[New-imc] fwd: To imc-process. SF INDYMEDIA internal decision passed.

[gekked at blackflag.net]

----- Forwarded message from gekked at blackflag.net -----

Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 17:21:19 -0800
From: gekked at blackflag.net
To: imc-process at lists.indymedia.org
Subject: SF INDYMEDIA (internal decision deadline, Nov 29 -- 0700 GMT)
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i

This passed new-imc this morning.

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Hello,
The San Francisco Bay Area IMC has recently
participated in mediation sessions to help our group
expand and deal with internal conflicts. We have come
to the following resolution: There will now be two
autonomous IMCs in the SF Bay Area:

1) San Francisco Bay Area IMC (which will be giving up
its old domain to the new San Francisco group, and
will start using sfbay.indymedia.org & indybay.org)

2) and a new San Francisco IMC (sf.indymedia.org) The
San Francisco IMC's new IMC documents are attached.

Both IMCs will also have new entries in the contact
database. We all recognize the existence and
legitimacy of each other and hope that the New IMC
process can move along without any problems. We are
all very happy that we were able to solve our problems
and expand into two groups. We hope to continue
serving the SF Bay Area with the existence of two
independent indymedia collectives.

Sincerely,
San Francisco Bay Area IMC, sfbay.indymedia.org
San Francisco IMC, sf.indymedia.org

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Proposed IMC Name: San Francisco Indymedia / sf.indymedia.org
City: San Francisco
State: California
Country: USA

Contact Name: Ian McJones
Email: sf at indymedia.org
Phone: n/a

Tech Contact Name: gek
Email: gekked at indymedia.org
Phone: n/a

Supporting Groups: too numerous to name

Regional Focus

Server/bandwidth/technical resources:
We already contribute two full-time servers with volunteer sysadmin
labor, webspace and bandwidth to over 20 IMCs in South America, the
Middle East, and throughout the US/Canada. We are already hosting
ourselves and will continue to do so.

Outreach/diversity:
Our group is comprised of men and women from one of the most diverse
areas in the United States, and our active participants include white
and black people, citizens of Arab countries, single mothers, people
over 50 years old, people under 18 years old, communists, anarchists,
liberals, and many other representations of diverse populations.

Introductory statement:
We've been doing indymedia stuff locally and globally for over 3 years
now and we wish to expand the extremely successful work of the SF
Indymedia project. We hope that our work and our commitment to
independent journalism and activism speaks for itself.

We have all read and fully understand IMC Principles of Unity and
Membership Criteria. We have already operated in this capacity for 3
years.

Principles of Unity & Mission Statement
(same as we've used for a while now)

Principles of Unity: San Francisco Indymedia

   1. We strive to provide an information infrastructure for people
and opinions who do not have access to the airwaves, tools and
resources of corporate media. This includes audio, video, photography,
internet distribution and any other communication medium.
   2. We support local, regional and global struggles against
exploitation and oppression.
   3. We function as a non-commercial, non-corporate, anti-capitalist
collective.

San Francisco Indymedia involves volunteer participants and allied
collectives organized along anti-authoritarian principles of open and
transparent decision-making processes, including open public meetings;
a form of modified consensus; and the elimination of hierarchies.

San Francisco Indymedia participants shall not act in a manner that
endangers, intimidates, or physically harms any member of the group,
including by sexual harassment or acts of violence. Indymedia members
shall strive to act in a respectful manner to other members of the
collective as well as the public.
Mission Statement

    * To encourage a world where globalization is not about
      homogeneity and exploitation, but rather, about diversity and
      cooperation.
    * To cover local events that are ignored or poorly covered by
      corporate media.
    * To provide edited audio, video, and print stories of the above
      on the internet for independent media outlets and the general
      public.
    * To facilitate the networking and coordination for the coverage
      of local events as well as gather information about events to
      cover.
    * To provide links to alternative media, activist, and research
      groups.
    * To seek out and provide coverage underscoring the global nature
      of people's struggles for social, economic, and environmental
      justice directly from their perspective.
    * To offer community classes for training in internet and media
      skills.
    * To encourage, facilitate, and support the creation of
      independent news gathering and organizations.

