[New-imc] Handing out local URL's through the IMC-UK network

[Tony]

Thanks for everyones responses and the italian experience - very 
close to what we are attempting in the UK, in fact we did talk to 
passing people about the Brazil and Italian experiences over the 
years and that has informed our plans.

But i feel there is some misunderstanding of what we are asking for.

Basically we are going to still be one site - like Italy. Within the 
uk region there will be many collectives working rather than the one 
group that has worked up till recently. With MIR as a new software - 
we can have a main portal page - with a UK newswire - and at the same 
time have for example an Oxford main page with an oxford newswire. 
And of course we can have catagories like Anti-war, or Environment 
etc.

The following collectives exist: - Sheffield - West Midlands - Oxford 
- London - Manchester - Newcastle - Lancaster - Liverpool - Bristol - 
Cambridge - Leeds + Scotland and Wales. This is from a year of 
talking, outreaching, debating and meeting. All these groups are 
involved at the moment in some way with the UK site and its many 
off-shoots.

As i see it it is up to the UK network who they work with and how 
they work together, for that we do not need to approach this list or 
process. Of course we
have a basic set of criteria that we will set to include a collective 
in the site (i sent a rough draft the other week to this list)

What would be nice is if we could after going through that process 
(agreed on by the UK network and sent out of solidarity to this list) 
to be able to dish out UK sub domains. Ideally like 
http://oxford.indymedia.org - but maybe we will have to stick to 
slightly more complicated ones like http://uk.oxford.indymedia.org or 
http://uk.indymedia.org/oxford - the later two i presume we can hand 
out ourselves? Maybe as the process develops in the UK  the later 
options are preferable as Chris pointed out - they indicate the 
relation to the UK site.

What i was trying to ask from my original mail was - would it be 
possible to have the domain http://oxford.indymedia.org using a UK 
process - i got the feeling that there is resistance to this (i could 
be wrong). We will i guess have to do the other option - and when the 
UK process is working - we will of course inform this list (and 
others) of the new collectives, but not for acceptance.

Also if a collective wishes to have its own domain - they would have 
to go through the usual process (like lancaster did) and they have th 
echoice then of which domain to use.

I must make clear that this request was not in anyway to undermine 
this list as i do think it is essential that all the applications go 
through one place so they can be transparent - we were just trying to 
make things easier for small groups that we work with and already 
adhere to the indymedia values and principles.

[below i have answered some of the responses just to be clearer]

cheers for now
tony

>in italy we use .indymedia.it subdomains for local imc pages that are
>still part of italy imc site but managed autonomously
>ciao
>blicero

Thanks Blicero - the intalian info is great - in what way do you use 
the italian subdomains? Is it because you have the italian Indymedia 
you can organise it yourselves... As we also have 
http://indymedia.org.uk i think... so that could be our solution.

>hi tony,
>i think evan's last email in response to your questions had some good
>suggestions, particularly the less bureaucratic and more flexible 
>while adhering to the values and principles, etc.  having some 
>accountability.
>
>to use the examples of the imc brasil collective and talk to them as well as
>italia indymedia.  they do something similar.  what would then be great is if
>that information about how they are doing it on the national level would be
>shared wtih the new imc list.  that way some of that would be transparent and
>then the information would be available for others in similar 
>situations who are seeking some models and templates to check out. 
>
>peace,
sheri

Yes we will be documenting everything and placing it on Twiki along 
side the documentation for moving to MIR which has been a long but 
interesting haul - as many new techies have popped up to do it all...


>My thoughts on it are that it would be good if each local uk 
>collective  had read through, discussed, and agreed to the 
>membership criteria and  principles of unity of the indymedia 
>network.
>
>Perhaps the UK folks need to talk to the Brazilians who have been 
>having local collectives which operate semi-autonomously for a long 
>time. I think they have an internal process by which the vet and 
>help  the new imc's get started. The brasilians haven't applied for 
>separate  domain names or do they even up until now even have 
>separate sub pages  under brasil.indymedia.org.
>
>Perhaps there could be some delegation, where the UK network could 
>come  up with it's own sorta process for new imc's within it's 
>region. Then  the new-imc list could be kept informed and the there 
>would be some way  that everybody would be included.
>
>Anyway those are ideas. We gotta be able to come up with something 
>that  supports the values and principles of the network and isn't 
>burdensome  and bureaucratic.
>
>in solidarity,
evan

Yes all local groups are aware of the global principles and values - 
we managed to agree to that through a few UK wide meetings which were 
very positive - but as there has been an explosion of groups we now 
need - and are writing - a clear document for them all to agree to 
before officially becoming part of the new site - applicable to all 
groups.

And yes we we will be working on the delegation model i am sure - 
just not decide yet!

Thans again for all your comments