Indymedia European Social Forum (london) 2004 Debrief

This page is intended to collect comments and thoughts about the indymedia part of the ESF, and ideas for the future. The original organising pages are here: UkImcEsf The structure below is just an idea, so feel free to reorganise.

Pictures and Reports of IMC @ Camden Centre

Indymedia Ireland Feature covering IMC Centre - see below for text
Pictures from the E.F.C.R. and IMC center
Indymedia Centre @ Camden Centre (pics)
IMC and European Forum On Communictaion Rights (pics)
Have Nots / No Vox Party at IMC (Friday pics)
Pictures from The Penelopes who worked out of the centre

How the Camden Centre was

For the four day programme including the European Forum of Communication Rights (EFCR) see: UkImcEsf#Four_Day_Programme_at_Camden_Cen

Fab

The indymedia media center was a great success, over 70 computers were networked to run off 4 servers running a linux operating system. There were computers in the bar, with a bunch set up in 2 media rooms and also 9 terminals for the dispach room, to update the uk site and co-ordinate the reporting of actions and demos. Also machines for editing audio pics and video. It was a great experience, a few hitches along the way but overall an amazing success
Big shout to all the uk and international collectives who participated in the imc center
WE ROCKED !!!

The bar area was great - well used and always buzzing.

The women's only "dismantle a computer" workshop was a great idea.

Hectic!

Indymedia ESF / Autonomous Space Reporting

How well did indymedia report on all this?

Reporting Archive

Prior to the ESF see earlier features on: ESF 2004 Subsection
During the ESF - Daily features: Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
Then, Final Frontpage Feature Roundup
After the ESF, the massive Indymedia UK ESF NEWSBLAST #2

Setbacks and Problems

It's true to say that there were several setbacks in the couple of weeks before the ESF.

Unfortunate personal family circumstances impacted significantly on workloads and projects.

With very little time left the main source for what had been assumed as 50-70 (free) computers fell through, leaving people to focus on the task of urgently trying to secure enough computers for use from multiple sources.

The Seizure of Indymedia servers by the FBI in london with the resulting immediate loss of 20 indymedia websites inlcuding the UK had a massive impact on planning, reporting co-ordination, conference preparation, last minute liaison witrh other groups as well as functioning meetings during the ESF itself.

Transport problems the day before the Camden Centre and IMC was due to open resulted in set-up being one day behind, which impacted further with the imc really only being up and running with full facilities on the friday.

Usually indymedia produces flyers with a telephone number on it for people to call in reports of events that have happened. For the ESF an autonomous spaces programme was printed - 20,000 copies were distributed with Indymedia Reporting Number contained within it. However after the distribution of the programme had started something went wrong with the telephone number and it was unusable. Having relied on this printed programme getting a new number out and publicised was difficult. Posters were put on in some spaces and flyers made and handed out, but it was a big problem.

After the seizure of the Indymedia Servers in London by the FBI which had just occured prior to the ESF, the UK Indymedia website server was under severe pressure and had significant usage problems. This both made it difficult for people to post reports (sometimes being impossible for text reports, often impossible for pictures, audio and video) as well as for volunteers to update the middle column features on the website.

Nb many people did however upload reports to other indymedia websites.

Given this, what was achieved is a testament to the dedication of all the volunteers from several groups who worked over the several days. That said it also points to one of the main problems of having so few people co-ordinating the project without sufficient levels of communication and role sharing.

Dual Tasking Resource Implications

One of the other biggest factors in the Indymedia Reporting was the fact that many people from the Indymedia uk network, were engaged with running the Camden Centre facilities and the communications forum during the ESF, as well as all of the preparation required for this over the previous months (ie they were not focussed on indymedia reporting).

The Camden Centre was a huge building that required a lot of volunteers to 'staff' it. On the whole it was done brilliantly. Sourcing, transporting, setting up and running 40 approx internet connected computers was a big task, made all the more difficult for only having access to the venue the day before for drop off, and the first day of operation for beginning to set up.

Inside the venue, staffing was shared by many volunteers from some of the organisations involved with the EFCR. This worked very well and much thanks should go to the volunteers who worked long hours. However it was a huge task. People were needed for the various stalls, for the welcome desk, to help out in the internet cafe / bar, for stewarding and stage management etc etc

Then of course there was the actual several days of the communications forum, which took a lot of energy and time, as well as looking after the other events that were within the venue. Each evening people were involved in clearing and tidying the venue, where as under more normal circumstances indymedia volunteers would have been working on reporting late into the evening.

