[IMC-Tech] [Fwd: How to improve Indymedias internal communication?]

[Alster]

Hey!

I have originally posted this email to imc-commwork. Unluckily this
email didn't get any attention there or it was considered to technically
or something.

Anyway, I think this topic (not me, even though the length of this email
might make you think that that's what I think of myself ;-) ) is a very
important one and I *really* would like to ask you to spend some of your
time on reading & replying & adding your thoughts to it.

I'm planning to take on the IMC DB code either by using the currect code
or writing new code - this needs to be checked yet - starting next month
and YOU are more than just invited to help with that. I don't want to
take a lead role on that as I'm not a very experienced coder, but if
nobody else should join in I will do so. Hopefully the providers of the
current codebase can spend some time on this, too.

I also need to make one addition to the below email... Here's some more
reasons why a well-working and upt-o-date IMC DB would be of use to a
local IMC:
- The right people at your IMC will be contactable through volunteer.indy
- Your IMC will be easily contactable by other IMC's in outreach emails
(of course, these need to be moderated somehow so not everybody can spam
all indymedia lists but I know this can be done)
- Your IMC can include your IMC's contact data from the DB on its own
contact page at YOUR-IMC.indymedia.org, so you only need to keep one
entry up to date and don't need to worry about editing CMS templates
once it has been integrated.

OK, so much for now. Thank you very much for reading this in advance.

Alster


-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: How to improve Indymedias internal communication?
Datum: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 00:32:36 +0100
Von: Alster <alster at indymedia.org>
An: imc-commwork at lists.indymedia.org

Hi!

As just raised by Clara on the "Why is Indymedia hiding?" thread on
imc-communication, there is a lack of use and usability on the IMC database.

You're wondering what that is, that IMC database? Oh, well, that's
probably because it is not very widely used by anyone except the tech
communities.


I. WHAT IS THE IMC DATABASE ?
  --------------------------

I will try to gather a bit of info on what the IMC database is and what
it could be:

The IMC database is an application with a website frontend (read: it is
a website with a database backend). Not unlike the email application on
your computer, it has some kind of addressbook which contains contact
data (and other information) on all the global IMCs. Yep, your local IMC
is in it, too.

Additionally to the contact data, there is some other data stored for
each of the several IMCs world-wide:

- the URL of each IMCs website (this is also used for generating the IMC
list you can find on almost every IMCs main page)

- the URLs of feature, newswire and openposting RDF/RSS/XML newsfeeds of
each IMC which are used for generating the content of www.indymedia.org
(this process is known as syndication)

- a list of languages articles are published in on each IMCs website

- information on the acceptance status (read: imc-process approval as
official IMC) within the Indymedia network

Checking the options in the "public functions" menu row of the IMC
Database will give you a -very limited- impression of the info stored on
it and the abilities it has.

   http://contact.indymedia.org/

You will not be able to access all the other menu options unless you
have a login for the contact database. Each IMC is supposed to have one
(but in fact this is probably not the case).

Much more info on the IMC database is available through the "IMC
Database Documentation" link at http://contact.indymedia.org/



II. LIMITS, DRAWBACKS, LACKING FUNCTIONS OR ACESSIBILITY
  --------------------------------------------------------

OK, that's fine... so what?!
Well, yeah, that's fine. BUT... this central storage of world-wide IMCs
contact data is
- a great information base which could be used in cross-communicating
between several IMCs as well as to give external people an interface for
contacting a certain local or topic-IMC or a working group.
- a dangerous thing, as central storage of private data is never a good
thing (though sometimes unevitable)
- hard to use
- inaccessible to many
- not very known
- quite outdated



III. CONTACTING IMCs THROUGH THE IMC DATABASE
  ---------------------------------------------

As said above, the IMC database (formerly known as "contact DB") is a
great collection of information on the various IMCs and working groups
which could be used for
- cross-communicating between several IMCs as well as
- to give external people an opportunity to contact a certain local or
topic-IMC or a working group through a central interface.

If it was current, the data already stored in the database would be
great for creating such an interface. Think of a single web page holding
an email form which may be used to contact any IMC in the whole network
without the needs to
- subscribe to yet another (or any at all) mailing list
- locate and collect each of the various IMCs' contact addresses by
visiting each IMCs' website.
- receive comments by pissed-off people because your inquiry ended up on
mailing list where it is off-topic.

If such an email form existed, all IMCs could link to it from their
local website which would take the burden of keeping the contact
addresses on their website up to date and allow them to make changes
centrally at IMC database.

Additionally to that, if the contact data stored in the IMC database was
current and a website for this purpose existed, every Indymedia activist
could browse to this website, choose the IMCs to contact (think of a
list of all IMCs, ordered by area and topic, with a tick box next to
each), and receive the email addresses of all of them for the intended
purpose (e.g. "creating print editions of indymedia news for central
europe").

The function to contact multiple IMCs at once is already included in the
IMC Database system. However, it is only useable if you have an
administrator account. If you are wondering why this is so, this leads
us to the security aspects.



