[New-imc] imc.biotech - papers

[clara]

Dear all,

we hereby submit all our papers: membership criteria, mission statement, 
editorial policy and decision making policy for biotech.indymedia as topic 
IMC - pending the decision on imc-process.

All papers are also available on wiki: 
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechApproval

The site is up and running at http://www.biotechimc.org

Love and solidarity
Clara

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***** membership criteria **********

IMC MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA - DRAFT Each IMC and Global Working Group is 
expected to:

a. Agree in spirit to the NIMC Mission Statement and Principles of Unity, 
-> yes

b. Have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a functional 
IMC, -> yes, we are small but bigger then some local imcs, without proper 
outreach yet

c. Have open and public meetings (no one group can have exclusionary 
"ownership" of an IMC), -> yes

d. Work toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement of 
Purpose. Network Mission Statement may be adopted or used on an interim 
basis, -> yes: 
<http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechMissionStatement>http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechMissionStatement 


e. Establish and publish an editorial policy which is developed and 
functions through democratic process, and with full transparency, -> yes: 
<http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechEditorialPolicy>http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechEditorialPolicy 


f. 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

g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus 
principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes, -> 
yes: 
<http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechDecisionMaking>http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/BiotechDecisionMaking 


h. 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, -> yes: rotating spokes persons, starting with 
Clara who is already on these lists

i. 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, ->yes

j. (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), -> yes

k. 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

l. Display a ³local version² of the IMC ³i² logo on your website and 
literature. -> yes: see <http://www.biotechimc.org>http://www.biotechimc.org

m. Include the IMC Network current ³Cities List² on your site, preferably 
on the front page. -> yes: see 
<http://www.biotechimc.org>http://www.biotechimc.org

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******* mission statement ***********


Biotech Independent Media Centre is an issue based Indymedia site dedicated 
to biotechnology and genetic engineering in agriculture, food, medicine as 
well as its relevance to globalisation. It is about struggles everywhere 
against the commodification of life, and about alternatives.

Our aim is to connect activists and IMCs, as well as concerned groups and 
individuals from around the world by learning about one another and our 
actions. This specialised site is a tool for creating, covering, spreading 
and highlighting IMC content from all over the world, both from different 
Indymedia newswires and by open publishing.

Indymedia Biotech is set up by a group of volunteers from different 
continents working on biotech issues, many of whom are also Indymedia 
activists of local IMCs. We are committed to a multilingual site to break 
through language barriers that keep local actions restricted to local 
languages, or that exclude people that don't speak and write the main 
language of a global website.

We are part of the Indymedia network and therefore share Indymedia's 
principles of Open Publishing, and of horizontality, openness and consensus 
as the basis of our work. We work out of a love and inspiration for people 
who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's 
distortions and unwillingness to report the efforts to create autonomous 
and sustainable futures.

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******* editorial policy **********


Everything of this editorial policy can be reviewed when necessary.



why?

"The aim of Indymedia Biotech is to connect activists and IMCs, as well as 
concerned groups and individuals from around the world by learning about 
one another and our actions. ... We work out of a love and inspiration for 
people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's 
distortions and unwillingness to report the efforts to create autonomous 
and sustainable futures."

The work of the editorial team is to ensure that the Indymedia Biotech site 
is fulfilling these functions, that it is a space for news about biotech 
and related issues, for reports about actions and from events, for 
background papers, analysis etc, and that it is a space that supports 
activists in their political work.

It is not meant for company PR as biotech companies have their own 
resources to spread their views.


middle column

Features for the middle column are written by the editorial team, and sent 
out via the mailing list for comments. Features can be posted in the middle 
column after 25 hrs and if there is at least one positive reply. Everybody 
is asked to come forward if they feel that 24 hrs is too short for them, so 
that this procedure can be changed if necessary.

During events, different procedures can be developed with the basic line 
that the people at the event need consensus on the feature, that the list 
is informed immediately on new features (esp. for translations) and other 
relevant issues, and that it is know beforehand who will be at the event 
and how long it takes.

Where possible, cooperation should be sought with local IMCs in writing and 
publishing features.

Features can be written in any language, but should have an English and/or 
Spanish translation, but no google translations.

