this includes NewImcRollCall - edit NewImcRollCall, not this page

Roll calls from volunteers of the new-imc working group

This page contains roll calls from all volunteers of the new-imc working group. Please update it if things change. And please use it if you are looking for specific support in terms of location, language or special expertise.

2007

The roll calls from 2007 are here: NewImcRollCall2007

New Imc Roll Call 2007 - who are we?

Hi,

Wellcome to the newimc roll call 2005 page,

These are members of the newimc working group an the skills/knowledge/expertise they offer to froming new imc's (and each other).

This is the list of questions they answered upon resubscription to the newic-working-group mailing list

1) your name/nick and email

2) your location and with which IMC do you work?

3) specific roles/tasks you take up in your local collective or tools you may have developed that might be usefull for broader help/support of new collectives like facilitating meetings, conflict resolution procedures, translation teams, feature teams etc...

4) language(s) you speak?

5) which new collectives have you assisted, you currently assist, or you are willing to assist in future?

6) what do you see as your contribution to new collectives and the new-imc working group? General support, special skills, technical skills, ideas etc?

7) Anything else you find important to share with the rest of this working group

Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7

2005

The roll calls submitted at the generalised annual new roll call on april first 2005 can be found here: NewImcRollCall2005

New IMC Roll Call 2005

Hi,

Wellcome to the newimc roll call 2005 page,

These are members of the newimc working group an the skills/knowledge/expertise they offer to froming new imc's (and each other).

This is the list of questions they answered upon resubscription to the newic-working-group mailing list

1) your name/nick and email

2) your location and with which IMC do you work?

3) specific roles/tasks you take up in your local collective or tools you may have developed that might be usefull for broader help/support of new collectives like facilitating meetings, conflict resolution procedures, translation teams, feature teams etc...

4) language(s) you speak?

5) which new collectives have you assisted, you currently assist, or you are willing to assist in future?

6) what do you see as your contribution to new collectives and the new-imc working group? General support, special skills, technical skills, ideas etc?

7) Anything else you find important to share with the rest of this working group

Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7
Jay, idiot @jaysand. com	Philadelphia IMC	Facilitating meetings, conflict resolution, general vision and organizing, lots of functional work over the last couple years with features, fundraising, outreach, etc	English, very basic reading knowledge of spanish/french	For the last couple years I've mainly been involved with helping US-based new-imcs, though I've dabbled in helping IMCs elsewhere	Q6*	.

Q6:I have a lot of experience with collective organizing, both on-line and off, and also have a lot of experience with the dynamics within IMCs. I have a decent knowledge of the Indymedia network's history, organization and current important issues

sheri

i currently live in seattle but am not active with the local seattle imc (feel free to ask me privately why), although i was active in the seattle imc for the first 4.5 years; i'm involved with several working groups and have been active in indymedia since 1999.

institutional memory, dynamic facilitation skills, writing and editing, interviewing (produced and hosted public access and radio programs for nearly 10 years)

english - native, french

can't recall all the early ones, but currently imc korea; i'm interested in helping with regional imc collectives in the cascadia region

Q6*.

"Q7*.

Q6:i can provide general support, institutional memory, mentoring for people wanting to get involved in the new imc process. i helped start this list and was active with the development and evolution of the new imc list process. i also helped draft alot of the language for the new imc webpage with others and have been very interested in the connections we have through our principles of unity. i believe strongly in the role this working group plays in the network and want to see the process evolve to better reflect our principles and our ideals

Q7:"jumpstarting network consciousness" starts with how we introduce new collectives to indymedia and this group and this process is one of the first ways that happens. what i mean by jumpstart network consciousness is how do we increase our ability to provide mutual aid to each other, how do we increase our ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with all local nodes in the web of indymedia. these questions relate to how we conceive of ourselves as a network and what that means. it should be a relationship of many to many, autonomous and connected. the new imc process introduces new groups to what indymedia is, what it's trying to be and what it can be. it is not an end in itself, it is merely a stepping stone along the way.

Petros Evdokas, petros @ cyprus-org.net

Q2*

Organizing, writing and editing, political analysis, investigative reporting, contacts and person- to- person communication, facilitating meetings, mediation, negotiations, representation, translation, liaison, legal defense

hellenic (greek) language - native, helleno- cypriot dialect - native, english - second language, almost native

Q5*

Q6*

Q7*

Q2:In this period, I divide my time between the island of Cyprus, and the US NorthWest, Portland.I'm one of the founding members of the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective, and remain very active in it. Have been in IndyMedia circles, groups, and networks since the Winter of 2000-2001. Have been participating on and off in the dialogues and work of the new-imc work group since just a few months after it was formed.

