Possible Agenda Items:

• Intros
• Tech Support for Local IMCs
• site design
• working on collaberation features
• newswire: promoting articles from the open-publishing neswire to the center column and hiding articles on the newswire.
• ImcUsOutreach checkin
• how to improve rss feed
• hey - anyone wanna help with g8 dispatch???

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onto meeting tonight?

erock howdy

mtopper hey erock

bradley hey low

erock meeting soon, right?

bradley who is here to meet? so far....

onto erock mtopper bradley

bradley guess we can think of some agenda

bradley Possible Agenda Items: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsMeeting2005July5

bradley what do y'all think?

bradley i mean, erock and mtopper, what do you think

mtopper looks ok. I can talk somewhat about tech support for local IMCs

mtopper pretty much all I can talk about

bradley great, that sounds cool

bradley i don't know if anyone else is going to be here to meet. we could wait, and most likely someone will drop by later, but i think we should start in 5 minutes

mtopper sounds good

erock aight, im back and ready to go, sorry

bradley cool, we are giving it two more minutes

Tarik just testing...new to this...

bradley hi Tarik

Tarik great, hello. pleasure to join from binghamton

bradley excellent!! welcome!

bradley it is 10 past... want to expand on your intro at all, Tarik? no need, but if you want... say what you do with binghamton imc, or things you do outside of IMC life

bradley Possible Agenda Items: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsMeeting2005July5

bradley I'm bradley. I volunteer with Santa Cruz IMC. I like to take photos, i host a show on free radio santa cruz and i'm learning to make films, as well.... that's my intro. next...

Tarik at bing-imc, i edit the weekly newsletter. now reaches over 500 folks in binghamton, and we found providing this service has turned many people on to indymedia newswire. outside of this, mostly free-lance writer who is currently employed as Community Progressive Advocate in bing by many different progressive groups. the word reform makes we twitch. which is why i'm digging in my heals with the indymedia folks. pleasure to meet some of you at st l

erock erock, austin imc. features, video, radio, print, trouble maker

mtopper mike, nyc imc. I do some video work, but mostly tech stuff

bradley i think it is just the four of us, for now.

bradley Would anyone like to suggest an item for the agenda?

bradley Intros we took care of.

# Tech Support for Local IMCs # site design # working on collaberation features # newswire: promoting articles from the open-publishing neswire to the center column and hiding articles on the newswire. # ImcUsOutreach checkin

mtopper i can talk about tech support

Tarik i'm just eavesdropping and echoing the discussion back to bing.

bradley cool, why don't you go ahead mtopper

mtopper ok

mtopper new jersey has been down since the dada hack. currently some folks at phillyimc have stepped and our building a mir site for them

mtopper should be up in the next week or two

mtopper i contacted worcester imc and let them know that mtoups has offered them tech support for sf-active

mtopper at the meeting in bowling green they said they needed help, they haven't responded as far as I know though

C_handers hi everyone

C_handers sorry i'm late

erock hey, atlanta seems to be working through their problems

Tarik just to throw in mix...bing upgraded dada and it was a mess. we are being hosted by a server that had security walls, and spud has been VERY helpful in overcoming this. we're sticking with it, but it's been somewhat of a nightmare this last week.

mtopper someone from arkansas imc contacted me a whil ago about problems they were having with some dada stuff after the hack. I gave them some advice on what to do and if all else fails I sid I would work on it for them.

mtopper haven't heard back. I should probably email them again

mtopper I think thats it on my end

bradley what code bases are you familar with, mtopper?

mtopper mostly mir, but I can deal with dada somewhat

mtopper or at least point people in the right direction of help

bradley nice, does anyone else have any tech updates?

hi chris. would you like to add to the agenda

C_handers no, looks good to me. thanks

bradley will you give an intro, chris and jenka

jenka re all...sorry late

jenka i'm from dc

C_handers i'm chris from nyc imc. i do mostly editorial work on the nyc site and work with the paper

C_handers and i harass mike topper

mtopper i can confirm that

bradley let us know if you want to add anything to the agenda, jenka. thanks for being here. http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsMeeting2005July5

jenka how to improve rss feed?

bradley ok

bradley i've carried over agenda items from the last two meetings.