Good articles can be promoted from the newswire to the middle column. Where 
necessary a better introduction should be written by the editorial team and 
linked to the original article.



newswire and comments

Biotech IMC does not accept hate speech and discrimination and will hide 
such postings and comments. Hidden postings stay accessible in a special 
containment field. Anti-abuse measures can be taken, for restricted periods 
and need to be evaluated regularly.

Off-topic postings are moved into the containment field as well, together 
with a reason why.

Hiding articles is announced on the mailing list for a period of 24 hrs and 
one positive reply, unless it is communicated that hiding is urgent. We 
will evaluate this procedure regularly in IRC meetings.

The editorial team can hide comments that appear to be posted just to 
provoke and insult other users.

Articles from main-stream media should be marked as such and displayed 
differently then original postings. (The exact format is yet to be 
determined.)

The newswire is not meant to replace (existing) mailing lists, and we 
therefore discourage routinely done cross postings, but encourage postings 
that describe those mailinglists so that users can subscribe to them directly.



the rest

Indymedia Biotech is not making changes to any posting, with 3 exceptions:
- broken links can be fixed if the mistake is something obvious like a typo 
in the URL
- sensitive personal data, like addresses can be replaced by "xxx"
- spelling mistakes in our own features, in translations and in the visible 
part of promoted articles

All changes are announced in internal comments and on the notice board.

Syndicated postings from other sites can be attributed to the topics on 
Indymedia Biotech (like food, animals).

We will need to develop some guidelines of how to work together with local 
IMCs if they want to use Biotech IMC to cover a biotech event, we can only 
do so we go along.

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********* decision making policy ***********

We will conduct our decision making in a manner that aims to incorporate 
and consider all viewpoints. Our decision-making process will be consensus 
oriented. We define consensus as a process that takes into account the 
viewpoints, emotions, and knowledge of all members of the Biotech IMC such 
as they are represented in any particular meeting. We do NOT define 
consensus as the right or ability of any individual, or small group of 
individuals, to halt the work of Biotech IMC. We define consensus as taking 
into consideration all viewpoints represented within the group and 
incorporating those viewpoints into each decision. Specifically, our 
decision-making procedures shall be as follows:

Everything can be reviewed when necessary. We learn as we go along.

- All communication and decision making within Indymedia Biotech is done 
online. We acknowledge that this might exclude individuals from 
participation but we hope that they will find the possibility to 
participate in a local IMC with with face-to-face meetings and offline 
projects. Nevertheless we try to keep the need for technical requirements 
and online-time as low as possible.

- Email, IRC, Twiki pages and the noticeboard in the admin interface are 
different modes of communication used.

- General decisions are taken on the mailing list, in an appropriate 
timeframe, and with a minimum number of people explicitly supporting a 
proposal. Day-to-day business like editorial decision can also be decided 
upon through other communication channels. (The distinction between 
"general" and "day-to-day", and appropriate timeframes and numbers of 
supports still have to be defined.) Communication and decision making 
policy are to be evaluated regularly and whenever necessary.

- Meetings take place in IRC every 2 to 4 weeks at different times to 
accommodate people in different timezones.

- Meetings are announced on email and on the twiki page.

- IRC meetings are lightly moderated, and notes and logs are posted 
(preferably) directly on the wiki page. Invitations, moderations and note 
taking rotate. (The facilitator position should be rotated, not necessarily 
everybody, but between those who possess some skills at facilitation.)

- As IRC and wiki are relevant for communication and meetings, we will 
teach one another about how to use them. As well as teach about facilitation

- Decisions are based on consensus. We try to avoid implicit consensus in 
order to learn about each others ideas, priorities and trains of thoughts, 
but we will see at a later stage where we can adapt it for day-to-day 
business.

- Proposals are made after initial support. Explicit support is favour over 
silent support, even if it increases email traffic. Objections are made in 
a constructive way. If an individual blocks a majority opinion, and s/he is 
not able to persuade the others toward an alternate proposal within a 
reasonable time, then their block will be considered null. Biotech IMC will 
under all circumstances give full and due attention to all alternative 
proposals to a reasonable degree.

-Editorial and decision making policies can be amended during the 
cooperation with a local IMC to cover an event, but all changes will stay 
true to the spirit of these policies and of the mission statement.

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