[Imc-lwg-work] new working group: imc-london-music. document v0.1

[Richard Malter]

               A new working group of 
			imc-london-working-group
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-london-wg-general
				coordinator Calan Stanley calan@probemusic.co.uk


           
______v0.1___________________________________________________________________
                                   * IMC-LONDON-MUSIC *
           CONTENTS: CONTEXT, PROPOSAL, OBJECTIVES, IMPLEMENTATION, 
                                   EDITORIAL GUIDELINES 
           
_____________________________________________________________________________



CONTEXT

>From the current Editorial_Guidelines of the IMC UK website:

"The Independent Media Centre UK is a network of media activists and 
organizations offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of 
important social and political issues." 

"Postmodernism/[capitalism] marks the final and complete incorporation of 
culture into the commodity system." 
Frederick Jameson - The Limits of Post Modern Theory [from a commentary on]

'Underground'/grassroots music is a social and political issue, part of basic 
grassroots culture, and means of expression in its own right. It is a cultural 
expression. It is also part of the effort to express and communicate an 
alternative culture and world to the global corporate monoculture. Music is, 
and is part of, a social movement.

Underground music is also a community, a group (like an 'affinity' group) that 
is based on a shared activity. This community exists both geographically 
locally and globally.

Transnational corporations own media companies as a tool for selfish profit-
making, not to transmit information about music or anything else. So currently 
underground music is hidden from the larger public community by a 
corporate 'wall' [*see Calan's drawing*]. Enormous media companies filter and 
mediate access to this underground community according to their mercenary 
goals. This creates a manufactured 'mainstream', leaving the vast majority of 
grassroots music with little or no way of connecting to the rest of the public 
community. 

- There are a great number of people who want to find out about underground 
music-makers.
- Due to the monopoly on media, not all people are able to recognize and, or 
see beyond the corporate wall dividing the mainstream and the underground.


PROPOSAL 

Produce and maintain a Music page on the Independent Media Centre (IMC) UK 
website.

Bypass the corporate wall and make the network of underground music-makers and 
their activities public. 

IMC-LONDON-MUSIC will enable underground music-makers to write about 
underground music in a public forum, and so free the spread of information to 
the larger public community.


OBJECTIVES

1) Open Publishing for underground music. Open public access to underground 
music-making.
 
2) Faciliate underground music (culture) to report on itself publicly, creating 
the equivalent of a live free library of information.

3) The aim of swelling underground music/culture or elevating it above the 
corporate wall will *not* be pursued, but

4) The aim *is* to drill big holes through the corporate wall, and enable the 
information out from and by the people who make it.


IMPLEMENTATION

a) IMC-LONDON-MUSIC will be a dedicated subsection of the IMC UK website, 
linked to from the front page of the IMC UK website by a "Music" link in the 
navagation bar above the middle column. 

b) When the "Music" link is clicked a new middle column and new newswire will 
reappear as dedicated Music page space.

c) A software 'patch' will be used to allow the easy selection of one of two 
catagories in the current upload form of the Newsire [Open Publishing right 
hand column] of the UK website: "Politics" or "Music". When the "Music" 
catagory is selected, the uploaded story will not appear on the frontpage 
newswire of the website - it will only be visible in a new separate newswire 
that will only be displayed when the "Music" navigation link from the front 
page of the website is clicked. In this way "Politics" will be unchanged given 
priority as it is currently, and the current frontpage newswire will not be 
affected in any way.

d) Duration and measurable terms. Six months to begin, extending freely and 
permanently. One month notice period of page (coordinator) ceasing to operate. 
Measurable terms of the project given throughout this docunment. 


IMC-LONDON-MUSIC EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

In addition to the full current Editorial_Guidelines of the IMC UK website, and 
within the Principles_of_Unity document of the Indymedia Network:

________________________________
 IMC-LONDON-MUSIC Editorial Team
     * Editorial Guidelines v0.2 *
________________________________

1) No promotion of any kind of the release/sale of an item of music recording 
in whatever medium, CD, vinyl etc., for the reason that the item of recording 
itself is the commercial element and venture, and for the reason that this 
would contradict OBJECTIVES 3) [see above]

2) An underground music gig is an event, and as such it can be reported on 
before and after it happens.

3) There can be reviews (critical statements) of a live event, and of an item 
of recording, eg CD, vinyl, etc.

4) No links anywhere from the editorialized middle column to any 
company/organization that is not *owned and run* by the 'workers'/implementers 
of its activity. eg a link to a band's own-managed website is permitted, to a 
producer's or distributor's website is not permitted. 

5) The Newswire for IMC-LONDON-MUSIC will be an Open Publishing (OP) newswire
[rough consensus working OP definition for the Indymedia Network here:
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~matthewa/catk/openpub.html 
and summary explanation here:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/help/help.html] 


/END of document