[Imc-uk-network] Fwd: [Imc-communication] IMC Book Project

[GarconDuMonde]

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hi,

Tony wrote:
>> From: "Susan Chenelle" <srcnyc at bway.net>
>> To: imc-communication at lists.indymedia.org
>> The following can also be found in English, Spanish and French (an
>> hopefully more languages soon) at www.indybook.org.

<snip>

>> In winter of 2005, at the U.S. IMC conference in Austin, members of the
>> NYC IMC print team spoke about conversations that they had been having
>> with a left-wing indie publisher in New York called Disinfo about putting
>> together a book on Indymedia. There were a number of concerns mentioned
>> about the project as it had been conceived at that point. After months
>> more of discussion and reflection we've come up with a plan.
>>
>> The purpose of this letter is to:
>>
>>     * Inform members of Indymedia about the project;
>>     * Put out an initial call for submissions.
>>
>> In our proposal to Disinfo we wrote: "This book would not attempt to be
>> the definitive statement on Indymedia. Rather, it would be an overview of
>> some of the triumphs and struggles of the network over the past
>> five-and-a-half years. Its entries would range from dramatic,
>> stream-of-thought, first-person pieces to more analytic chapters on the
>> meaning of Indymedia. The book, while thoughtful, would avoid being overly
>> academic and would be graphic/picture heavy."
>>
>> We are excited at the prospect of being able to help the network begin to
>> tell its amazing story to the world. The vast majority of the book will be
>> original pieces written by IMC participants and friends of Indymedia with
>> excerpted material from IMC newswires. While the book will be written in
>> English, we want it to reflect the entire network, and so we will be
>> soliciting submissions of material from all IMCs. In the coming weeks, we
>> will also be sending out a questionnaire to all IMCs to find out a little
>> about each IMC's history, current status, what issues you tend to cover,
>> frequency of publishing, etc.

from reading this and discussion that i had with some of the people involved,
this sounds like a great project.

>> The book collective working on this project consists mostly of members of
>> the NYC IMC print team, which also publishes The Indypendent
>> (indypendent.org). Our research team will be seeking out material
>> published on the newswires and other IMC publications during key moments
>> in IMC history, but we're going to need help! Guidance on where to find
>> great material will be much appreciated.
>>
>> We want to make clear that this book will have an open submission process;
>> everyone reading this can and should contribute something about Indymedia
>> if they feel so inspired and should pass this on to others who may also be
>> interested. Please see below for submission guidelines, a general outline
>> of the book, and details on the finance and distribution plan, as well as
>> on the rights and permissions practices for the book. Please contact us if
>> you can help with translating this document into other languages.
>>
>> After reviewing the following information, please send any questions,
>> suggestions or submissions to indybook at gmail.com.

i think problems with gmail have already been pointed out on imc-communication.
probably something like a riseup account would be more appropriate.

>> Thanks for your time and consideration,
>>
>> The Indy Book Collective
>>
>> Outline for the Indy Book Project
>>
>>     * Introduction
>>     * History
>>     * Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges
>>     * Case Studies
>>     * Multimedia & Technology
>>     * How-To (DIY)
>>
>> NOTE: The following chapter descriptions are subject to change as people
>> send in queries and suggestions. Submissions can tackle one or more
>> aspects of a chapter's topic or attempt to deal with the entire subject in
>> one comprehensive essay. Please see below for full submission guidelines.
>>
>> Prologue: Excerpt from Subcomandante Marcos's 1997 statement on the need
>> for a new intercontinental media network that enables ordinary people who
>> resist from below to share their stories.
>> http://www.tmcrew.org/chiapas/e_media1.htm
>>
>> I. Introduction
>> An opening essay that touches on the significance of the Indymedia
>> movement and places it in the larger social and political milieu of the
>> early 21st century.

written by who? edited by who? with what (political) perspective?

>> II. History
>>
>>    1. Roots of Indymedia
>>       A look at how Indymedia's emergence was rooted in a wide arrary of
>> alternative media projects that developed over many years and across
>> several continents.

again, by who? etc...

>>    2. Seattle
>>       A look at the pre-WTO organizing that went on in Seattle, what
>> people were hoping to accomplish, how it all came together, what it was
>> like during the week of WTO and what lessons were learned from the
>> experience.
>>       Supplemental material: Posts and photos from during the WTO.

perhaps in the context of j18, events in europe and oceania - developments in
both activism and media technologies?

