[New-imc] New IMC process : Columbus, Ohio

[KC]

Hey Everyone, this is Kenton from the Columbus IMC, trying to get this
network recognition finalized. We have been working for two months on the
Columbus IMC site, which is currently being hosted at http://cbusimc.org

We have been holding regular meetings, appealing to other groups around the
city and the Columbus campuses, both with positive feedback coming to us. We
have an established Editorial Collective which has attended every meeting
and who check the site daily. We have a site administrator to deal with the
technical aspects as well. Here is updated info from the form we filled out
months ago, along with the editorial policy and mission statement.

Cleveland IMC is our sponsor.
Online Form Fields
> ------------------
>
> proposed_imc_name:
> Columbus Indymedia
>
> proposed_imc_url:
> http://columbus.indymedia.org
>
> current_url:
> cbusimc.org <http://cbusimc.org/>
>
> city:
> Columbus
>
> state:
> OH
>
> country:
> USA
>
> contact_name:
> Kenton Cobb
>
> contact_email:
> effeminaterambo at gmail.com
>
> contact_phone:
> 614-309-1791
>
> tech_name:
> Robert Ebright
>
> tech_email:
> robbt at azone.org
>
> tech_phone:
> 614-313-8595
>
> focus:
> regional_focus
>
> critical_dates:
>none
>
> supporting_groups:
> The Free Press
> Columbus Anti-Authoritarian Media
> Talking Monkeys Improv Comedy Group
> URGE(urban radical guerrila entertainment) films
> Arawak City Braintrust
>AntiWar Columbus
>
> introductory_statement:
> We want to join the Indymedia network so that we can
> provide coverage of local events and provide central
> Ohioans with a site to report news that is important
> to them in the moment, as well as connect people to broader national
>and international issues they may not have equal access to.
>
> resources:
Currently we are using a Drupal codebase, and participating on the
Drupal-IMC-dev list. It isn't perfectly tuned but is being improved. We are
possibly going to be doing a streaming server with the Free Press and the
free press has republished some articles that were written for
Cbusimc.org<http://Cbusimc.org>with the authors permission. We don't
have a real server and are using a
cheap hosting site, which should probably be transferred to an IMC server
somewhere upon acceptance.
>
> outreach:
> We have spoken with many people and promoted the IMC
> through flyering and outreach. We have made
> presentations at local alternative media gatherings
> and are still working on bringing more people into
> using the site. We have covered local anti-war events, protests and went
to
anti-war meetings and promoted the IMC. We have kept in touch with people
who are interested and been having regular meetings at a stable spot.
>
> identity_makeup:
> There is a diverse group of people who have been
> involved in the Indymedia project since we have been
> trying to get it started a year ago. The collective is pretty diverse. In
our core group, we
have lots of girls, guys, jews, blacks and discordians and atheists and umm,
some agnostics,
maybe a christian or two, democratically leaning people, anarchists,
undecided politically motivated,
old and young, poor and well to do.
>
> steps_represent_diversity:
> We want to make our site easy to use and plan on
> training people without internet skills on how to
> use it at various community organizing centers
> around the city. We are going to continue to outreach and promote
the site as a place to promote their events and we think that getting it
listed
on the rest of the indymedia network will raise awareness.
>
> steps_involve_new_workfields:
> We will try to teach people how to maintain the
> website and switch job roles on a regular basis. In
> order to avoid a gendered work division, we will
> empower all individuals to take up each role rather
> than be pushed into simply fufilling one task over
> and over again.

This is being done by teaching how to adminster Drupal to all members of the
editorial collective and also attempting to include people in the
development process
and decision making aspects. Everyone is encouraged to write regular
articles and cover events
and we have had a lot of participation from people new to the concept.


Here is the Mission Statement from our Site. http://cbusimc.org/about

*About Indymedia*

The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets
for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth.
We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a
better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to
cover the efforts to free humanity.

*About CbusIMC*

The Columbus Independent Media Center is all volunteer collective dedicated
to providing central Ohio with a non-biased, non-corporate source of news
and events.

Columbus Independent Media Center Mission Statement:
The Columbus Independent Media Collective serves to provide an alternative
media outlet. We will work to:

• Promote Diverse Media Coverage in Central Ohio.
• Provide Links to alternative media, activist and research groups.
• To cover event that are ignored or poorly covered by corporate media.
• To network, coordinate, encourage, facilitate and support grassroots-
based independent media.