Editorial Policy - Fundamentals
The newswire operates on the principle of Open Publishing, an
element essential to the Independent Media Centers (IMC) around the
world. Simply put, Open Publishing is to news and information what
open source code is to software. In practice, the Open Publishing
newswire allows anyone to instantaneously self-publish their work on
http://sf.indymedia.org, a web site accessible from around the world.

People are encouraged to "become the media," to use their own skills
and abilities of observation, writing, and creativity in posting text,
analysis, videos, audio clips, photos and artwork directly to the
website. The post is then viewable at the top of the Other/Breaking
newswire, and will move down the list as more people post news.

The use of, and belief in, Open Publishing rests on several central
assumptions:

    * People who post to the newswire will present their information
      in a thorough, honest, and accurate manner.
    * Readers are intelligent and aware, skeptical and inquisitive of
      the posts they read and videos they watch, and are able to
      distinguish for themselves what is content of value and what is
      not.

Editorial Policy - Administration/Categorizing
The editorial working group is reponsible for updating and maintaining
several sections of the site, including the center column of the front
page and various feature pages, and the newswire. While the center
columns are compiled and edited by the editorial working group, the
right-hand, open-publishing newswire is designated as an open space
for publication of news, media, and commentary by reporters,
participants, and readers.

The newswire is divided into five separate sections:

   1. Local News: This section contains posts that are primarily local
in nature, and reasonably resemble original and quality news items.
   2. Press Releases: This section contains posts that are clear
public statements or announcements from local individuals or groups
that the editorial group feels are appropriate for syndication.
   3. Opinion: This section contains posts that are most accurately
classified as coherent and intellegent opinion pieces that the
editorial group feels appropriate for syndication.
   4. Global News: This section contains posts that are not locally
focused, and that the editorial group believes to be original and
accurate news pieces fitted for syndication.
   5. Other/Breaking News (Open Publishing Newswire): This section is
where a post will appear immediately after being published. Items that
remain in this category will have been deemed unworthy of promotion to
any of the above wires. Items targeted to remain here include, but are
not limited to, factually inaccurate articles, postings of very poor
writing quality, repostings of corporate media articles, and bulletin
board type posts.

The process for the categorization of a posting is quite simple: Any
participant in the editorial working group may do so based upon
her/his understanding of the Principles of Unity and her/his
personal judgement. Editors should take care not to promote
(syndicate) articles which could undermine the newswire service; for
instance, articles containing (not reporting) hate speech, etc. A
categorization of a post is contestable and subject to review by any
participant of the editorial working group. Challenges must be based
on our Principles of Unity.

Editorial Process/Hiding
IMC is founded on the principle of open publishing. Reality
dictates that the editorial working group will at times decide to hide
posts and comments. This is not a decision that is taken lightly,
however, and the editorial working group does its best refrain from
hiding/editing. Our vision for the function of the newswire, and the
general framework in which all decisions to hide/edit will be made,
are as follows:

    * The newswire is intended to be a community media resource, a
      space free from spam and abuse in general
    * That space will not contribute to the oppression of
      traditionally oppressed and marginalized groups.

Members of the Editorial Collective are permitted to hide posts or
comments as long as that person's decision is based on at least one of
the following three points:

    * The post or comment constitutes abuse of the newswire (see note
      below);
    * The post or comment undermines the Principles of Unity of the
      IMC; e.g., hate speech; or
    * The post or comment constitutes a spam attack (see below) on the
      newswire.

[NEW:] Editors may make typographical, spelling or grammar corrections
and formatting improvements and remove extraneous, false, illegal
(threatening, libelous, etc.), or abusive (pornographic, etc.)
material and hate speech, and particularly with regards to syndicated
articles, are encouraged to do so. Explanation of any modification
should be inserted in brackets, as appropriate. Editors may remove
copyrighted material on request of the copyright owner. 

At any time another Editorial Collective member may dispute the
hiding/editing of a comment or post.

Comments, questions, and feedback regarding this policy are highly
encouraged. Please write us at imc-sf-editorial at lists.indymedia.org.

Upon hiding/editing a post, the member of the editorial working group
who did so may also add a comment explaining the basis upon which the
decision to edit/hide was made. This is time-consuming, so editorial
collective members will do so to the best of their ability.

In addition, all hidden posts will continue to remain publicly
accessible one click away from the front page on a page listing only
hidden posts. The link to view all hidden posts is located at the
bottom of the newswire. 

- gekked at blackflag.net

----- End forwarded message -----