>>    3. Exploding Growth
>>       A look at how the IMC rapidly became a worldwide movement in the
>> aftermath of Seattle.
>>       Supplemental material: Indymedia timeline, photos of early IMC
>> websites, publications, meetings, etc.

sounds good. few "soundbites" or short interviews from people around the world
who started soon after seattle.

>>    4. IMC and social movements
>>       The IMC and the Global Justice movement both burst into the popular
>> consciousness at the same time. How did the two movements grow
>> together, inform and influence each other? How has IMC's
>> relationship to social movements evolved over the years?
>>
>>    5. IMC and the Cyberleft
>>       Explore the strengths and the weaknesses of the post-industrial
>> Left, the rise of decentralized, Internet-based organizing, where
>> Indymedia fits in this milieu and what it needs to do to avoid some of the
>> pitfalls of other contemporary movements on the Cyberleft.


cyberleft?! (or am i just really thick?) explain what you mean, use "real"
terminology instead of academic crap, don't make assumptions about new phrases
or abbreviations.

>>    6. Indymedia and the Anarchist Tradition
>>       A look at how Indymedia's organizational is heavily influenced by
>> DIY anarchist culture.
>>
>> III. Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges
>>
>>    1. Who Makes Up Indymedia?
>>       Demographics and geography: Why Indymedia tends to be made up of
>> certain kinds of people (white, male, with access to relatively high level
>> of resources), self-selecting filters; more narrowly focused IMCs versus
>> those integrated into local communities.
>>
>>    2. IMC and race/gender/class
>>       How have issues of race, class and gender been addressed at
>> Indymedia? Have advances been made toward creating a more inclusive and
>> empowering culture for all inside the network? If so, where? And how? If
>> not, why not?
>>
>>    3. Who's Reading Indymedia?
>>       An examination of what fragmentary records exist to develop an
>> estimate of how many people use Indymedia (both on normal days and when
>> there are big protests happening) and how much impact the
>> network may have. Also look at the challenges of moving from
>> crisis-driven coverage toward consistent, daily activity.
>>       Supplemental materials: Solicit responses from local IMCs throughout
>> the network about how they've become more rooted in their
>> communities and on what people consider to be the greatest obstacles or
>> challenges they've faced in their work with an IMC.
>>
>>    4. IMC and the participatory journalism movement
>>       Traditional journalism is facing unprecedented challenges from
>> ordinary citizens seeking to "be the media" This chapter will
>> consider the forces driving this, compare and contrast Indymedia
>> with other citizen journalism initiatives and explore the unique
>> contributions that Indymedia has made to the citizen-journalism
>> movements around the world.
>>       Supplemental Materials: Solicit responses from local IMCs throughout
>> the network about what they see as their greatest achievements to
>> date; stories they covered that made an impact in their community or
>> country, initiatives they took to empower people to "become the
>> media," etc.
>>
>>    5. IMC and State Repression
>>       In 2005, British law enforcement officials seized the UK Indymedia
>> server (which housed 20 other IMC websites) at the behest of the
>> FBI...Indymedia has been targeted repeatedly by law enforcement
>> since its inception with IMC journalists being beaten, tear-gassed and
>> arrested while trying to cover demonstrations...IMC has also
>> been subpoenaed for its weblogs by police looking to track the
>> origins of specific posts...Seattle IMC in April 2001...NYC
>> investigated by NYPD and Secret Service in 2004...Look at how IMC
>> has responded to legal threats and how it radically decentralized
>> its activities and decided to stop logging IP addresses.
>>
>> IV. Indymedia in Action: Potential Case Studies
>>
>>    1. Genoa G8 Protests
>>
>>    2. Indymedia in the Global South
>>
>>    3. Argentina Uprising
>>
>>    4. People Power in Bolivia
>>
>>    5. The Birth of Venezuela IMC
>>
>>    6. IMC in Africa
>>
>>    7. Chiapas: Indymedia Takes Root in the Home of the Zapatistas
>>
>>    8. IMC in the Middle East
>>
>>    9. From UK to United Kollectives: Decentralization in Britain
>>
>>   10. IMC in Europe
>>
>>   11. IMC in Asia and Oceania
>>
>>   12. Responding to 9/11: NYC-IMC
>>
>>   13. Responding to Hurricane Katrina
>>
>>   14. US Indymedia in the Bush Era
>>
>>   15. UC IMC Buys the Post Office
>>
>> V. Multimedia and Technology
>>
>>    1. Reflections on IMC Audio Projects
>>       How have IMC radio projects both blended into and made unique
>> contributions to the larger movement to free the airwaves from
>> corporate and/or government-dominated broadcasting...Look at both
>> ongoing projects and special projects around convergences.
>>
>>    2. Reflections on IMC Video Projects
>>       Cable access shows...Vblogging...Video IMCistas have also
>> collaborated to produce more than a dozen feature-length
>> documentaries... Documentaries preserve a part of the movement's
>> collective history, but what has been their overall
>> impact?...Challenges of building distribution networks...a short
>> history of IMC Newsreel, etc.
>>
>>    3. Reflections on IMC Tech
>>       The creation of Active code and the open publishing newswire...What
>> was novel about IMC in 1999? What was it doing on the Web that had never
>> been done before?...Has Indymedia ossified or has it been able to keep up
>> with a rapidly evolving web environment?...Evolution of IMC source codes:
>> SF Active, Dada, Mir, Drupal, etc...Tech's early role in the network and
>> the effort to move to a more transparent,
>> democratic decision-making process...the challenge of
>> archiving...Transferring computer equipment to the Global South.
>>
>>    4. How active is the IMC network?
>>       Review the number of center column features being posted on local
>> IMCs and use the http://lists.indymedia.org database to review local
>> listserve activity at different IMCs over the past year, in addition to
>> contacting local IMCs, to gauge how actively people are
>> participating and how often meetings are being held (if they are
>> being held).
>>       Supplemental materials: charts, infoboxes

