[Imc-india] Regional Indian IMCs

[Vickram Crishna]

At 7:29 AM +0000 12/01/2004, Montgomery Cheddar wrote:
>I believe this is the best method of devolution, rather than the 
>other option of relying on IMC collectives to go through the whole 
>process of setting up new regional IMCs. Local activists from these 
>areas would be able to concentrate on editorial co-operation, 
>instead of worrying about tech issues and implementing the editorial 
>policy.

I agree, but I just want to sound a note of caution that we don't 
seem to have a strong "attraction' yet for editors, who are the means 
of effectualising editorial policy. As you know, India Indymedia was 
*rescued* by four volunteers who had to make waves with the admins. 
It is a sound thought, but needs to be supported by teams of people 
who will launch sites/regions with a decent level of commitment to 
the future, not the kind of short-term thing of which we have already 
had one unfortunate experience.

Perhaps a discussion on open publishing and what it means to us is 
needed at this point. Solidarity does require solidity too!

>We also need to work towards creating new language options, perhaps 
>concentrating first on Hindi (although there could be some 
>objections from some outside the Hindi belt).

Wherever there are available fonts, language media follows. May I 
suggest an alternative approach, which is to write a feature on 
Indian fonts, and ensure that links to all the font sites are posted. 
One of us can then review the situation every few weeks or months and 
add links as needed. Journalists wanting to use this resource for 
Indymedia can then post a request, build a base team, then we will 
get the needed technical support from the main tech resources.
-- 
Vickram