Research on Ahimsa:

Writing on the Ahimsa incident? Add your piece here: AhimsaAnalyticReflection^?

Guidelines for Researchers

Our decision depends on several factors. For example: Is the research likely to create debates and results that are interesting for us as individuals or collectives? Does the researcher make his/her motivation, methodology, theoretical framework and hypotheses transparent? Will results and theories be discussed with Indymedia, before publication? Openness for collaborative research models? Authorship - relationship between researchers and the objects of the research? Timing – are we busy with a major reporting project? And finally - does anyone feel like spending time on this project right now?

Please feel free to get in touch with us. We can be contacted at:

FORMALITIES

1. You are welcome to study the newswires, center columns, publicly archived email lists and any other resources you will find browsing any Indymedia website.

2. Unless stated otherwise, all Indymedia content is published under a copyleft, GPA or creative commons licence. This means that you can copy, quote and distribute our content, as long as a reference (URL) is included.

We also consider it appropriate that publications about Indymedia be published under such an open licence.

3. We consider it appropriate that publications about an open publishing project are made accessible on the web. If you don´t have the resources to do so, you are welcome to upload your work in pdf format or directly on to: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection

4. Since it is considered good practice within the academic community to feedback the results of any research to those who have been studied, we expect you to inform us about the results of your work. You can do so by providing a link to your work and, if it is in print, a reference, on http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection We also expect you to inform the appropriate lists or contacts you have made about the completion of your work.

5. If your work is to be published in print, we would expect a minimum of 3 review copies prior to publication.

COLLABORATION

Many researchers are planning to collect data through questionnaires and/or qualitative interviews. It can be quite hard to get hold of Indymedia volunteers to be questioned or interviewed.

As a decentralised network of volunteers, Indymedia has no headquarters, no “one point of contact” for researchers, no press office, no spokes-people. No one person or group can speak for the entire Indymedia network. However, individual volunteers might decide to participate in your project as individuals. You don´t need any collective permission to interview individuals who agree to participate. Local indymedia collectives (like IMC Bologna, IMC Germany) can reach a consensus to participate as a group. If you want to use Indymedia resources for your research (beyond studying our public content), you will need the consent of the group you are willing to collaborate with.

If you wish a more intensive collaboration with Indymedia volunteers, please send a description of your project. Apart from your contact and institutional details, this should include research design, methodology, theoretical framework, hypotheses and research questions, as well as planned proceedings with the results. It helps if you offer reasons why your project should be supported by indymedia.

More intensive collaboration includes, for example: extensive lurking or subscribing to lists, qualitative interviews with indymedia volunteers (via questionnaire, email, on the phone, f2f, chatrooms etc), participating in meetings (f2f, irc), action research, participant observation online and offline, using imc resources to find respondents for questionnaires etc. This list is not exhaustive!

Based on the information you give us, we will discuss your proposal and, if people are interested, get back to you for further arrangements and negotiations.

CONTACT

The archive of Indymedia mailing lists is a good starting point to find the appropriate contact:

http://lists.indymedia.org

...and a list or person...

Mailing List Discussions

Ionnek posted a note to imc-communication proposing guidelines for IMC research, and opening a discussion on the topic:

• http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-communication/2004-June/003179.html

IMC Research Practices

This page is intended to collect views on the relationship between academic researchers and the Indymedia network. Some of this information may offer guidance to local IMCs in their interactions with researchers, while other entries may be of use to researchers pursuing the elusive Indymedia, a beast often sighted in the wild, but which tends to be a difficult subject in the laboratory.

Initial Thoughts on IMC Research

I don´t know if you feel the same - but here in the UK, I am under the impression that imc has become a very en vogue research topic. We are approached by teams from Universities, PhD^?-researchers, critical publicists, MA or BA students. Some inform us about their research design, research questions etc, most don`t. Many want us to fill in questionnaires, one research team from nijmegen bluntly put their questionnaire on the newswire, another one from Wales wants us to link to their questionnaire from a feature (!). Many are also asking for interviews with individuals.

I would be very interested to hear how other collectives deal with this academic interest in indymedia. Because I do believe we could get a lot out of academic research, project that gather, systemise and interpret - but on the other hand, it can be a nuisance, disappointing, annoying and even dangerous. It is a fine line between a fair relationship between researcher and researched on one hand, and an exploitative relationship on the other.

How do you make decisions about how to participate or not to participate?

I can think about some formal responses to researchers:

- be our guest in studying the newswires, middlecolumns, publicly archived email lists and the twiki (not sure if i`d even mention the latter - if they are seriously interested, they will find it).

- we consider it appropriate that publications about indymedia are published under a creative commons licence and made accessible on the web.

- If you use indymedia as a research topic, we expect you to provide a link to your work on http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection

I am also tempted to collect some guidelines:

- if you wish a more intensive collaboration with your research object, please send a description of your research design, methodology and research questions, including planned proceedings with the results. More intensive collaboration includes for example: interviews with indymedia volunteers (per email, on the phone, f2f, chatrooms), participating in meetings (f2f, irc), extensive lurking on lists, participant observation online and offline, using imc resources to find more guinea pigs for questionnaires etc.

- Indymedia is a network of volunteers dedicated to social change. Our core interest is to run the indymedia websites and promote the indymedia network online and offline. Therefore we only participate in selected research projects. Our decision depends on several factors: Is the research likely to create debates and results that are interesting for us as a collective or a collective? Does the researcher make his/her motivation, methodology, theoretical framework transparent? Will results and theories be discussed with indymedia, before publication? Openness for collaborative research models? And finally - does anyone feel like spending time on this project right now?

- ionnek (From: http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-communication/2004-June/003179.html)

A number of informative comments on ionnek's note are located at:

• http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2004-July/0702-sx.html
• http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-communication/2004-June/003180.html
• http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-communication/2004-June/003181.html

-- GuamaniaN - 12 Jul 2004