[Seattle-editorial] SEAIMC Editorial WG 6-6-4 Meeting Notes

[Joseph Eisenschmidt]

Friends,

At our last Editorial meeting, we had only 2 folks show up, and made
few decisions.

Attending were Joseph and Laury. As Eds., we all took notes which
have the same evidence, but of course we reached diametrically
opposed interpretations.;-)). We will agree to agree upon the
following. 

What we did decide to do is:

1) Discuss the Mir interface and what it would take to migrate to
another interface. 

As a non-techie I defer, but the difficulty of finding someone with
the time to learn both, in order to do the migration, seems to be an
issue. If a person knew enough to migrate, couldn't we just stay
where we are? See why I defer!

2) Implement the local newswire section ASAP. 

Our discussions have centered on the greater usefulness this would
afford our local readers, and that it would make editorial work more
efficient if not easier. I think the greatest advantage to Ed. is
the ability to define something as 'less relevant' rather than
having to make up or down decisions on non-local stuff. As it is, we
may see a few great articles on a local water project in Iraq show
up day after day, and have to decide if the articles are spam or
mis-directed. With the local section, we just say "Non-local". 

3) Access the Volunteer and Donor Database and other SEAIMC assets
with the intent of increasing participation at Editorial. 

We will, of course, make any non-editorial folks we come across
available to projects seeking new blood. The Video Collective comes
to mind.

4) Consider logging IP addresses to cut down spam. 

We will also consider the effects of requiring log ons to post.
There seemed to be concern with both implementing the changes and
how the changes would affect us, vs. needing to keep our operation
as 'do-able' as possible. It was noted that we have harvested IP's
before in certain circumstances, and that other IMC's have various
log ons. We do have specific bad actors at this time on the
newswire.

5) Reiterate and publish our membership requirements.

We will continue to use the same standards that have always been
used at Editorial. We will emphasize the collaborative nature of
membership; that decision makers are the workers themselves, and
that all are welcome to apply. 

Among the requirements for membership are: Showing up at meetings,
working with others at Editorial, and gaining the trust of the
members of the group. 

We have also decided to have a sunset clause for membership - no
grandfathered members. ‘Gaining the trust’ means just that, and we
express this by voting at Ed. meetings on whether or not an
applicant can join. (All official votes at Ed. are by consensus -1
method)

All in all, it was a good day!


In Solidarity,

The Seattle Independent Media Center Editorial Collective.