The following is the current draft of the blogwire policy.

Community Blogwire: We have added a new way for local, independent media producers in San Diego to contribute to the SD Indymedia web site. While open publishing remains the heart of this website, we realize that media makers and community activists have increasingly begun to construct their own "weblogs," which allow them simple and direct control over content. Using the power of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) SD IMC has begun to syndicate weblogs and other community news sites that "feed" their content to other sites and news aggregators.

In some ways, this will move SD Indymedia towards a new role as a local news hub, in addition to its current role as an original news producer. We're really excited by the possibilities provided by RSS, and over the next few days we'll be posting a longer feature on the community blogwire, what kind of content we're looking for (we're not syndicating everything!!) and how to get more involved.

We are adding a new feature to our site newswire -- the community blogwire. Using the power of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) SD Indymedia will now be pulling headlines from progressive local blogs and other media organizations making use of rss feed technology. We will not be syndicating entire articles on the blogwire; rather, we will be pulling headlines and short summaries from other media organizations. We are looking to both democratize the San Diego  blogosphere and better integrate progressive publishers in the area into a stronger network of radical media makers.

What kind of blogs are we looking for?:

• are locally produced (SD and immediate environs) or concern issues of strong interest to the SD community
• are politically left
• contain original content, not just reposts and links
• have not produced material in violation of existing moderation policies (racist, homophobic, etc.)
• content need not be merely political or social analysis. Arts, interviews, reviews and so on are encouraged.
• we strongly prefer to syndicate news and current events sites. Sites that are largely or partly "personal diaries" will probably not be included.
• we also prefer sites that relate, in some fashion to the work of a community, a collective, or another type of social group.

The criteria above should be seen as "general rules of thumb"; however, they are not exclusive and exceptions may be made to any and all of the above guidelines. In general, think about whether the blog for you or your group primarily contains material that would be published on our open newswire. We reserve the right to remove any site for the blogwire at any time. This document represents the current policy of the san diego imc.  As with all imc policy, it is and should be open to revision and exception, given sufficient justification.  If you feel a revision or exception is in order, please document your concern on the listserv by making a proposal for such.

This was taken, with some very small changes, from the NYC Indymedia Blogwire Policy: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcNewYorkBlogwireInvite

-- SdLotus - 15 Dec 2005
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