Q5:Been an ally for imc-turkey (istanbul); imc-palestine (jerusalem); imc-beirut; imc-cyprus, and helped to ensure the possibility that some imc groups would not be formed, such as the one by cia-sponsored contras in Iraq (yes, we actually received an application for approving one). I have a strong interest in helping the eastern-mediterranean-imc group of contacts evolve into a genuine regional imc group

Q6:I'd like to help with imc contacts in the "Third World" and especially in the "Muddled East". It took me a lifetime to figure out the rudimentary essentials of its political landscape (through decades of political work, a lot of it full- time), and yet I still find that I know very little - we need collective efforts in order to be guided wisely toward expanding our presence in that direction. I think IndyMedia, as a whole, has been blundering blindly in its efforts in our Eastern Mediterranean / Middle East region of the world, and needs more help in building real foundations for our presence.

Q7:I'm very concerned that there is a group of people close to the core of indymedia, who are very rigidly fixed in Euro-American ways of doing things with an inordinate emphasis on individualism and almost to the detriment of collectivism.

I'm also very concerned that there's hardly any articulated politics guiding the way we do our work.

And I'm very concerned that there's a group of committed imc activists who might be loosely termed "chaoticist- anarcho- individualists", who are hellbent on destroying every indymedia structure we have built, even the tiniest of our collective group functions, because as they claim "all structure is government". It sounds ridiculous, but they have a large following in the US imc networks, and many of the foundations of imc are determined by them. A tangent of this relates to the fact that entire imc groups have given up on direct democracy or any form of collectivity (they have leaders who proclaim openly "we're not democratic"' they operate secret email lists; censorship and carry our purges without due process: while some had to be shut down (eugene, for example) others are flourishing and unfortunately spreading their influence.

I like Sheri's concept of "jumpstarting network consciousness", very much. The question of "how we conceive of ourselves as a network and what that means", is integral to everything we do, and also, unfortunately, it is integral to the fact that, in the absense of a real answer after all these years we've been working together, the significance of IndyMedia as a tool for the global movement has been declining. This reflects many factors and developments, but primarily, it reflects our denial and refusal to commit to real process with each other. The task of building collectivity and a tangible network which will reflect actual human processes, or as Sheri puts it, what "…should be a relationship of many to many, autonomous and connected" is the most important task for our work..

Further related readings which illustrate a certain approach we might try to integrate into our process: " On the emergence of an imc-baghdad /imc- iraq group" http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/new-imc/2004-March/005004.html

"…Collectivity has been flushed down the toilet, as being "oppressive"" http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-process/2003-March/004688.html

"on CAIRO IMC" http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/new-imc/2003-April/003650.html

Pseudo Punk, bart @indymedia.org	Belgium, imc-wv	did all kinds of stuff. atm mostly tech stuff, developping sf-active	dutch, english, french	half of the european ones.I'm with new-imc since it started	tech skills mostly	.
tulpje aic AT bork.hampshire.edu	live in netherlands, work with indymedia-romania	i'm not sure i have developed any particular tools in my work with my local group, but i've definitely gained a lot of experience on working collaboratively, trying to distribute work, organizing, and communicating (especially on a mailing list)	omanian, english, spanish, french, german & italian	i have helped imc-valencia through the new-imc process, and am assisting with imc-ukraine, i only started helping out with newimc this year (ie 2005)	Q6*	.

Q6: in terms of being able to assist groups, i generally try to stay calm and organized in the information i am sharing and also try to get as much information so that i can best understand the situation. as far as how i can contribute, sometimes i only realize when the situation arises, most constantly i have tried to help with translations.

clara / clara(at)indymedia.org	Amsterdam, Netherlands, IMC Netherlands, Biotech Indymedia, global features working group	organizing and facilitation, editorial work, knowing who's doing what and who can be asked for what, wiki	german, english, dutch	IMC Armenia. European IMCs - preferably in travelling distance to join them for a meeting once in a while, IMCs that use German or Dutch, english speaking IMCs in Afrika or the Middle East	General support, knowledge of how different IMCs deal differently with similar problems, putting people from a new collective into contact with others for specific help	I would love to see more discussions happening on new-imc of experiences in helping new collectives, ideas how to go about it, or feedback if a new collective comes up with problems
Pete Stidman / pstidman @yahoo.com	Boston, Boston IMC	Facilitating meetings, general organizing, Outreach, Research, visioning workshops, fundraising, grantwriting, feature teams, writing, journalistic ethics, workshops, more	English, minimal spanish	Looking into Dar Es Salaam or Arusha, Tanzania in the long term, have established contact, looking for funding for computer access.	Q6*	Q7*

Q6: Ideas, helping to foster transparency and maintain openess to new IMC's also, I study media and organizations, including how to keep organizations flexible so that changes and innovations can be made. I can also be a conduit for accessing the technical and special skills extant in the Boston IMC Collective.

