[CIMC-working] proposals for imc network - to discuss at next meeting

[Ian Bicking]

On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 08:09, Doug Morris wrote:
> Further, our servers are centralized.  The USA where a lot of Indymedia 
> organizing has occurred, during the *start up* phase of indymedia in its 
> first three years, is an increasingly dangerous place to organize radical 
> media activism and resources to support that.  It seems European states are 
> also becoming dangerous locations.  We need to decentralize for our 
> activist network to survive.

I've been thinking about the server portion of this, and my current
thinking is that redundancy is the best option.  Hosting our server in
Costa Rica, for instance, would not help us much -- certainly Costa Rica
doesn't have PATRIOT or similar laws or intelligence agencies like the
US, but it is no more stable or legally predictable.  Many European
countries are potentially better with respect to likelihood of
harrassment, but have censorship laws that excede the US's.  There isn't
really an ideal location.

But if we can form a network of backups and mirroring, with tested
recovery schemes, then we should be able to respond fairly quickly to a
specific attack.

> Technical and media efforts in the global south could/would continue to be 
> supported by imcs in the global north, through local-to-local/region, 
> regional-to-local/region and global efforts.

It is important that this happen in some consistent way.  I can imagine
a situation where IMCs with their own technical support -- primarily
global north -- abandon global resources (i.e., Stallman) for their own
solutions, leaving Stallman without maintenance by locally-invested
volunteers.

I believe the reality of the situation is that IMCs for less technically
developed areas will have to piggyback on the efforts and resources of
other IMCs.  So long as that help is distributed it should not be too
great a burden, but if those IMCs become centralized it would be to
their detriment.

> 	- a global tech administrator or two (works to support global tech servers 
> and with regional and local imc tech people and resources). This role might 
> devolve to regions once imc servers are more decentralized.

There may be other ways to reduce administrative overhead without a
salaried position.  Most of them in effect are a form of outsourcing. 
For instance, by renting a server instead of purchasing and colocating
one, much of the responsibility for hardware and some lower-level
network issues is shifted to the hosting provider (who is often better
able to support these issues anyway).

This isn't a tremendous gain, but it could perhaps allow some problems
to be resolved with money where currently there is no resolution.

I'm a little worried about salaried positions, as they necessitate some
sort of structure.  Who decides what the job responsibilities are?  Who
determines if they are being met?  What is the proper compensation? 
What's a full-time job vs. a part-time job?  What if the job isn't being
done, how do we fire the person and who chooses?  Who gets the job in
the first place?  Indymedia doesn't have the structure to make these
sorts of decisions.

Translation could potentially be easier to handle, as it can be done at
a fixed per-word rate, or some similar arrangement.  It doesn't require
nearly as significant a relationship.