As a departure from simply being a 'service provider' with indymedia setting up media facilities to actualy organising event content relevent to communications this was an important step forward, but one which came at a high cost to the reporting activity of core indymedia volunteers.

Reporting Co-ordination and Media Centre Logistics

It's clear that the strain of running the Camden Centre impacted on the running of the IMC operation. Although many volunteers from other groups did a marvellous job of sharing the main tasks, there was still a massive drain on normal imc operation.

Some things were great. The public access 'net cafe', (bar, food and computers) worked brilliantly and was a good social and working space.

However one clear failure was imc meetings and reporting co-ordination. The idea had been to hold meetings each morning, but they never really happened. The meetings that were held were difficult with the FBI server seizure issue dominating and detracting from the practical tasks.

There was no pre co-ordination of reporting tasks or event coverage allocation. In part this had been assumed to be not necessary as several other crews said they would cover different events, however this did not really materialise. The 'walls of paper' info boards that are essential for co-ordination and info exchange were never set up. Having said that, the ESF is quite an extraordinary situation with scores of events happening simultaneously.

The venue was not ideal with access to the media centre rooms being difficult to find. It had been planned to have two entrances operating for the venue, one directly accessing the media centre rooms, but at the last minute this was not possible due to extra costs that would have been impossed.

The room earmarked for the office and dispatch was on the first day used for a creche, and following that hardly used at all. As such 'dispatch' and the 'co-ordination' had no visable fixed point until the weekend.

There was supposed to be a dedicated staffed picture desk and two people had volunteered to run it but it was never sorted. It's also celar that having a clearly marked reporting desk where people could go to give verbal reports would have been a useful addition.

Video and Audio coverage was never co-ordinated. It was assumed that people wanting to work in these areas would bring their own equipment, however this didn't really happen. Also many imc people visiting worked out of Ramparts which split resources and information flows. However there was still a demand for facilities to deal with audio and video and it's evident that any future media centre should have both staffed and unstaffed machines ready to deal with these requirements.

Perhaps the biggest single failure of the Camden Centre IMC was that it provided almost nothing for anyone who wasn't already working on indymedia and who wanted to get involved. This function would to a great extent have been provided by the imc welcome desk that was originaly planned for outside the media rooms but which was not set up (mainly due to the second building entrance not being used). Again this was partly the result of the multiple use of the building and resulting resource drain, but was something that should have been done (nb meetings could have fulfilled this function to an extent).

An info sheet explaining the centre and how to get involved / what to do should have been produced and handed to each person who entered the building.

Reporting Participation and Preparation

Conference Reporting:

It's true to say that the style of imc reporting desired was never really discussed. Indymedia is used to reporting on mass demonstrations and not conference content. As such while reporting of actions and events succeeded there was little actual preparation for reporting the content of seminars and workshops etc.

Requests were made to all of the autonomous spaces initiatives to ask those putting on events to produce reports on them. However nothing more than a few reports were written during the actual time of the ESF (now a few weeks after there are more reports coming in). The hectic nature of the ESF certainly contributed to this - only being on for a few days with a very tightly packed schedule, many people said they did not have time to sit down and write up what had just happened in a workshop when there was another workshop to go to immediatly afterwards, and events running late into each evening.

No appeal for reporting volunteers or for event reports was ever put on the frontpage of the indymedia website - this should have been done.

Camden Centre events themselves were partly audio archived and streamed, however this should obviously have been covered in much greater depth and across different media. For example, each session should have been audio and video archived, pictures should have been uploaded, and a precis write up / notes should have been produced and uploaded. While many individuals did parts of this for differnt events, there was no co-ordination - this could have easily been achieved, for example a table set up in the hall and the chair of each session announcing the request for participation in archiving.

Event Reporting:

There were many actions and protests that happened during the ESF. However the flow of information was less than satisfactory in terms of people calling in telephone reports. This obviously is closely related to the main imc number not working, but also a failure on the part of those participating. That said, all of the main occurances were reported often very quickly.

ESF / Autonomous Spaces Infrastructure and Reporting

Alexandra Palace (AP), the main site for the ESF, did not have any computers for general attendee use and was thus isolated in terms of communications - this certainly resticted the flow of information and reports coming out of the main ESF. There was an official ESF media centre with around 20-25 computers and some laptop hub space.