Q7:by becoming a member of this list I do not neccesarily endorse the policies of the New IMC working group. I am interested in making the process much more welcoming and easy. Membership should not always mean conformity, especially when considering applications from cultures foreign to our own. I am primarily interested in helping to provide media access to people, not in forcing a certain set of ideals upon them. The only ideals I might agree with are those specifically addressing non-political ideals such as openness, transparency, equal access, and others. It is impossible to create one means of creating social justice that will apply to all cultures. There are always multiple solutions to all problems.

Nowak, haengematte @gmx.at	i live in vienna (austria) and work with the new imc-vienna. some years ago i worked with austria.indymedia.	in the past i made several translations (german-english). in general i have a more administrative role in the group (contact person in international lists).	German, Engish	so far none. imc-vienna ist still under construktion (we have some technical problems). after starting i will consider assisting other groups.		general support, exchange of experiences (i was the contact person in the new-imc-list). i think i can help new applicants when they face the bureaucratic process, because i have experienced the same problems.	sometimes i think that the older members in this list do not understand their powerful role and often do not listen to the the problems of the new imc's
melpomene -at- riseup dot net	lancaster/uk - since 2001	outreach events, screenings, film making.	english, german, danish	Currently helping IMC-Erfurt and IMC-Denmark	Good general overview of how the network "functions", which lists etc., and what has happened in the past	.
my name is joel/joe ttx :: joe.ttx @blablaxpress.org	I live between liege et bologna & volonteer in imc-liege (belgium)	in imc-liege, i make the moderation of mailinglists, website & forum, i make features, & sometimes graphics stuffs	native french, minimal italian, minimal english	5-1 imc-grenoble (france) 5-2 auvergne (france) 5-3 Abitibi-T\xE9miscamingue (quebec)	I try to share the idea that the participation at the imc-network is not only answering to the Principe of unity (PoU), but also participate to the "global task" (mailinglists, translation, resolve, outrech, etc)	I support the idea that a working group should be created for working after newimc that will watch for the respect of the PoU by all the imc after his integration (or giving this task at the newimc group)
Andy aka andybot, andybot @indypgh.org.	I live in Pittsburgh and have in the past been involved in Pittsburgh IMC. I'm not currently active with the group, due mostly to time constraints as a student.	I have been involved with outreach, organizing, list administration and other tasks in the past with Pittsburgh IMC.	English (and a smatterin' of the Gaelic, but that's not of much help, I fear . . .)	I assisted with New Orleans IMC and am currently working with Las Vegas and Erie, which seems to be dormant.	Q6*	I've been a bit delinquent as of late because of my busy schedule, but hopefully soon I'll be back in the business of helping additional new IMC's!

Q6:I went through the process of creating the IMC in Pittsburgh with a few others, so I have essentially seen the new-imc process through its entire course, including the conflicts that can arise during the stablishment of a new group. This experience has helped me to guide those interested in starting a new IMC.

bb, blackbeard, txinsurrection(at)riseup.net

austin, tx, austin-imc

i have facilitated meetings, i have done spanish-english translations, worked with the features collective almost two years

spanish & english

www-features, www-editoriales, emerging cmi-venezulea

i am mostly wanting to work in a supporting role to the emerging cmi-venezuela, though i am open to other kinds of work as well

nothing to add!

1. name: Charles email: charles(AT)tampaindymedia(DOT)org

2. Tampa Bay IMC, US

3. roles/tasks/contribution: reporting, organizational work, conflict resolution/mediation, money management, simple website stuff

4. language: native-English, read/write Spanish better than I can speak it

5. assist other collectives: I'd like to focus on Florida IMCs, as I'm stuck in this swamp for a bit (it's not that bad), but I'll help others. My main purpose for joining this list is to help answer questions as our collective moves through the new-imc process while its veritableness is being called into question.

