for a CC 
license if they don't chose public domain.
More info: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ

*Feature Story Ideas...

...

Various folks: ongoing campaign of stifling political dissent around 
country.  E.g. "parade permits" in NYC, fining ASNWER, et. al for 
postering in DC, the "free speech zone" around the Arch.

In general, there is interest in covering stories about music, arts, and 
other cultural events.  Especially from an "underground" perspective, or 
more seriously from perspective rarely seen in RFT, Sauce, and other 
arts/music publications around town.  IMC's so often just cover 
political events, protests, etc., needlessly narrowing their appeal to 
larger audiences.

*Pending Website Issues...
*- Moving current stlimc.org to archive.stlimc.org (preserve old content)
- Links to indymedia.org, other IMCs
- Promotion of Creative Commons license (i.e. links on content 
submissions forms)
- Not mentioned in mtg: a "free tagging" field, where authors can type 
their own subject categories, besides those listed in upper left of main 
page.  This would be useful to track stories on specific topics relevant 
to STL, e.g. Reggie Clemons, lead poisoning, police oversight.



-- 
Ben West
westbywest at riseup.net
http://savetheinternet.org