[New-imc] Re: IMC-Binghamton

[Arc]

On Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 11:51:21AM +0100, blue.pi wrote:
> But as it looks right now, we would have to object until you clarify one 
> thing: In your emails, you always say "I" did this or that, than you say 
> there is a group. Well, that is a bit confusing. 

I will clairify.  There is exactly one person (Bill) plus one remote
tech which he has never met in person or on phone.  This tech lives in a
neiboring city, Vestal, and claims to be deaf and thus cannot talk
on phone.  This is also the tech that setup and maintains the website.

Bill has also expressed a strong rejection to having regular meetings or
even attempting to outreach to more people before the IMC becomes
official.  My hope is that some of us can show him that this is exactly
what he needs to do and thus get IMC-Binghamton off the ground.  Email
is a horrible communications tool and phone almost as bad.  Sitting down
with him face to face is, in my opinion, the best way to move forward.

> About meeting with IMC Ithaca: Up to now that must be considered a 
> suggestion not a requirement because we haven't really discussed Arc's 
> proposal yet. I personally don't think that we can make that a general 
> requirement or if we do we must work on how exactly we define distance (up 
> to 50 km? same state? same country?). 

To stay focused on this application (IMC-Binghamton):

I don't feel that I ever expressed this as a requirement, however,
because Bill has no previous experience with Indymedia or even our basic
organizational model having him meet with some of us and see how IMCs
generally work would be a really good thing in my opinion.

This is a general problem I've found when talking to alot of people who
say they are interested in starting IMCs.  They believe "Indymedia" is a
bunch of websites, and no matter how "transparent" we claim to be those
who use our websites generally have no idea that there's a group behind
them.  They want to start a website, they have no idea that an IMC means
getting a group of people to collectivly organize it, and often think
we're being unreasonable by requiring that they get a group of people
organized to start a website they could setup alone in a few hours.

I remember last time I was in DC some guy from Cincinati was talking to
me about starting an IMC there, trying to convince me that it was needed
because of all the police corruption etc.  I repeatedly told him "cool,
then the first thing you need to do is get some people together and
start meeting".. and he repeatedly said back "but all we need is a
website to post stories to, you see?".  This conversation went around in
circles, he getting frustrated, I tried to explain why IMCs were a group
of people and not just a website and it seemed like a totally alien
concept to him.  "I'm a single father, I don't have time to do that."

I try to be patient, remembering back to when I first got involved and
how frustrated I was by not knowing anything and not understanding why
things "couldnt just be done".  I was ahead of alot of new people,
having been at the NYC IMC space and talking to some of the Atlanta IMC
folks out on the streets during the WEF last year.  But, I still didn't
know even what the basic process was much less where to go to start it.

I believe, atleast in this case, that the best way to go forward with
this is for Bill to visit another IMC or two and see how we operate.  I
invited him to meet with people here, and also if he's going to DC I
offered to introduce him to some of the DC-IMC folk.  Without him
realising the need to have other people involved and start having IMC
meetings I think this application is pretty doomed.

As far as my earlier proposal I am in no way trying to impose that on
IMC-Binghamton.  If you'll remember, the proposal was for neiboring IMCs
within a certain distance to have to approve the new IMC.  I am mearly
highly recommending that a face to face meeting (if not several) take
place, prehaps including some of our members going to Binghamton, to
help them get off the ground.  Since the cities are so close and our
memberships will often mix I also think it's important to build
solidarity between the two IMCs right from the start.  We already have
one member (of IMC-Ithaca) that travels further than this distance to
attend our weekly meetings and also to cover stories here in Ithaca.

I'll also note that alot of people interested in starting IMCs travel to
other cities to learn about how IMCs work, check out their spaces, learn
how meetings are conducted, etc.  I think that in this case it's not
only a good idea but may mean the difference between an IMC starting and
Bill just getting too frustrated and giving up on the whole thing.

I, for one, think having another IMC so close to us would be totally
awesome and want to do whatever I can to make it happen.  Some of the
other people here in Ithaca have expressed similar enthusiasm for it.
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