Tarik so are we on to next agenda item?

bradley site design was on the agenda, cuz i think people have some ideas of what they would like to see... but i'm not sure if any can (or has time) to make the desired changes

Tarik suggestions, many. time, so little....(smile)

Tarik though i think functionality and content is more important than design, really.

bradley we can start a wiki page with notes on what we want... it will make it easier for people, i think (i agree, Tarik)

Tarik one concern: on newswire feed from local imcs, we can have six articles in a row from Portland, then five in a row from Santa cruz...we need greater diversity. is it possible to do this

jenka this is part of the agenda item i added Tarik

erock rss feed

Tarik ahhh....tech idiot, here. thanks for the reminder.

bradley should we talk about design at all? I can set up a wiki called ImcUsDesign and put it under Tech Then we can encourage people to work in the wiki

jenka i like the site design

mtopper bradley: sounds good

C_handers agreed

erock yup

bradley i like it too, but there are some problems with it. i'll set the wiki and we can all make notes on it

Tarik twinkles from binghamton

bradley http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsDesign

jenka sounds fine......i'd like to know what the problems are, but i guess that is not for this meeting and should just continue on the wiki?

bradley one thing, is that there is no "enya" on the n in espanol... but i think we can all add our thoughts to the wiki

C_handers so ... collaborative features is next

jenka bradley: there is an enya....i see it

Tarik please, for a second: collaboration between different imcs? is that what we're discussing?

bradley in the banner, where it says: about us | global imc | espanol

erock there isnt one on the banner

bradley ok, how do people feel about trying to work on collaborative features

erock what the idea here?

erock with the collaborative feature that is

bradley there are a couple ideas i have

Tarik here's a possibility: there's a good deal of attention on walmart right now. could imcs do a collaborative national piece on walmart's in our communities?

bradley we could say things in advance, like august indy.us will make a collaberative feature on.... homelessness in our communities, for example. This would give people time to work on a given "theme"

bradley yes, Tarik, that's a great example

Tarik and yes brad, i like the themes

bradley i got an idea... how about we create a wiki called ImcUsThemes

Tarik let's start out slow, if we were to do this....one theme a quarter.

erock this would be hard, but pretty freakin cool

C_handers i think that for many folks the will is there to do more on coll. features, but the time is short

C_handers but this is no reason not to do what folks have suggested

bradley i think planning things far out in advance may help with the theme idea... even if two IMCs pull something together, it is a start

jenka i'm guessing this would be something separate from the 'themes' in the left column.....these would be features written by us-editorial folks, not promoted from newswire right?

Tarik this is firing the brain. in a good way. because so often i'll scan the imcs and see similar stories rooted in the same crisis that is rootless. ie, homelessness is not bound by city or state limits. nor is corporate tyranny over the laboring masses. or environmental racism, with imporverished cvommunities the dump grounds of corproate poisons. so if we were to band together thematically, and rather than post as "disparate occasions" we could com

gdm hey - anyone wanna help with g8 dispatch???

gdm it's 4 - 5 am in the uk and stuff is kicking off already

bradley gdm, we are in a meeting, sorry

gdm bradley: sorry

bradley we can add it to the agenda though!

Tarik SO...why not talk about this with our imcistas and return in next meeting with thematic ideas for WINTER 2005?

bradley how about we put walmart down as a theme for August 2005?

C_handers yes

Tarik can we bump it back a month?.....

erock can we ask for more ideas over the list?

erock i dont want to just jump on the first one brought up

bradley jenka, it would be different from the themes in the left column, but it could and hopefully would still involve pulling features from local IMCs

jenka how will different imcs be able to find out what theme is being worked on and contribute?

Tarik good question...

bradley we can send out emails on the list imc-us where hopefully (see Outreach agenda item) people have someone from the local IMC

Tarik couldn't we draft a submission letter and post to collective? i've posted to 20 imcs in a nite, and it takes a while, but if we half-a-dozen volunteers, that's easy...

bradley we can put up a link from a little box in the left corner of indy.us too

Tarik now we're thinking....good idea, bradley

bradley the more methods of outreach, the better!

jenka Tarik: that seems a little time consuming....maybe it can just be added to the notes section of the indy.us admin page

bradley that is another good idea, jenka!

Tarik yes, but i'm just speaking from a imc volunteer who isn't "chin-deep" in the dialogue mechanisms. let's take a crack at most of these suggestions...

bradley http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsThemes

Tarik but i still want to revisit the themes....possibilities? let's just say we pick one to launch this collaboration. we MUST them provide somehow for others to suggest future themes. how could this be done?

bradley let's list all the outreach ideas for themes on the theme wiki

mtopper Tarik: other themes can be suggested on the wiki

Tarik cool...

jenka should this wiki be called 'themes' -- it seems like that would make it easy to confuse with the left-column 'themes' ......maybe 'collaborations'? or something else

bradley sounds good to me, i'll do that, jenka

Tarik let's be realistic, though, so this works. how about collaborations as a QUARTERLY exercise of intra-communication. and YES jenka, great idea.

bradley http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsCollaborations

jenka Tarik: i agree with that....people are pretty busy, this could be a large added load if done more regularly

bradley ok, quarterly sounds like a good starting goal to me

Tarik great...now here's the difficult question: do we want to go with Walmart collaboration for Aug/Sep and then request themes for future collaborations?