6. contribution to new colls. and WG: advice through experience at Tampa Bay and OKIMC.

Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7
momo (at) riseup (.) net	fRance, Nantes-IMC	Mailling lists administration/moderation, facilitating meetings, translation for Nantes-IMC and Indymedia.org, features on Imc-Nantes	French, English	i assisted the Toulouse collective and i still currently assist them	assist the new collectives: to try as well as possible to accompany them in their reflexion concerning adhesion to the network and what that implies for them in their way of working (meeting, be an open collective, OP, be part of an intergalactic network....)	It's would be great if we could have some irc meeting to have some discussion about our way of working in this group.Like for example the coherence between what we say to a new collective about the POU and what's happening on the network. In a way it's to formalise in a meeting some questions like this one and all the others

boud at riseup net

ImcPoland, ImcTorun

Mostly encouraging the translating of consensus, conflict-resolution stuff locally, putting it into practice. See ImcPoland for details.

fluent: (en), (fr), moderate: (pl), (id), (ja), (hi)

past: ImcIndia (2nd, 3rd generations), Mumbai (disappeared), ImcJakarta (1st generation, which disappeared, replaced by new generation), ImcNice, ImcIdf (Paris, reorganised from IMC France), ImcCroatia, ImcBrisbane (eventually was rejected from network), IMC Perth, ImcJapan, ImcBelarus now: inactive since April 2006, doing local stuff - ImcTorun - but also helping ImcGoa

Q6.*

Q7.*

Q6. Supporting ImcCEEurope#Belarus through the process since they are geographically close by.

IMHO the IMC Belarus collective have a very interesting contribution which may help in indymedia scaling problems: we are becoming a very big network (about 150 imc's with typically 10-100 "locally active" people and maybe 1000-10,000 readers per day each, implies about 1500-15.000 "locally active" people, and 150 thousand - 1.5 million readers per day) and having RDF and wiki fundamentally integrated into the software (samizdat engine) which itself is intended to become a standard debian package, means that we have a better chance of getting free software to support our networking and communication in the ways we want it to happen than if we try to do this without any tech help.

Q7. As is shown in NewImcApprovedIMCs, the exponential growth in the numbers of new IMCs from 2000-2002 stopped in 2003. During 2003-2004 and continuing this year, only a small number of new IMCs become well enough self-organised to become approved by the network.

This is not necessarily a problem: most of the individual local IMCs are growing in numbers of participants, articles, downloads, etc, and since we already geographically cover most parts of the world where there is high internet access, many "national" IMCs are dividing into more or less autonomous local indymedias, which remain networked locally and do not formally go through the new-imc process on the new-imc and imc-process mailing lists. There are also many more internet-supported alternative media models now than there were 5 years ago: especially blog networks and wikis.

So if there's less work to do in new-imc, we don't need to be worried IMHO :). We as indymedia are definitely participating in the growing of independent media space throughout a large part of the world. And there are many signs that the state/corporate/military media are losing some of their monopoly (e.g. the rejection of the treaty to make an EU constitution in France and the Netherlands despite a virtual unison in favour of the treaty by the dependent media) and blog and wiki experiments are showing that different internet-based media or free knowledge distribution methods can grow spectacularly even in relatively authoritarian countries (blogs in Iran: ImcIranPossibilities, wikis in PRC - see http://zh.wikipedia.org comments on ImcChina).

Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7
ChrisC, chrisc@indymedia.org for email and chrisc in irc	ImcUkSheffield	I do mostly tech stuff so could help with codebase advice...	English	At the moment I'm helping with ImcUkNottinghamshire in the UK, I don't know how much spare time I will have to help with other IMCs... not that much I expect...	Tech stuff probably...	Not really...

sphinx@indymedia.org

Local.ImcAmbazonia, ImcGermany Local.twincities

General organizing. I mostly help forming IMC in Africa.

fluent: Pidgin English, English, French, German, Russian, Bayang

past: ImcAmbazonia,(which disappeared after the massive repression by the Cameroon regime in 2005) ImcKenya, ImcNigeria (2rd generation, which didn't quiet pick up), forgotten the others that didn't pick up. Currently helping the forming imcDRCongo.

General support for newimcs.

we need to remember that while several thousands of other organizations, groups and online tools exists today that allows for more participation of the community in media making; indymedia remains the one global organization that combines those technical resources and media making in a real non-hierarchical structure. "A BIIIG DEAL IF YOU ASK ME".

before 2005

older roll calls are at NewimcRollcallOld