[New-imc] IMC Tallahassee-Red Hills: Internal DEADLINE NOVEMBER 27, 2002

[Sheri Herndon]

hi everyone,

we received an email last week from dubrovko about the imc 
tallahassee application.  i've just been reviewing their website and 
it looks like they are really well organized and far along in their 
process.  i was very impressed by visiting their site and seeing how 
well documented they are and how much work they have been doing.  it 
seems like a very strong collective.  i encourage people to check out 
their organizing site: 
http://tallytown.com/imc/affiliation/index.html-ssi and their imc 
site: http://imc.tallytown.com/.

below are their critical documents for us to review in the next week:

1.  mission statement
2.  principles of unity
3.  membership criteria with comments
4.  detailed editorial policy

questions for us and them:

1.  can you move your current organizing list to lists.indymedia.org 
and set up a list or lists for your local (you can do this through 
listwork at indymedia.org)?
2.  does having tallytown.com pose a problem in that it is a .com and 
will it become tallytown.indymedia.org once approved?
3.  i'm curious about how the regionalism will work.  i think this is 
exciting and am just curious.
4.  they don't have an introductory statement like we usually ask 
imcs but i imagine their mission statement can work.  what do others 
think?  i personally really enjoy seeing how diverse the statements 
can be and i hope we continue to ask for these with each new 
application.  they are slightly different from a mission statement.
5.  dubrovko, do you have people ready to join imc finance and 
communication and process as liaisons?  has there been any discussion 
about that?  has anyone been following the global lists?
6.  has your collective had any discussions about funding and 
sustainability - economic democracy?
7.  what contact information would you want to have in the contact 
database for the network?  this would enable us to contact your 
collective with important network-wide proposals and issues.  many 
imcs have chosen to use their local list, but it can be an individual 
who is responsible for getting that information to the local 
collective.
8.  have you had any contact with other local imcs in your region? 
we really encourage regionalism and networking with imcs nearby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1.  Mission Statement (approved august 9, 2002):  The Tallahassee-Red 
Hills Independent Media Center is a grassroots organization committed 
to promoting social and economic justice in our community and our 
environment through democratic access to media and information 
technologies. We are dedicated to providing an open and inclusive 
communication forum where diverse viewpoints, including those not 
represented in mainstream, commercial media, may be represented.

2.  Principles of Unity:  All of the network principles were adopted 
by their collective on august 9, 2002).

3.  Membership Criteria:

     # Agree in spirit to the NIMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity,
       Yes, as evidenced by acceptance of the ten principles.
     # Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a 
functional IMC,
       Since the first meeting with close to 50 attendees, there was a 
core of about 15 people involved in organizing, and more people 
contributed on our website. The first official meeting of the 
Collective planned for Dec 6, to reunite all those who worked on 
organizing with all those who are ready to contribute. An "open 
house" is planned for January 2003 as a "coming out" party.
     # Have open and public meetings (no one group can have 
exclusionary "ownership" of an IMC),
       Yes, as evidenced by our By-laws.
     # Work toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement 
of Purpose. Network Mission Statement may be adopted or used on an 
interim basis,
       Adopted on August 9.
     # Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed 
and functions through democratic process, and with full transparency,
       Adopted on August 30 and included in By-Laws.
     # Agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the NIMC 
Editorial Policy [editorial collective comments: "We did agree that 
the term "Open Publishing" was one that is still being defined by the 
Global Network Collective, and we would wait and see what the results 
were before rewriting this criteria],
       Yes, as evidenced by our By-laws and our current website at 
http://imc.tallytown.com/ - using dadaIMC as the codebase.
     # Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with 
consensus principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian 
processes,
       See By-Laws.
     # Have a spokesperson(s) willing and capable of participating in 
the global decision-making process and meetings as a rotating 
liaison/representative, with a clear understanding of the 
responsibilities that come with this role,
       At least one person has participated since the beginning, more 
will in future.
     # Participate in the key IMC Network Communication Methods that 
pertain to the health and vitality of the Network and that contribute 
to the work of the IMC. Assure that at least one person from your 
local IMC participates at any given time on the IMC-Communications 
list,
       Working on it.
     # (NOT FINALIZED): Have no official affiliation with any 
political party, state or candidate for office (comments: but 
individual producers have freedom to do whatever they like and local 
IMCs can "feature" stories about various political parties and 
initiatives),
       No affiliation.
     # IMCs shall in no way engage in commercial for-profit 
enterprises. [We could add: The IMCN is committed to the 
decommercialization of information and will disassociate from any 
local IMC that decides to become a for profit media corporation.]
       Yes, as evidinced by our statement of purpose and By-laws.
     # Display a "local version" of the IMC "i" logo on your website 
and literature.
       See http://imc.tallytown.com/
     # Include the IMC Network current "Cities List" on your site, 
preferably on the front page.
       See http://imc.tallytown.com/

4.  Editorial Policy

  Editorial Policy:
(up for discussion with additions as of Aug 30, 2002)

Our responsibility for the stewardship of the newswire, and of the 
website in general (consisting of features section and newswire 
section), is expressed in these four guiding principles, which form 
the basis of Tallahassee-RedHills IMC editorial policy:

     # To provide an unmoderated, open-publishing newswire in 
accordance with established IMC policies and philosophy.
     # To maintain the newswire and website as a community space, and 
a safe environment for users, especially members of disempowered or 
marginalized groups.
     # To acknowledge that speech has the power to cause injury, but 
that instances of injurious speech should also be seen as 
opportunities for insurrectionary response.
     # To preserve the quality of the website as a useful media resource.