jenka how about anti-recruitment campaigns? there are a lot of them all over right now....

bradley erock suggested getting feedback from the list before picking walmart or anything else

bradley only 4 themes per year is not many at all though

erock yeah, seems prudent

asad hey all!

bradley how about every two months

bradley hey asad

erock how bout we try it, see how long it takes to get it together, then take it from there?

asad is the meeting still going on?

jenka i think we should start a list on that wiki bradley.....starting with wal-mart, anti-recruitment, housing/gentrification......and on

Tarik two months is also suitable. as bradley mentioned earlier, if only two were involved, it'd be a good start to a habit we'd love to indulge.

jenka then send the wiki link to the list and have folks add suggestions.....and decide which first

C_handers yeah, i agree with erock, try it and see how it works and how fast it gets done,

bradley yes asad: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUs

jenka can we move on to newswire and rss feed? re asad....intro?

bradley ok, sounds good to me ( i had a friend come by and i'm helpig someone post on sc-imc....)

asad asad- north texas imc

C_handers sorry to come late and leave early, but I have to duck out I'm happy to see so much excitement about collaborative features!

Tarik now i could be questioned for this, but here's my hesitation: since bradley started this thread with the admission that he was including agenda items from previous two meetings, will we be revisiting this idea again? i'm always of the ilk when you start something new, get a few very committed involved, and run with it. THEN open for ALL to contribute and submit. if i'm alone on this, i defer. but i'd feel better if we picked one theme now for aug

erock but there is only four od us effectively deciding that way

erock not very collaborative

jenka i think i'm with Tarik on this one....i mean, we can send the idea to the list and if anyone is really opposed to doing a walmart collaboration in august then we can quit, but i would say it's better to decide smthg now....esp. since Tarik seems gung-ho on working on it ;P

Tarik that's right...and why i'll defer if it stinks....but consensus demands candor, and my experience suggests that an invitation for full participation must sometimes be limited BUT ALWAYS inspiring...

erock im not talking about consensus, just more input about this project.

erock what folks want to work on right now

Tarik i hear you...

bradley can we send out the idea to imc-us and say that some of us suggest working on walmart for August/September?

erock if we're trying to kick this off, we should find something a lot of people want to work on

bradley but we are open to other ideas

erock yes

bradley how about you Tarik?

bradley sorry... i mean would you be interested in emailing the list about this idea?

Tarik absolutely....let's make this interesting to all....walmart was just a flash

jenka ok...so Tarik will email the idea, can we move on to newswire?

bradley so, Tarik will email the list about collaberations and we can move on to the RSS feed topic?

bradley ha

erock he

Tarik wait wait wait...(smile)....what am i emailing? remember, i'm tech idiot.

Tarik touch crowd after midnight

mtopper imc-us@lists.ucimc.org

Tarik OKAY.....cool...done deal...

Tarik thanks mtopper

mtopper no problem Tarik

Tarik rss feed? we still here?

bradley go for jenka.... or who else mentioned this

Tarik jenka...then (gulp) me.

jenka well

mtopper hey, i have to split. still have a bunch of work tonight and its already 12:15

erock latas

bradley thanks for coming and for the tech update and the outreach!! later on

jenka the problem i have is that with the rss feed, we get, like Tarik mentioned, 5 from portland then 1 from someplace else, as well as many local events like book signings and etc that aren't really relevantnationally...... ...but according to john the code changes would be a lot of work to get the rss to be more selective

Tarik ditto....make feed be nationally relevant if possible....

bradley A lot of us LOVE hearing about the "little things" going on in that don't necessarily have a "national focus"

erock just to clarify, the rss feed takes local features and puts them directly up on the wire, or is there some tech stuff to do manually?

bradley i wish that all the RSS feeds worked better... like, for example, Houston and Pittsburgh do not fully syndicate, just the title and one line

bradley it is done automatically, erock

jenka well i think it would be worth doing a code upgrade for mir at least....although not all the local sites use mir.....and those that use sf-active and dada and such would have to have a separate code upgrade (yet another argument for codestandardization) ......but i think i'd like to try to work in tech on at least getting mir to be able to have a checkbox when local features are created that says 'add to indymedia.us newswire feed?'

erock i agree with bradedly, i think the wire's purpose is to show whats going on nationally at the local level

erock the list on us indy says austin is syndicated, we're not tho

bradley i can make a note of that on the wiki, erock

bradley but i can't fix the feed.... sorry... hopefully someone can make it work again

erock wasnt expecting that

bradley http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsSyndication

Tarik well it seems we have two different perspectives on how the feed shoould work. is it a "promotion site" of local stories that have national interest, or a national warehouse of local stories? both are legit, but that seems to be the origin of the different perspectives, no?

bradley jenka and all, I think we can also use that wiki page for ideas about RSS

guest703 i always though of it as a "warehouse' as you put it

bradley Tarik, i think the center column is a way to make both perspecitives work

guest703 seems prudent

bradley hello guest, can you please do an intro

bradley this is a meeting for indy.us

guest703 this is erock, i just got booted off the inet

bradley oh

bradley is there more to talk about for the RSS item? Should we all make notes on the wiki?

guest703 wait,

bradley ok, cool

guest703 is there a page that explains problems with the feed and dada?