all of the above sounds fascinating and really, really interesting. it would be
great to see all of this.

>> VI. DIY
>>
>>    1. How to start an IMC
>>
>>    2. Different IMC models
>>
>>    3. The philosophy and practice of open publishing / moderation /
>> dealing with trolls
>>
>>    4. How to build a radical paper
>>
>>    5. The challenge of distribution
>>       Distribution is critical to IMC's impact ... a look at what
>> alternative distribution channels are available, creating
>> distribution networks, getting indexed by Google, etc.
>>
>>    6. How to acquire space, importance & implications
>>       Indymedia started on the Internet and in many ways was shaped by the
>> decentralizing logic of the Web. Yet, for many local IMC chapters, the
>> need for an actual physical space to meet and work from is the most
>> pressing dilemma they face. The solutions to this problem have varied
>> widely.
>>
>>    7. Consensus and Meeting Facilitation
>>
>>    8. Living With and Managing Money
>>
>>    9. How to run a media convergence space (for big events)
>>
>>   10. Independent journalism tools and tips
>>
>>   11. How to avoid burnout / cultivating a healthy media collective /
>> building long-term sustainability
>>
>> CONCLUSION

err, again: by who? what political slant? etc.... this will no doubt need some
discussion (?).

>> GLOSSARY
>>
>> RECOMMENDED READING / RESOURCES
>>
>> INDEX
>>
>> SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
>> We are soliciting a lot of different kinds of material for this project,
>> so the style and content of submissions will vary greatly. Please follow
>> the guidelines of each type of content submission. Ideas/pitches for all
>> of the chapters outlined above are welcomed. With all submissions, please
>> include a short introduction about yourself and your work with Indymedia.
>> Submissions in English are easiest for us to handle, but we do have
>> Spanish and French translation capacity at this point and we should be
>> able to translate from more languages as we get the word out about the
>> project.

are there any plans to provide (other than english)-language editions?

>> SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE: SEPT. 1, 2006
>>
>> Original Article or Sidebar
>> If you are interested in writing something on an idea or issue mentioned
>> in the above outline, or on something that you think should be included in
>> one of the chapters listed above as an article or sidebar, but is missing
>>from our description or list of ideas for that chapter, please submit a
>> query to indybook at gmail.com before sending us a fully-written article. The
>> query should include the basic idea of the piece, a short explanation of
>> why it's important, and the approximate length you think the finished
>> piece would be. Queries should be under 750 words. If you are planning to
>> submit something in a language other than English, it is especially
>> important that you submit a query (in English, if possible) first.
>> Finished articles will range from 500-5,000 words, and should be fully
>> researched and written in an engaging, straightforward style, i.e., not
>> too jargon-heavy, either activist- or academic-wise. We are also exploring
>> various Twiki-style technologies that make it possible for interested
>> readers to comment on drafts of articles as they go through the editing
>> process.
>>
>> Newswire Material
>> If you have written/posted or know of material from an IMC newswire that
>> you think we should excerpt for one of the chapters outlined above, please
>> send us a sample of the text (no more than 250 words), a brief explanation
>> (250 words) of the context of the post and why this particular post is a
>> strong reflection of that event/issue, and the URL for the newswire
>> article, if it's still online. If you are not the author of this material,
>> please include any contact info you have for the writer.
>>
>> BUSINESS MODEL
>> The book's target retail price is $14.95. We can buy the books (and return
>> any unsold copies) for $7.50. We will set up a website for the book and
>> ask local IMCs to put a button or some sort of permanent link to it on
>> their home pages.
>>
>> We would sell the book through our website for $12 plus $3 for shipping
>> and handling. All the profit, i.e., $4.50 per book, would go to Global,
>> preferably to assist underfunded IMCs in the Global South. If we sell
>> 5,000 books over time, that would mean $22,500 for Global. Any royalties
>> made from the publisher's sales would also go to Global.
>>
>> The publisher of the book will be Disinfo (disinfo.com), a lefty,
>> for-profit publisher based in New York that has put out titles like: Why
>> Do People Hate America? The Vigil: 26 Days in Crawford, Texas and
>> Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. We've approached non-profits like
>> South End Press and New Press, but they've shown little interest. It's
>> also been suggested that we self-publish, but upon reflection, we realized
>> that the quality of the product would be compromised, the size of the
>> print run greatly reduced and we would have to create our own book
>> distribution networks from scratch.
>>
>> Disinfo has offered a $12,000 advance to be paid in three installments:
>> $4,000 upon signing the contract, $4,000 upon delivery of a completed
>> manuscript and $4,000 upon the book going to print. Five percent, or $600,
>> will go to our fiscal sponsor, UC-IMC, for processing. No one will be paid
>> for any work. Photographers in the Global North will be asked to
>> contribute their work. The only exception we are considering is paying
>> photographers from the Global South a modest fee, recognizing they are in
>> a unique position of having high expenses in a developing economy.
>>
>> Written contributions will not be paid, but will include the author's
>> byline. Members of the book's editorial collective will be working on an
>> unpaid, volunteer basis. The rest of the money would go to the NYC-IMC
>> print team to help cover ongoing media-making expenses, particularly for
>> newspapers and poster projects.
>>
>> One question, of course, is why the initial funds go to the NYC-IMC print
>> team. The project represents an enormous burden upon our limited
>> resources. Two of our most experienced editors and coordinators, Susan
>> Chenelle and John Tarleton, will be devoting the next year to the project.
>> We will need to solicit unpaid design and production work from our
>> volunteer staff. The same goes for the content editing, copy editing,
>> proofreading and fact checking phases. Then we need to build a website,
>> set up a merchant account and handle all of the order processing -- all of
>> which is also unpaid. Finally, the fulfillment aspect will be an enormous
>> burden. Packaging, addressing and shipping thousands of books will require
>> a huge commitment of work hours from everyone at the project. Again, no
>> one will be paid for this work. The funds will go directly to other
>> media-making only.
>>
>> RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS
>> We will secure the permission for use of written material where possible,
>> and will very much appreciate assistance from IMCistas in contacting
>> writers of material we would like to excerpt from the newswires. Where
>> explicit permission cannot be obtained, we will excerpt or quote a minimum
>> amount that would fall under US "fair use" provisions. We will be
>> approaching photographers directly to secure permission from them to use
>> their photos. No photos will be used without permission.

there is a discussion about this on the imc-license list: i think it will be
interesting to see what the outcome of this is.

- --

love and solidarity,

	--gdm

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Main/GarconDuMonde

i have a NEW key:
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 594B97C2
Key fingerprint = 7B70 F22D F275 D111 3A04  F9EE 0E25 4944 594B 97C2



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