V. SECURITY VS. ACCESSIBILITY
  -----------------------------

I have discussed most of the current drawbacks of the IMC Database
above. The accessibility vs. security aspect has yet remained
unmentioned, though.

As noted down before, the IMC Database is intended to store information
about all IMCs. This means, it should hold both the publically
advertized contact information of each IMC, but also, for internal use
and communication, some private contact information of some of the
founders or moderation teams of the various IMCs.

While the private contact information contained in it is -assumeably-
currently quite out of date, widely incomplete and thus rather worthless
altogether, an up-to-date and regularly maintained stock of contact data
would need to be protected very well as it would make a great source of
information to intelligence agencies, fascists, and whoever generally
dislikes the work of Indymedia.

This is why it is neccessary to secure the data as much as possible.
This includes to give people only as much access as they need. And as
these needs vary a lot between different people and their roles within
the IMCs and working groups they are engaged in, this is not an easy job
and I - as one who is much too unexperienced to do that myself - weigh
the work that has been done by the developers on this matter very high.

However, security must stand back when it comes to usability. If an
application is so secure and hardened that it is no longer easily
usable, then it is too secure. This may be the case for parts of the IMC
Database code.

Securing a web application (the IMC Database is one) requires a lot of
programming, testing, hardening etc. which eats a lot of time. This is
surely one of the reasons why the development of the underlying software
runs slowly (but steadily). Another reasons is that there are only very
few people who do it. In fact, I think it is only done by two persons,
namely MarkB and PseudoPunk ( bart at indymedia.org ) .

This is not very much, in contrary I think this is much too little for a
project that has the potential to allow to form the network Indymedia
actually intends to be.



VI. WHY ISN'T THE DATABASE MORE WIDELY USED?
  ---------------------------------------------

That's a good remark, thanks for pointing me towards this, right on
time. ;-)

Well, as you will already have realized when looking at the
http://contact.indymedia.org website,

- it is lacking a clean design and is hardly useable in an intuitive way
- the data it holds is partially outdated which may make people think it
was abandoned
- you need logins to access most of it functions
- people do not know it actually exists nor what it is good for.

This is a bunch of good reasons NOT to use it, hmm? ;-) For sure, it is
a good reason to work on it so these obstacles can be removed.



VII. HOW TO MAKE THE IMC DATABASE MORE USABLE AND MORE USED?
  -----------------------------------------------------------


Well, basically, that's more or less simple:

A. Improve the IMC Database codebase removing the obstacles mentioned above

B. Let people know that it exists, what it is, that it has been
improved, why it has been improved and what has been improved.

C. Make sure people use it, keep using it and and regularly update it by
removing any further obstacles mentioned by them (some kind of user
feedback channel which is both monitored and acted upon by the
developers is needed here!).

D. Make sure people integrate the functions and information provided by
the IMC Database into their workspace and local IMC
(e.g. the contact information each IMC could be - and in my opinion
should be - retrieved and dynamically updated from the IMC Database
instead of manually hardcoded into each IMCs website).

In fact, it is not so simple.

While many other working groups within the Indymedia scope are
definately important, I would say that the IMC Database working group is
one of the most important ones, as it may provide ways to communicate
throughout Indymedia, thus making it a network (which it intends to be
but otherwise wouldn't be) and thus keeping it alive.




VIII. WHAT YOU CAN DO TO MAKE INDYMEDIA A GLOBAL NETWORK (AGAIN?)
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
Unluckily, there are only two developers on this working group (is it
one at all?). This is much too little for a project as important and as
the IMC Database.

But it not only needs additional developers, it also needs people to
monitor and abstract the user feedback channel mentioned above and
report news back to the users.

In my very opinion, there is currently no other threat as much a threat
to the vitality of Indymedia as a network as the lack of well-developed
internal communication and decision-making. IT's not terrorists, it's
not the even FBI, NSA, CNN or any other intelligence agency, it's
ourselves and the way we're organized. So please, let's gather our
strength to improve this situation.

I'm under the impression that with the current political line of most of
the first world countries' governments the several IMCs world-wide are
now experiencing even more pressure by theses countries' executives'
powers and the world-wide right-wingers who are receiving more and more
power, too.

The only way to resist against that is to form a strong network. Other
than that, Indymedia is going to nothing but a collection of shattered
left-wingers with nothing in common except a couple of ideas and a name.

And in my idea, the IMC Database and the functionailty it may provide is
an important step towards this direction.

Think global, act local, both in real life as on the internet.

All the best for you, your local IMC and Indymedia as a whole and a network,

Alster

PS: I am sorry for the amount and length of emails I'm sending on this
and related matters these days, I will reduce this from now on. It is a
matter of heart to me so this is really hard to keep under control ...
but I'm trying. ;-)
Please translate this email if you weigh it important enough.

-- 
Info & GPG key at
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Main/AlsteR