[IMC-bristol] Announcment of "imc-uk-network" list

[Tony]

You are invited to join the list: <imc-uk-network@indymedia.org.uk>

This has been set up to facilitate the upcoming uk wide indymedia meeting
[see letter below] - initial proposal is for early September.

We invite all the people who would be interested in organising and 
attending this meeting to use this list to work towards an agenda, 
arrange a venue and to network the idea.

To subscribe to the list go to:
http://lists.indymedia.org/listinfo/imc-uk-network

To view the public archives go to:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-uk-network

cheers tony
one of imc uk network

=================================
Hi Folks,

Indymedia Meeting Proposal ("Accelerating Localisation")

NB  This has also being sent to IMC Bristol, IMC Ireland and the two 
in application IMC's,  Wales and Scotland.

This is a proposal to move towards the localisation of the imc uk 
network - it is relevant both to the IMC UK Site and to the other 
existing and forthcoming IMC Sites. Efforts to localise Indymedia uk 
have been ongoing for many months and this is part of that process.

Over the past months there's been contact with all the uk wide 
volunteers that have contacted IMC UK and who want to work with 
indymedia. People have been put in contact with each other according 
to region and beyond being directed to the various uk mailing lists 
have been offered any help they might need to either build a 
collective to work on the uk site or set up their own local IMC site.

There are quite large groups of people in, Edinburgh, Manchester, 
Leeds, Brighton, Oxford, Birmingham and Liverpool, Glasgow, and many 
individuals all over who will have been in contact with each other by 
now.

We would like to propose a uk wide weekend/meeting where everyone 
working on, and those who have said they want to work on indymedia 
uk, can discuss what we would like to do in relation to the UK site 
and to each other. We would als like to propose the participation of 
people from IMC Bristol, the in-process IMC Wales and IMC Scotland, 
and IMC Ireland - if of course they want to attend.

Here we could also do introductions, trainings, indymedia and 
alternative media discussions (theoretical and project based)  - 
also presumably inviting the established uk active media like pirate 
tv, schnews, undercurrents etc to participate. Collectively we could 
have some really great skill share sessions and discussions.

For this we will need to look for a venue, possibly up north, maybe 
in Manchester, that could hold up to 100 people.

To aid this process it's proposed to set up a list called 
"imcuk-network" for all regional volunteers also inviting existing 
imc'ers to paricipate, and this would help develop ideas and produce 
an agenda. This could be a temporary list that would then close - or 
it might evolve into a network communications list for the different 
sites and groups, as one outcome of the meeting would be to set a 
solid network of collectives that are able to communicate and 
exchange information to build the indymedia idea in the uk (both in 
terms of working and running the "uk" site as well as communication 
and co-ordination between different sites).

At this process moves forward the people who currently work on the uk 
site that are based in London (aside fom the LWG) would want to set 
themselves up as a local IMC UK organising group (imcuk-locallondon) 
- these are a good deal of the people who originally set up IMC UK 
two years ago, of which I am one. A suggestion could be that then 
other local groups wanting to work on the UK site could have their 
own email lists for local organising work (for example: 
imcuk_localYOURTOWN@lists.indy....) - in this way the community of 
people working on the UK site can be localised.

The three main options for local groups that have been outlined 
before in relation to IMC UK site when volunteers have contacted imc 
uk are:

1 - To participate in working on the UK site -   writing features, 
participating in decision making, training, creating 'offline' 
networking and doing screenings and benifits etc etc

2 -  To set up a special page on the UK site (linked like the hackney 
section on the uk front page) where they can organise the features 
relevant to their region/city and get involved in the running of the 
UK site. (this could be good training before people open their own 
site)

3 - Or of course to set up a new local site for their City or Region 
-  they will need to write their own mission statement, working 
practices, and editorial guidelines, have technical knowledge (help 
is always at hand) and do the day to day running of the site.

Of course with there now being Bristol, Ireland, Wales IMC Sites and 
Scotland IMC Site coming it might make sense for some of the 
volunteers to work with them rather than the UK site. Indeed this may 
also be a good opportunity to question the "imc-uk name", a name 
decided on at the start two years ago, problematic for its 
connotations, and now perhaps more inappropriate, as well as maybe 
looking at the role of the "uk" site in relation to the other indy 
sites.

With regard to volunteers a good way to start this process would be 
for those in each region / city to meet, and if they decide there is 
still the energy and interest, set up a indymedia e-mail list, and if 
they wanted we or others from other IMC sites like Bristol or Wales 
could come and talk through our experiences of when we  started, 
advise and listen and explain some of the basic working practices 
throughout the indymedia global community (this could for example 
also involve a film night / presentation etc to  get more local 
people involved).

So the time, place and agenda would have to be decided between us all 
together. Although the sooner the better really. One idea might be to 
have a preliminary meeting sooner rather than later.

It's proposed to use the uk process list ( 
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-process ) to 
discuss this for now until the other list as mentioned above is 
sorted.

Interested?

Feedback, Ideas, Suggestions?

Cheers,
Dave
1 of imc uk volunteers

Do Indymedia....

www.indymedia.org.uk
www.bristol.indymedia.org
www.indycymru.org.uk
www.indymedia.ie

Don't Hate The Media Be The Media
Bypass The Corporate Media Machine!

_______________________________________________
Imc-uk-process mailing list
Imc-uk-process@lists.indymedia.org
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-process