IMCJapan Tokyo Meeting 1-30-2007

☆　Place: Art cafe http://shinjyuku.artcafe.jp/ http://shinjyuku.artcafe.jp/modules/mygmap/

☆　Participants: 上岡さん (earthdayjp.org)、沢口さん (stop-rokkasho.org)、Hanakoさん、Chrisさん、Kimberleyさん, G (faciliator) meeting conducted in Jp

Agenda:

- self-intro of members, why they join, what they want to see discussed（２０ 分） —　About IMC　（１０分） —　topics participants want discussed（１時間） ー what role for imcjp- our goals and aims in this project —　2007 to do：renewal of site and org！（１５分） - setting up working groups for outreach, translation, tech, editing, etc. 　（１時間） - bilingual options for site and list (transl group) - pan-alternative media networking (outreach group) —　info exchange about current events, movements, etc.　（２０分） -　what else?

Jobs: - facilitation: G - timekeeper: ? - notetaker:

<---++ Intro:

ueoka: admin for earthday.jp, artist, runs art cafe - a kind of portal site... offered to introduce translators sawaguchi : (per invite from ueoka): admin & PR for stop-rokkasho.jp and associated film project, photographer Hanako: interest in social justice, not so much in tech & admin aspects of imc

Chris: per intro from ken matsuoka, also connection through 2nd harvest/food bank, works on site ... ?? spring tokyo?? - recommends it as example for a bilingual system

G gave intro on IMC history, handed out imc flyers, then realized computer forgotten on subway, spent rest of the time panicking about it... :-)... but it has come back!

networking & translation possibilities:

• translators from earthday.jp
• connecting to rokkasho-like social movements (key organizer from aomori was present at this for a short time, needs to be reminded to use the newswire!)
• what is IMC for, what can it do, the pros and cons of open publishing... how to make sure lots of good people come and bad ones dont (g thinks it's hard to keep only bad ones away, so just remove them by hand)
• observation by sawaguchi-san about social movements in jp: people like to look at a site geared to a specific campaign or action, not one that has lots of different topics and actions. Problem (G)= how to connect them? what role can imc play? some want more independent journalism (chris, paul), others more a hub for info exchange, re-cycling, translating and posting for people who don't have their own blogs from a good variety of backgrounds. probably both. still need to define who we want to be the preferred users, that will help determine the outreach and tech strategies.
• face-to-face meetings - art cafe is a good space for that! yoroshiu again to ueoka-san!

--> but to get more PR and people on board, the site needs to be radically improved (opinion of several people) the dada software is pretty much outdated...

urgent Improvements for site & mailing list:

• easier ML sign-up : signup form on mailman is too long and has too much english
• posting form is too long and complicated
• wiki better accessible from top
• not clear how to post video and images
• bilingual english & jp is a turnoff for many, try to separate into two sites... (but needs extra maintainance, esp. spam hunters and translators)

--> fix the above now with simple means perhaps do a complete overhaul and redesign next year- need to gather tech team members, facilitator/s!

• how about sawaguchi-san, ueoka-san & chris? kz & paul alone have been doing this by themselves for a long time- must be tired! sawaguchi-san esp. is interested in getting better software for imc, especially a system to put up video into postings like stickam player http://www.stickam.co.jp which can be put on your own site without logo like google; better calendar, e.g. stop-rokkasho.jp; used zoops for that site. g stressed that the functions are good, but at imc we're committed to non-commercialism also by using free and open software. an good example: http://mexico.indymedia.org/ which uses a tikiwiki base (http://tikiwiki.org/ - but there's no jp localization for it yet)

translation:

• ueoka can probably activate translators from earthday jp (because they are only busy in earthday season)

face-to-face meetings may be difficult with them though. but we need a system for them to slip into, they are not used to self-organizing.

• 1. urgent- need someone to translate messages to the list (ueoka thought it's mainly english, did not feel ok posting in jp at first!)
• 2. also urgent: translator for top page of IMC site, at least headings.
• 3. find a facilitator (contact point and coordinator) for translation team: kimberly and/or peco?
• maybe make a seperate list for transl. team and tech team (if we get enough people together?)?

Outcome: Renewal in site and organizing are necessary lets get to it

• site: complete overhaul--> form tech team ImcJapanTech
• organization: re-establish different working groups: (translation, outreach,tech, editorial,...)
• Meetings: have regular (monthly or bi-monthly meetings)>

-- GkkGkk - 30 Jan 2007

to top