• IMC Goa organising process will soon be intitiated.
• See also ImcIndia and NewImcHowTo
• Two IRC meetings were held on April 2, 2006 and April 4, 2006.

Getting organised

Step 1: Diversity

• Contacting people through existing cyber ventures and other mailgroups, contact lists.
• Specially target those with a progressive voice on Goa.
• Look out for ezines and individuals that have some reputation in this regard.
• Shortlisting those whom we can/should work with.

women, women's groups

• initial 3 people (4 April 2006) are 33% women
• Goa has a number of activists, including women's groups. Some have been active since the late 'eighties. What they need now is very practical ways of putting their content online, in a way that gets noticed. They don't have access to the techniques of doing this, and are unsure of where to start. Also, building up real-world writing skills would help.
  • what is important is also participation in decision-making about the collective itself, including general decision-making method and editorial policy

dalits, dalits' groups

• There is a well-organised Dalit network. Dadu Mandrekar, it's leader, is a good friend of ours. The problem is that the Dalits make up only 2% of the Goa population. Forget wikipedia, the population of all these groups put together is seriously negligible. We have good contacts with dalit activists.
  • As above, what is important is also participation in decision-making about the collective itself, including general decision-making method and editorial policy

adivasis, adivasis' groups

• There are practically no 'adivasis' in Goa (though the govt. defintion has changed).
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scheduled_Tribes_in_India Goa
  • Dhodia, Dubla (Halpati), Naikda (Talavia), Siddi (Nayaka), Varli
• There is a large aboriginal popoulation which has long been fighting for scheduled tribe status. So while the groups named above - Dhodia, Dubla (Halpati), Naikda (Talavia), Siddi (Nayaka), Varli - would be fringe groups making up a tiny section of the population, the Gavada, Kunbi, Dhangar and Velips would number maybe 20-25% of the Goa pouplation. But most of this population is yet to get its own voice to express itself, leave alone enter cyberspace.
  • As above, what is important is also participation in decision-making about the collective itself, including general decision-making method and editorial policy.

middle castes

• Then, there's the issue of the middle castes in Goa, many of whom are still to get a voice, among both Hindus and Catholics.
  • As above, what is important is also participation in decision-making about the collective itself, including general decision-making method and editorial policy.

difficult issues

• diversity of participation through face-to-face meetings, "hands-on" workshops with internet component, having people learn non-hierarchical meeting techniques and overcoming socially programmed implicit hierarchies
• can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coordinatorism be avoided?

Step 2: Read documents

• ConflictResolution - see the documents about formal consensus decision-making processes, especially http://www.consensus.net/ocac2.html
• MembershipCriteria
• PrinciplesOfUnity

Step 3: Initial form to new-imc

Step 4: Mailing list

New mailing list approved at http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-goa

more about list management, FAQ, etc. ListworkWorkingGroup

• ListWorkAdminFAQ
• http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/listwork

Step 5: More organising

• Build archive of already-existing progressive, alt material from Goa
• Network with specific groups (Goan Digest, UK).
• Build pamphlet explaining Indymedia to activists.
• Create specific space for diverse groups active in Goa.

Step 6/7: Document what you agree on as a collective

6a: Updated mission statement

6b: Editorial policy

general principles

• No hate-speech.
• Focus on issues.
• No insulting posts, targeted at others.
• Zero-tolerance to religious infighting.

specific mechanisms

What are the concrete algorithms (methods) of making editorial decisions - without leaders? Who decides and how and when? (If the site is partially wiki - e.g. with SamizdatEngine or mediawiki - then this could be quite different in the concrete details to that for older IMCs, that started when open editing software was not known.)

7: Responses to MC/PoU

Membership Criteria

MembershipCriteria

Principles Of Unity

PrinciplesOfUnity

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TWiki housekeeping note: please give IMC Goa pages names like ImcGoaWhatEver and not WhatEver, because the "Local" section of the wiki is shared with a hundred or so other IMCs - many of whom also may want to write a page with the name WhatEver.

-- VidyaG - 02 Apr 2006 started page
-- BouD - 04 Apr 2006 various
-- FrederickNoronha - 04 Apr 2006
-- BouD - 05 Apr 2006 - IRC log, copy/pasted various diversity stuff

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