AMARC (the word association of community radio broadcasters) and the uk Community Media Association requested space at AP to set up an ongoing radio studio for providing live radio streaming coverage, but were only granted permission to site a vehicle (mobile studio van) in the car park, without power facilities (they had to provide a generator) and without any internet connectivity feed (and so could only be used as a production facility and could not stream radio).

NB The ESF was never meant to be almost entirly based at Ally Pally - for months it had been stressed that plenaries, seminars and workshops would be split across AP and the bloomsbury area. Of course it was perhaps foolish to believe anything said from the official ESF, especially on this matter.

Beyond ESF was intended to have a media access point. A van load of computers were supplied to the venue but connectivity / co-ordination was not achieved.

The Ramparts Centre ran as a media hub with several machines conected to the net available for use. This was a very valuable resource especially with the main indymedia centre at the Camden Centre closing each evening around midnight.

NB Does someone from Ramparts want to write up their experiences?

Dedicated Media Crew Coverage

One of the most encouraging things was the development of several media crews attached to different projects. For example the Laboratory of Insurectionary Imagination (LABofii) and the Mobile Carnival Forum both had their own dedicated media crews. The idea was that people from those crews would call in after each event to give short report updates, and that each evening multimedia content would be uploaded.

While this did happen to a degree there was much more potential there for reporting and for information to be passed up from the streets, a responsibily we all need to share. Crews also tried many times to upload video and pictures but failed because of the problems with the indymedia uk server.

It makes sense to have an agreed upload backup, with a communication mechanism sorted to allow notification of file uploads (which can also be used for reports going up on other websites). Here the backup was 'any other imc' with the notification channel supposed to be a combination of IRC and online wiki page - but these failed to be used, most probably due to the low usage requirement (ie if there had been more desired use then the system would have sorted itself out).

(nb also makes sense in future to have email address to notify - which can be used for other info source montitoring like corp media and other websites)

IMC Radio and Audio Projects

There was an ESF Breakfast show on resonance FM for one hour each morning. It had to be pre-recorded each evening ready to be broadcast as a stand alone the following morning. It would have been much easier if the show could have been presented live, since the task of pre-recording to a deadline each evening increased the workload considerably.

There was an initial lack of audio content available, communication and of production co-ordination and visability. Also several people (at least six) who had previsouly committed to the project did not participate at all - many of these were to have been based at the camden centre editing audio, and as such this severely hampered the production of audio. The shows that did get broadcast never made it onto the indymedia newswire which was a serious failure.

There had been an agreement with Ramparts radio stream that they would supply minimum 1, ideally 3, five minute segment highlights each day. However this never happened. The Ramparts stream worked really well but there should have been more direct communication. Again the combination of IRC and online wiki page had been pre-agreed as the mechanism for notifying content availability but was not really used.

Other radio / audio projects went ahead around the ESF with some using the Camden Centre as a workspace, however again with no clear visible way for notification of produced content this material never entered the indymedia info loop.

NB need an audio co-ordination in future with audio desk / encoders / editors / publishers

NB Ramparts Radio - Does anyone from ramparts radio want to write uo their experiences?

IMC Video and Related Projects

Very little done at Camden Centre. Most Video work associated with other projects, like the video booth installations and dedicated media crews.

Features Evaluation

For the feature. As usual it was dominated by the timeline of what was happening on the streets. Indymedia does it well. But have you ever had a bitch about the mainstream media covering the protest but not the issues. I think it would be good to have a daily "issue" feature, maybe pre-prepared. Then the feature each day would have a paragraph/section introducing the feature with a link to the full article. Any other ideas for how to integrate features with timelines welcome. I had been thinking about suggesting this before the ESF, but time ran out ... mish

(mish - yes this has come up many times in the past - the two key areas are as you say getting issues in there, as well as making sense of the timeline format.

Pre-prep is very useful - it was done for one mayday where each action already had a mini feature prepared with background links ready - this should bo done more and can be cobbled together with a wiki quite easily, then the info resources are there for those putting features together instead of them having to go searching right in the middle of reporting.

Re timelines - still think that timelines are very useful. But it creates a format that is very difficult to follow. The key is to have a specific feature function of writing a regular precis of events and round ups. It's essential that something like this is built into the feature function.

How does this compare to previous efforts?

Mostly the esf experience was about physical logistics and liaison - at the same time indy uk has dealt with much higher levels of reporting info (eg Maydays / DSEi / Start of Iraq War etc etc) quite well, but mostly in a decentralised way - so the challenge is about combining running a media centre with the reporting.