Postings to the Tallahassee-RedHills IMC newswire are unmoderated. 
Members of Tallahassee-RedHills IMC regularly monitor the newswire, 
keeping our eyes open for particularly significant, informative 
contributions to add to the front page's center-column feature 
section.

While committed to maintaining the open nature of the newswire, as 
noted above, in rare circumstances our editors may reclassify 
postings as news or opinion, or remove them from view. In most such 
cases, postings are reclassified or hidden because they are empty or 
duplicate posts, or because they consist of advertising or libelous 
or other inappropriate content.

In accordance with our mission, Tallahassee-RedHills IMC media 
efforts are designed to empower individuals to become independent and 
civic journalists by providing a direct, unmoderated forum for 
presenting media, including text articles, audio and video 
recordings, and photographs, to the public via the Internet, print 
and broadcast. Within that general framework, we specifically 
encourage individuals to publish:

     # Researched, timely articles;
     # Personal accounts of community events and demonstrations;
     # Coverage of issues involving Tallahassee and the Red Hills bioregion;
     # Media analysis with particular regard to corporate media;
     # Investigative reports exposing injustice;
     # Stories on events affecting underrepresented groups;
     # Media produced from within underrepresented groups;
     # Local stories with national or global significance;
     # Stories on people or projects working towards social and 
economic justice.

Our editors will make final editorial decisions, and are empowered to:

     * Edit postings and contributions to correct spelling, grammar or 
format problems, without consulting the author;
     * Choose features based on what they believe to be an article's 
importance to Tallahassee and the Red Hills bioregion or the Florida 
Government, the solidity of the research and sources, and the quality 
of writing;
     * Hide posts, without consulting the author, that in the editors 
opinion: - Are duplicates (we will keep the oldest post)
           o Are in an unreadable form
           o Are boldly slanderous or libelous
           o Advocate violent or destructive activity with a specific 
time, place and manner - Are contrary to the mission or goals of the 
Tallahassee-RedHills IMC;
     * Delete posts, without consulting the author, that in the editors opinion:
           o Are not news related (spam, commercial posts)
           o Violate copyright laws;
     * Keep posts that, in the editors' opinions, are merely offensive 
or controversial in order to encourage open discussion and debate. 
The Tallahassee-RedHills IMC acknowledges that speech has the power 
to cause injury, but that instances of injurious speech should also 
be seen as opportunities for insurrectionary response.

PROCEDURE FOR HIDING POSTS:

Hiding articles is a drastic measure, and our editors take such 
actions only when necessary. Newswire posts found to violate 
editorial policy are here divided into two categories: simple and 
complicated.

Simple

Posted articles or media representing unambiguous violations of 
policy, which can usually be hidden from the newswire without 
extended discussion, fall into three categories:

     # Posts containing no content, or consisting only of links to other sites.
     # Duplicate posts.
     # Posts consisting of advertising or job descriptions.

When an active editor identifies such a post, he or she immediately 
hides it, and appends a signed comment to the hidden article 
explaining why it was hidden. If the author of the post has given an 
email address, the editor sends him or her an explanatory message and 
copies it to the rest of the editors. Any additional email 
conversation is also copied to our editors.

Complicated

Posted articles or other media not falling into the above simple 
categories may still be found to violate one or more of the four core 
principles of our editorial policy, as follows:

     # To provide an unmoderated, open-publishing newswire in 
accordance with established IMC policies and philosophy.
     # To maintain the newswire and website as a community space, and 
a safe environment for users, especially members of disempowered or 
marginalized groups.
     # To acknowledge that speech has the power to cause injury, but 
that instances of injurious speech should also be seen as 
opportunities for insurrectionary response.
     # To preserve the quality of the website as a useful media resource.

Simply violating one of these principles does not in itself justify 
hiding a post. Perceived violations must be weighed against the other 
principles through mindful discussion. In relation to a particular 
post, one principle may be found to conflict with another. These 
principles provide the ethical framework for decision-making, even as 
they inevitably complicate editorial discussions. Our editors are 
prevented from hiding articles rashly or without principled 
discussion, and remain accountable to clear (though flexible) policy 
guidelines.

When an editor identifies a post he or she thinks should be hidden, 
he or she alerts the other editors, either making a formal proposal 
to hide the post or requesting conversation on the subject. Once an 
editor proposes hiding the article, all editors begin a focused 
discussion in accordance with its consensus process. If the editors 
decide to hide the post, the editor who made the proposal hides the 
post, and appends a signed comment to the posting explaining why it 
was hidden. If the author of the post has given an email address, the 
editor sends him or her an explanatory message and copies it to rest 
of the editors. Any additional email conversation is also copied to 
the rest of the editors.