As well as working together to accomplish out mission statement, all
Indymedia Centers operate with respect to the Principles of Unity
<http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/PrinciplesOfUnity>


Here is our editorial policy. We haven't had any postings that directly
violated our principles of unity yet and we are still developing the
technical details of adminstering it. Mostly we have just done technical
alterations like posting events posted to the news wire in the events
category or changing the wire when something was put into the wrong one,
national stories in the local news wire. We are going to do more work to get
this up to snuff as we join the network.

http://cbusimc.org/editorial

*Submission Information*

The newswire operates on the principle of Open Publishing, an
element essential to the Independent Media Centers (IMC) around the world.
Simply put, Open Publishing is to news and information what open source code
is to software. To learn more see This article about
OP<http://cbusimc.org/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html%E2%80%9D>.
In practice, the Open Publishing newswire allows anyone to instantaneously
self-publish their work on
http://www.cbusimc.org<http://cbusimc.org/%E2%80%9Dhttp://cbusimc.org%E2%80%9D>,
a web site accessible from around the world.

People are encouraged to "become the media," to use their own skills and
abilities of observation, writing, and creativity in posting text, analysis,
videos, audio clips, photos and artwork directly to the website. The post is
then viewable at the top of the Other/Breaking newswire, and will move down
the list as more people post news.

The use of, and belief in, Open Publishing rests on several central
assumptions:

• People who post to the newswire will present their information in a
thorough, honest, and accurate manner.
• Readers are intelligent and aware, skeptical and inquisitive of the posts
they read and videos they watch, and are able to distinguish for themselves
what is content of value and what is not.

We think that all content published on this site should be free for
non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the internet and
elsewhere, and we think that Copyleft is an idea which should be central to
Indymedia. Because of this, all content published on this site is done so
under these terms by default. However if you want to publish content under
different terms and conditions, you must clearly state these terms and
conditions in the text of your published content.
For more information on copyleft and open content concepts see:
• Open Content<http://cbusimc.org/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.opencontent.org%E2%80%9D>
• Creative Commons<http://cbusimc.org/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.creativecommons.org%E2%80%9D>

*Editorial Policy*

Indymedia is a democratic newswire. We want to see and hear the real
stories, news, and opinions from around the country. While we struggle to
maintain the newswire as a completely open and transparent forum, we do
monitor it and remove posts. To minimize the chance of this make sure you
understand the Independent Media Center's Principles of Unity
<http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/PrinciplesOfUnity>

Reality dictates that the editorial working group will at times decide to
hide posts and comments. This is not a decision that is taken lightly, and
the editorial working group does its best refrain from hiding/editing. Our
vision for the function of the newswire, and the general framework in which
all decisions to hide/edit will be made, are as follows:

• The newswire is intended to be a community media resource, a space free
from spam and abuse in general
• That space will not contribute to the oppression of traditionally
oppressed and marginalized groups.

Members of the Editorial Collective are permitted to hide posts or remove
them. Questionable content will be hidden or removed if two members of the
Editorial Collective decide that a post or comment has infracted one or more
of these three points:

• The post or comment constitutes abuse of the newswire (see note below);
• The post or comment undermines the Principles of Unity of the IMC; e.g.,
hate speech; or
• The post or comment constitutes a spam attack (see below) on the newswire.

Editors may make typographical, spelling or grammar corrections And
formatting improvements and remove extraneous, false, illegal (threatening,
libelous, etc.), or abusive (pornographic, etc.) material and hate speech,
and particularly with regards to syndicated articles, are encouraged to do
so. Explanation of any modification should be inserted in brackets, as
appropriate. Editors may remove copyrighted material on request of the
copyright owner. At any time another Editorial Collective member may dispute
the
hiding/editing of a comment or post. Upon hiding/editing a post, the member
of the editorial working group Who did so may also add a comment explaining
the basis upon which the Decision to edit/hide was made. This is
time-consuming, so editorial collective members will do so to the best of
their ability. In addition, all hidden posts will continue to remain
publicly accessible one click away from the front page on a page listing
only hidden posts. The link to view all hidden posts is located at the
bottom of the newswire.


Please get back to us if there is any step we missed or thing we need to do.

Cleveland IMC is our sponsor.
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