Evaluation of Organising Process - what worked, what didn't etc

This was the biggest single thing the uk network have done. The DSEi Media centre was the equivalent of one room at the camden centre in terms of facilities. At the same time some people tried to engage with the official ESF, work with the EFCR to put on several days of events, and also liaise with other autonomous spaces. There was also the task of liaising with the uk network and wider networking.

Some things worked well, others didn't. Initial London imc feedback coming soon....

Ideas for Future Media Centres / Lessons Learnt (G8 anyone?)

Lots of things that should be standard for a media centre were not done @ camden centre (despite being known) but obviously should be for the next major media centre - this included a specific imc welcome desk, imc reporting co-ord meetings, info boards, legal briefings etc etc etc. These are all listed in various entries on the UkNetworkMajorReports page.

We probably don't need to cover all the tables with PCs. Have lots of switches and network cables and some table space for all the laptops that came out of the woodwork. (was planned re more tables)

If we use the thin clent set up again, we need to give some thought to access to the USB ports of the client for downloading photos.

Need dedicated and staffed Photo Desk - same for video and audio. Also need to provide some higher spec machines for use for video and audio.

More boot floppies aswell (though I believe it was intended, but didn't happen).

streaming radio from centre would be good

Ideas for future forum-type events

Do tea and coffee at the bar ourselves.

Ideally we would have various small rooms to do lots of training and planning, and make that a priority in the planning. A few sessions on publishing news, using wikis, writing reports, uploading photos, using linux, getting to know your computer.

An appeal in advance for people to report workshop type events. Could have been done for esf but was screwed by the failure of the esf memory projects which would have archived the lot. We also had a stack of like 15 crappy old P1 laptops that could have been lent to imc people to take to meetings and write up notes etc which could have been well used.

Higher participation is required - this means more meetings, better planning feedback, more outreach, more public appeals. Also need more cohesion between other existing alt media groups.

Individual comments, rants, raves and reports

mish

Loved the ESF. It was great to meet lots of people. Some really good sessions is the main hall (from someone who isn't overly inclined to sit and listen). Really good buzz to the place.

chip

Camden was a great space to hang out with the Indy crew. Well done to all.

Indymedia London Comments / Debrief

Generated from a go around debrief a week after the end of the ESF.

All around praise for the tireless work of those who put the conference together, and the media centre and the techies and those who volunteered. General feeling that the space itself looked great, lots of computers being used, bar and space was great vibe and people seemed to enjoy and appreciate, lots of informal networking, good conference programme.

Recap of problems most noted in report backs can be summed as: again, too few people doing too much work, need for greater transparency in decision making, need for better outreach to groups to self-report, need for better quality news and features on front page, difficulty in hosting conference and media centre simultaneously, need for better mechanisms to follow through with partners, need better computer set-up for uploading photo and audio in media centre.

Here is a rough transcription of the individual feedback. These are listed by person talking, not by topic order.

1 Strong disagreement on how to deal with the whole ESF. Collective took course didn’t agree with and didn’t like what they did or why, but means no criticism to those who did the work at indymedia space, they did a great job.

2 Good. Things worked well eventually but felt certain lack of transparency within the whole process that otherwise would have been better. More planning should have been done on the list. Personally, didn’t get involved until far too late. By second day, things felt sorted. Stream fucked up but live & learn.

3 Awful lot to unpack from this. Agree with last comment. Organisation started on closed list. Set up that way cos trying to get Communication Rights onto ESF agenda - fighting with trots and GLA.

Expected more from other groups when this started. Few groups contributed much and was down to individuals. GN/APC and WACC support in Camden Centre was fantastic - got volunteers in and worked hard.

Centre as media space worked well. Some disasters. Timing with server seizures impacted and reporting numbers copied failed. Didn’t do IMCcoordination at centres well. Affected by fact that a lot of people doing everything else. Media centre and reporting suffered as a result.

Problem of communication between spaces, but first time people doing it so applaud the efforts. And no communication network in place to chase the efforts of those who said they’d do stuff. Lots of call-ins promised and content for for breakfast show but none came through.

Conference should have been recorded & archived and put on site. Not enough features writing on site, esp from ESF space, despite those who said would. In run up to G8 working with these groups was the right thing to do.

4 Door was good. Lots of informal conversations in the space and networking going on which was good.

Features looked like all that happened was a few scuffles with police and that’s it. Non interest in issues reflected on site. Failure was on our part for not doing enough outreach to get people to report on their own events. Should work closer with ramparts.