Tarik friends....i must retire....work beckons, and sleep tempts. thanks for the invigorating discussion, and i'll be sure to send the COLLABORATION missive to the list no later than the end of the week (likely tomorrow). but one favor please: can somebody offer up personal email address so i can cc you, just in case i can't mail to list? remember, i'm a tech idiot. peace, Tarik

jenka well.....i agree with what erock says, the warehouse idea, but the problem is that some locals are much more active at putting many features up....then they begin to dominate the newswire.....

bradley bradley@riseup.net

Tarik cool...peace, and see you out there.

guest703 can we just ban portland?

bradley gnight Tarik!

guest703 lata

jenka hahh!!! hmmmm......well erock, i know that texas nationalism is strong and all.....but i have a feeling portland might not be into the idea of being banned.......

guest703 it seems if we focus on actually getting sites syndicated this problem will disappear, or at least not be a big deal

guest703 aight, i promised atx imc i would try

jenka is atx austin?

guest703 yup

bradley i agree that having more sites syndicated will help fix the issue

bradley shall we talk about this one now?:

newswire: promoting articles from the open-publishing neswire to the center column and hiding articles on the newswire.

guest703 maybe if we had detailed explanation on how to for the different code bases

jenka i think it's a tech question.....we need to discuss it on the tech list, not here

erock someone want to pitch it to them then?

jenka yeh i will erock

bradley maybe tech folks can help by upating this page: http://indymedia.us/en/static/syndicationfaq.shtml

jenka bradley: is there a problem with how promotion is happening now? ie....explain this agenda item pls

bradley ok, i have folks chatting with me in my room too, sorry...

bradley there have been complaints about the way articles get promoted

erock can you summarize a few?

bradley some people feel that the editorial volunteers just pick features from their local IMC, while ignoring more important articles

bradley as far as i can tell, here the folks that have promoted features lately:

jenka well hell, that's what i do.....

bradley bradley, asad, onto, jenka, erock

erock so we would need an admin from every collective

bradley jenka, that is great, i think!

jenka and bht....

erock i havent in a good while

erock months

bradley as long as we also have people that are picking features from IMCs that do not have someone as an admin

erock be nice to have someone scan sites for possible features

bradley maybe we can suggest that more people promote features from local IMCs

jenka well erock, if we get more sites syndicated, they'd just have to scan the newswire....and i personally do that....i'm sure others do too.....(scan the syndicated newswire i mean)

erock can we get a list a what collectives have us admins?

erock true

bradley i want people to feel comfortable promoting features that are not from their IMC

erock seems are big obstacle is still syndication

jenka erock: you can check the list of admins....most have a username that includes what local imc they are from.....i guess you could make a list from that if you wanted

erock i dont think its a comfort issue, more like time, etc.

erock mmk

bradley this needs to be updated http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsEditorial

bradley i will update that list later tonight... there is a way to check inside the admin... assuming people use names like... sc_bradley, dc_jenka, or the like

erock back

bradley ImcUsOutreach checkin

and

hey - anyone wanna help with g8 dispatch???

erock where was that admin link again?

bradley http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsAdminInterAction

erock i cant find the list of admins

bradley ok, go to "super user functions" in the center column, then "users"

jenka erock: bradley said he'll update the list tonight tho

asad sorry

asad i am back

erock cool

asad hey erock, how is the radio stream going?

bradley shall we try to wrap up this meeting?

jenka yes please

bradley maybe a "check out"

erock sure

asad oh sorry i thought it was over, my bad

bradley np

erock what was last, outreach?

bradley yeah

erock what up with it?

bradley well, anyone have any outreach updates?

bradley http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUsOutreach

bradley i don't have any updates

jenka well me neither

erock nada

jenka and my eyes are about to drop from extended sleep deprivation.....so i better sign off

bradley check out time

erock bye

erock before we go

bradley i think the meeting went well. glad to see more energy being put forward. i look forward to more!

erock im leaving these lovely united states for a long while, my involvement with us imc will probably be just to promote atx stories occasioanlly.