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IMC-UK Network Meeting in London, 17th May 2008

Table of content :

Where:

The venue has now been changed to RampART socal centre (map). Whitechapel Food Not Bombs will provide lunch and dinner on Saturday for donations.

Who? --> Registering

Please register here: UkNetworkMeeting2008LondonWho

Aims

In the last Network meeting that took place in Nottingham on the 9/10th of February, it was felt that another network wide meeting was necessary so to address issues that could not be resolved in that meeting. See minutes here and here.

In a sense, the London Kollective sees this meeting in London as a direct follow up from the Nottingham one, and that is why it is being organised so soon after the last meeting in February. We find it essential to continue the dialogue between the diferent kollectives so to strengthen the network, and to build a UK network of IMC's that is ready for future challanges.

Issues that we feel still need further discussion / resolution:

Update from IMCs

Can I suggest a brief section where all the different IMCs update the rest on what they are up to, problems, challeges etc. to see both where we might be able to support one-another and just to build a better understanding of whos up to what!

Organisation issues:

• the wider politics of IMC-UK. it's ethos, its practices: what do they contribute towards building a participatory democratic 'movement' for radical social change?
• Dealing constructively with interpersonal conflict within the network
• how do political disputes affect the indymedia network.

Disputed political issues:

• how to find / create a common ground for disputed issues that keep coming back. For example, 911 posts and the politics of the 'Truth Movement". Some thoughts from Chris on this matter.

Indymedia politics/future

• in what direction do people wish the Indymedia project to grow in? the UK indymedia site has become very successful and is reaching a larger and wider audience year by year, this is however taking it further from its specific 'activist roots' from where it was born, is this good? or does the newswire need to be moderated to more specific guidelines and give more prominence to a much more specific agenda?
• how to effectively create a structure so more people get involved in site maintenance /feature writing /wire cleaning /etc
• what is happening with repression globally to indymedia sites? issues of security, servers autonomy, etc ...
• what is the IMC-UK network actually for? why does it exist? and what is its strength comparing to, for example, a series of independent IMC projects in the UK.
• What of interest is happening in the network: updates from Nottingham / Bristol / Cardiff / London / Haction Lab

Indymedia UK technical developments

• new front page design: where are we up to with what was presented in Nottingham, and are we ready to try to implement changes within a specific timetable? [if Notts turn up - they can't make it]
• new CMS's people have been working on: any developments / presentations people would like to do?
• syndication of content from regional sites that don't use MIR. Publish pages for different cms's: how to integrate them?
• new specific projects people have been working on (i.e. mickfuzz / ekes video content management tool, etc...)
• server issues: what is actually happening with the 'new' servers we bought.
• Mobile IMC's - in the field support of gatherings like Noborders and Climate Camp - what's new for 08 and prep for Hactionlab event: http://www.hacktivista.net/hacktionlab/index.php/Main_Page (see mickfuzz's email about a 'Hacktion Lab' to take place this June in the UK that will address, amongst others, these issues)

Structure

The gathering will consist of one full day of debates and sessions to take place on saturday 17th May 10am - 8pm.

These will consist of a combination of plennary gatherings and more thematic based sessions. There could also be practical workshops in order to present specific projects people are working on, and to exchange information on technical developments.

There is still a need for people to come forward as moderators and/or facilitators for the sessions. Anyone with experience doing that please come forward! Below is a copy and paste from the Nottingham network meeting wiki regarding the role of the facilitators:

Session based structure with facilitators

The job of the facilitator is to

• facilitate the session or to find someone to do that
• try to make sure that people who are interested in that subject get what they want to get out of that session
• make sure that most aspects are discussed by timekeeping the session

This involves a bit of homework but hopefully not too much. Most of it will be inviting comments on the session and trying to work out a strategy for helping discussion without guiding the direction of decisions.

Please add here any other structure ideas that people may have:

Program

Please arive on Friday if you can, so seesions can start on saturday morning without delays,

Note the timetable below is a very crude start, and the topics relate to the issues listed above. Please add/change and help structure the timetable into a more concrete form.

Saturday

10-10.15	Welcome and Introduction	RampArts
10.15-11	Finallising the day's agenda	RampArts	plennary session
11-13	to be decided on first session	RampArts	group sessions for an hour, then reconvine as a plennary
13-14	Lunch	RampArts
14-15	to be decided on first session	RampArts	plennary session to identify what groups need addressing what
15-16	to be decided on first session	RampArts	groups debate specific issues
16-17	to be decided on first session	RampArts	groups feedback to plennary
17-18	to be decided on first session	RampArts	(groups or plennary
18-19	to be decided on first session	RampArts	groups and plennary
19-20	Dinner	RampArts
20 onwards	Social	location tbc

Sunday To be organised if people feel like continuing the discussions

Outcomes / Proposals

• UkIndymediaFrontPageSpec
• UkIndymediaDisputeProcess

-- MaQui - 25 Mar 2008 - Start wiki -- MaQui - 17 Apr 2008 - added links to emails, suggestions to discuss, plus started a timetable. -- Main.London meeting - 14 May 2008 - rearranged agenda