5 Media centre amazing with all the computers up and working. Praise to pc people! Need better set up for people uploading photos.

6 Nice vibe in space. Not involved at all in planning, so hate to mention a couple negatives that was impacted by. Need better audio upload capabilities in media centre. Need more people working on things like breakfast show if we commit to them.

7 Scrambled tech-wise. No audio / video. We rely too much on a few really committed people. Catastrophic that no broader communication even if not on public list. Otherwise went bloody well. It was the biggest thing we’ve tried to do and we should learn from it. Need to make sure communication flows next time.

8 Complicated relationship. Some translation didn’t happen. EFRC example of how ESF theory should go. We got activists and Ngos to work together and we proved we didn’t have to be isolated.

Need call out for more to improve site and coverage. Need to solve transparency issue and engage while network next time. Vibe in the bar was the best thing. Need to rethink spaces and be sure space used well ­ bar, media centre, conference

9 Conflicted feelings. I hear criticism. We tried to get more people to be involved and get people to take on specific tasks. At certain point attempted at least- not so much fun - unhappy more people didn’t engage with the autonomous spaces list. Tough with collective with so much personal stuff. Need so much more outreach. Biggest frustration was outreach.

A lot of autonomous spaces have new respect for indymedia after work we did. Even if reporting fell off. Really enjoyed event and feel good about having taken on a commitment like this. Would never do all three at once again. Severly let down by many people. Main concern outreach and communication.

10 Busy. Was all busy. Seemed like the indy centre was only for us and not for public.

11 Not involved in process. Heard nothing but praise. Especially compared with DSEI and a LOT bigger. Commitment to sort out photos for next year. Lots of amazing stuff not reported on. Lessons learned. Raised profile on iondymedia.

indymedia ireland feature text

After being involved in setting up the media centre in Dublin during the Mayday mobilisation I have huge respect for what was achieved by Indymedia UK (United Kollektives) in the Camden centre. The space was fantastic, the debates about infowar and propaganda (I was there on the Friday) were really important and the range of media available was brilliant. There were three rooms of public access machines, including 15 or so in the canteen/bar and a large screening / meeting space. As is usual at this type of thing, the management of the centre took away from the business of Indymedia but the Saturday morning meeting gave a chance for many different Indymedia groups to discuss the recent server seizures.

Both the UK and the overall network seems to be evolving in its attitude to dealing with corporate media, mainly as a result of the recent server seizures. The quick and wholehearted support of groups such as the International Federation of Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontiers on this attack on the network did much to help this evolution. The discussion on info war included a contributor from the NUJ who analysed the requirements to construct a story for mainstream media and the audience seemed focused on using rather than replacing other media.

Attendance wasn't great in the mornings but apparently the Friday night saw the big party of the alternative ESF taking place in the hall. The computers downstairs were in constant use both for checking mail etc. and, later in the weekend, for filing reports on the various actions that were taking place. Food was excellent and cheap, the whole atmosphere was positive and supportive and it was good to put faces to the many nicknames and email addresses I had dealt with over the last couple of years. As a place to find out what was happening where in London over the weekend the centre worked with many people calling in on their way to and from other events – aided by its proximity to Kings Cross station.

But in many ways the centre felt isolated as no non-media discussions took place within walking distance and it seemed somehow out of the loop. There has been criticism of the reporting of the ESF on the Indymedia UK newswire (mainly by people who attended the ESF, didn't write about their experiences and then visited to website looking for other peoples reports). While the UK wire has always been excellent at reporting actions, a function which it again filled admirably over the weekend, there was little on the politics of the ESF. I searched in vain for any news about the EU Constitution discussions or the outcome of Assembly of the Social Movement, both of which were absent from the newswire.

The main problem was the location – the open access computers should have been in Alexander Palace (ESF) where the concepts and practices of free media were most needed. The people who had least to gain from info war analysis were the people who were in the media centre – those already involved in the project. In some ways this isolation meant that the centre turned into a network type meeting for the wider European Indymedia network – which is a good thing in itself but could happen at any time.

indymedia inside the ESF

Should note that imc activists did participate in a small number of sessions on media inside the ESF. Also collaborated with other groups who had inside esf as main focus. Video booths were set up in the main hallof the ESf showing looped films. Solidarity statement re indy server seizures was included in final 'assembly of the social movements call' with overwhelming support after intervention of imc activists.

-- HamishDowner - 27 Oct 2004
-- ChipScooter - 28 Oct 2004 add text
-- PlanetMail - 12 Nov 2004

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