IMC Research Practices
This page is intended to collect views on the relationship between academic researchers and the Indymedia network. Some of this information may offer guidance to local IMCs in their interactions with researchers, while other entries may be of use to researchers pursuing the elusive Indymedia, a beast often sighted in the wild, but which tends to be a difficult subject in the laboratory.
Guidelines for Researchers
Indymedia is getting more and more enquiries from researchers. In the
June 04 archives of the
imc-uk-process list, this topic was discussed. Here are some draft "Guidelines for Researchers", formatted for pasting into an email. Please feel free to add links etc.
Dear Researcher,
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are interested in scholarly analysis about the Indymedia project, and
look forward to seeing your contribution.
Indymedia receives many requests by researchers - Ph.D, M.A. and B.A
students - as well as journalists, freelance writers and intellectuals.
We have developed some guidelines, including some background information,
and hope this will help you in pursuing your project.
Indymedia is a network of volunteers dedicated to social change. Our
core interest is to run the Indymedia websites and promote the Indymedia
network online and offline. Therefore we only participate in selected
research projects.
Our decision depends on several factors. For example: Is the research
likely to create debates and results that are interesting for us as
individuals or collectives? Does the researcher make his/her motivation,
methodology, theoretical framework and hypotheses transparent? Will
results and theories be discussed with Indymedia, before publication?
Openness for collaborative research models? Authorship - relationship
between researchers and the objects of the research? Timing - are we
busy with a major reporting project? And finally - does anyone feel
like spending time on this project right now?
Please feel free to get in touch with us. We can be contacted at:
FORMALITIES
1. You are welcome to study the newswires, center columns, publicly
archived email lists and any other resources you will find browsing any
Indymedia website.
2. Unless stated otherwise, all Indymedia content is published
under a copyleft, GFDL or creative commons licence. This means that you
can (in general) copy, quote and distribute our content, as long as a
reference (URL) is included.
We also consider it appropriate that publications about Indymedia be
published under such an open licence.
3. We consider it appropriate that publications about an open publishing
project are made accessible on the web. If you don't have the resources
to do so, you are welcome to upload your work in pdf format or directly
on to: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection
4. Since it is considered good practice within the academic community to
feedback the results of any research to those who have been studied, we
expect you to inform us about the results of your work. You can do so by
providing a link to your work and, if it is in print, a reference, on
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection
We also expect you to inform the appropriate lists or contacts you have made
about the completion of your work.
5. If your work is to be published in print, we would expect a minimum
of 3 review copies prior to publication.
COLLABORATION
Many researchers are planning to collect data through questionnaires
and/or qualitative interviews. It can be quite hard to get hold of
Indymedia volunteers to be questioned or interviewed.
As a decentralised network of volunteers, Indymedia has no headquarters,
no "one point of contact" for researchers, no press office, no
spokes-people. No one person or group can speak for the entire Indymedia
network. However, individual volunteers might decide to participate in
your project as individuals. You don\xB4t need any collective permission to
interview individuals who agree to participate. Local indymedia
collectives (like IMC Bologna, IMC Germany) can reach a consensus to
participate as a group. If you want to use Indymedia resources for your
research (beyond studying our public content), you will need the consent
of the group you are willing to collaborate with.
If you wish a more intensive collaboration with Indymedia volunteers,
please send a description of your project. Apart from your contact and
institutional details, this should include research design, methodology,
theoretical framework, hypotheses and research questions, as well as
planned proceedings with the results. It helps if you offer reasons why
your project should be supported by indymedia.
More intensive collaboration includes, for example: extensive lurking or
subscribing to lists, qualitative interviews with indymedia volunteers
(via questionnaire, email, on the phone, f2f, chatrooms etc),
participating in meetings (f2f, irc), action research, participant
observation online and offline, using imc resources to find respondents
for questionnaires etc. This list is not exhaustive!
Based on the information you give us, we will discuss your proposal and,
if people are interested, get back to you for further arrangements and
negotiations.
CONTACT
The archive of Indymedia mailing lists is a good starting point to find
the appropriate contact:
http://lists.indymedia.org
...and a list or person...
Mailing List Discussions
Ionnek posted a note to imc-communication proposing guidelines for IMC research, and opening a discussion on the topic:
A number of informative comments on ionnek's note followed:
Research on Ahimsa:
Writing on the Ahimsa incident? Add your piece here: AhimsaAnalyticReflection
-- GuamaniaN - 16 Jul 2004
-- MmPp - 13 Oct 2004 added special Ahimsa paper collection point
NOTE:
Copyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.