[New-imc] Online form: Proposed new IMC! (kcindymedia.org)

[sadams7 at kc.rr.com]

Submitted by: Samantha Adams <sadams7 at kc.rr.com> on Monday, December 16th, 2002 @ 3:48:54 pm (-0800)

Client Variables
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HTTP_USER_AGENT:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; YComp 5.0.0.0)

Online Form Fields
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imc_name:
kcindymedia.org

city:
Kansas City

state:
MO

country:
USA

contact_name:
Samantha Adams

contact_email:
sadams7 at kc.rr.com

contact_phone:
913-385-5176

tech_name:
Jason Clinton

tech_email:
clintonj at umkc.edu

tech_phone:


supporting_groups:
Friends of Community Radio
Kansas City Greens
Fair Trade Coalition
Free Speech Coalition
American Friends Service Commmittee
Linux Users Group
Heartland Labor Forum
more to come...



regional_focus:
yes

critical_dates:
none

resources:
We can\'t host the site ourselves, but we\'ve been in contact with St Louis indymedia, and they\'ve offered to host for us. 

Samantha Adams, our contact person, has web experience and has read the information regarding dadaimc. She teaches people how to use the web and will offer help to local groups who want to post articles, photos, etc. to our site.

Three people in the Linux Users Group have offered their help with back end/programming issues.

We had 10 people attend our main meeting, and Samantha has met informally with activists in our community at our weekly peace vigils and contacted regional activists via the Internet. She is continuing to put feelers out to local groups, minority communities and people outside of Kansas City to ensure that kcindymedia.org becomes a valuable regional resource for information, connecting groups that work on similar issues, and for providing news that our mainstream media doesn\'t.

outreach:
We have passed out fliers at local progressive events and at our weekly peace vigils that are attended by approximately 200 people each week (not always the same people). We have a commitment from one local business leader to post information in her storeabout getting involved with indymedia organization or posting to the site once it\'s up. 

Samantha has obtained email addresses from leaders in the Hispanic community in Kansas City and talked to people she knows in KC and in Lawrence about meeting with college groups that might be interested in participating in kcindymedia. We talked about potential for getting the word out at our organzational meeting and plan to take concrete steps toward seeking out other groups.

introductory_statement:
Kansas City is full of people begging for information -- about what\'s going on here, in our country and in the world. We need an easy-to-access medium that people can rely on for the real news, where they can also get the word out about things they know, do and see. 

We are working locally on many of the issues that progressive groups are working on nationally, such as fair trade, a resolution demanding our civil liberties be upheld when they conflict with the Patriot Act, antiwar vigils, bringing Rolling Thunder to Kansas City, and getting more Green candidates on the ballot. 

We also have our share of local concerns, such as a nonprofit hospital that is being sold and leaving low income families out in the cold, bringing attention to the poor water quality in our degraded rivers, stopping the construction of a highway through wetlands, and more. Many people in our community are aware of these issues and are working to bring change, but we sometimes feel like we\'re working in a vacuum. We need a way to link beyond Kansas and Missouri so we can be a more visible part of the progressive community. 

We are a community of activists, but we are splintered. We need a way for people here, especially - but nationally as well, to tell others what they are doing and to find out what others are doing.  

We need to organize more effectively. We have little coordination on activities and events, which results in too much overlapping, so we need a calendar that anyone can post to and anyone can access to find out what\'s happening.  We also need information about what other groups need and what they can provide. Our mainstream media doesn\'t give us the opportunity to get our messsage out, or when they do we are marginalized and misrepresented. A corporate-minded junta has taken over our community radio station and is strangling out the \"community\" component. We will yell from the streets if we have to to make our voices heard, but we think we can be more effective with kcindymedia.org as our tool.

There are thousands of creative voices here who are writing about what they see, documenting their experiences with photography and expressing themselves through various media. We need their energy and creativity to make the bad news easier to swallow and to give our good ideas more steam. We believe our web site could be a forum where Kansas City\'s artists can express themselves for the betterment of our entire community and cities beyond.