[CIMC-work] WIDC

[Ian Bicking]

On Wednesday, August 27, 2003, at 06:13 PM, Chris Kaihatsu wrote:
> Another is about the offer made to us by WIDC. See:
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-chicago-working/2003-August/ 
> 001390.
> html

We talked about this some at the meeting, though with only me, Don, and  
Garth, we couldn't exactly come to any decisions, especially without  
the most interested parties there.

I notice from the email that it's like $300/mo for what we already have  
-- a desk (shared?), mail, DSL, and two meetings a month.  All we get  
for that is a Northside location, and being physically closer to people  
doing film/video work.  If we actually want to *do* anything with the  
space (which we aren't with our current space) that $300/mo isn't going  
to be enough anyway.

I'm supportive of thinking of ways we can be more physically present.   
I think there are limitations to online participation, and more  
importantly as a local internet site we have the potential to have  
physical presence, where most internet sites do not have that potential.

But while I'm supportive of that, I'm less clear about video's role.   
How are we going to do video when we can't get our shit together to do  
really good text/photo/audio?  If we have a really good, productive  
video group we might produce one or two significant pieces a year, and  
various clips.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but video is a lot of work.   
All that for a piece of media that we can't usefully distribute through  
our main outlet, the website.

I haven't followed this closely.  And I hate to be a downer about  
things, but after reading that email I wasn't excited about the space  
(OTOH, I haven't seen the space, so maybe I'm underestimating its  
energy or usability).  I'm not excited about our current space either.   
It's worth $150/mo, but if it were much more than that I'd say we  
shouldn't bother.  It *could* be worth more than that, or another space  
could be worth more than that, but we need to actually use it.  It has  
to fit into other plans that people have, and that people are committed  
to following up on.

If video people are really psyched about this, then sure, go for it.  I  
can't really judge what the space is worth to you all.  But of course  
it will take ongoing funding that we don't have.  I'd like us not to  
dip into our (quite modest) funds for this, but raise all new money for  
it.

   Ian