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Research and Indymedia

Research spaces within the indymedia network

Realising that there is a lot of research about indymedia which rarely feeds back into the imc network, we have set up some spaces dedicated to communication about research.

• mailing list: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-research, started after an indymedia conference in Texas in 2005.

• bibliography: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection (with summaries). An older collection needs to be incorporated: ImcUkImcResearchReferences. A bibliography without commentaries is in the making: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollectionSimple

• guidelines for researchers: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Research/ImcResearchPractices

• general imc research wiki: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Research

local/regional

• imc uk has, like some other imcs, a special section for news about indymedia: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/topics/indymedia/
• imc barcelona: BcnInvestigacio

Other activist research projects

wikimedia

• mailing list - http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
• people - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research
• official network, open for anyone to join http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research_Network
• wikimedia research: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiresearch

Activist Research Network: Euromovements / openelibrary

A research network seems to be forming in association with the ESF:

• http://www.euromovements.info/html/index.htm | http://www.openelibrary.info/ | http://www.directoryaresearch.tk/

Radicalising universities? or being coopted by them?

Hacklab: Technology, Creativity, Social Organisation - Lancaster - 3/4/5 Feb 2006

• A weekend gathering for collaborative and creative reflection February 3/4/5 \x96 2006
  • http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-uk-network/2005-November/1111-er.html
  • http://knowledgelab.pbwiki.com/index.php?wiki=SecondKnowledgeLab

open research principle

• All data and methods (software) and research articles should as much as practically possible be published under open licences, e.g. GPL, GFDL or even public domain. At a minimum, the research article should be available on the web without any registration requirements.
• examples of (more or less) open science publishing:
  • http://arXiv.org
• examples of free software for scientific research:
  • http://lists.debian.org/debian-science/
  • http://wiki.debian.org/?DebianScience

what mathematical models are needed?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organization

using the human brain's visualisation packages - treemapping etc

• http://nualart.com/area/about.html

Who are we?

People hoping, intending or already active in indymedia research. See

• ImcResearchWho

what are our research goals (general goals or specific projects)?

How does indymedia slot into the blogosphere?

How does indymedia slot into the blogsphere? - technically, socially, politically? Or doesn't it, and should it?

is indymedia+wikimedia+blogosphere making war impractical?

Emmanuel Kant had the idea that democracy would be enough to end war. Noam Chomsky claims that most ordinary people are generally against war and only intense propaganda campaigns are capable of getting a population to comply with the war wishes of the leaders.

TV and photos images of the Vietnam war helped create the Vietnam syndrome, a very powerful factor in making full-scale war less likely, because the horror of war became harder to ignore.

Are improved communications in the indymedia and wikimedia networks and the blogosphere helping:

• to create the Iraq syndrome so that the military might of the USA will become more and more illegitimate?
• to reduce the chance that anti-Iran and anti-PRChina propaganda can persuade the USA population that a war against either of these would be justified?
  • ImcIranPossibilities
• to reduce the chance of other armed conflicts, e.g. north-east asia, south asia, africa?
• to reduce United Nations Security Council destruction of democracies, as in Haiti?
• to destroy the IMF, World Bank, WIPO and WTO in order that new structures, consistent with human rights and environmental protection, can be constructed?

is indymedia+wikimedia+blogosphere making local people better able to self-organise?

• Iran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_blogs - the iranian blogosphere
  • the short answer seems to be yes (e.g. the blogosphere forced the Guardian Council to accept a moderate candidate in the 2005 presidential election)
• PRChina: see ImcChina - the Chinese language wikipedia community has, twice, successfully persuaded/forced the PRC government to lift its blocks on the wikipedia to people on the mainland, and the government is aware that the remaining very precise blocks (aimed at certain sensitive subjects, only blocking specific web pages) are ineffective and lead to domination of chinese-language discussion of those subjects by overseas chinese
  • again the short answer seems to be yes
• Have USAID/NED/IRI/NDI coopted indymedia etc techniques in doing the rose/orange/tulip revolutions?
  • e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1360080,00.html US national/corporate budget funding/stimulating of internet groups to invoke social change in countries bordering Russia in order that US corporations and the market can make poor people poorer, while at the same risking a chance that young people will continue to self-organise independently of market ideology
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution
  • a new IMC Ukraine - ImcCEEurope#Third_Ukraine_indymedia - may be a test of this
  • Can we measure anything about this phenomenon rather than only make qualitative, speculative hypotheses?

Local nodes in a global network - conflicts and collaborations.

• ConflictResolution

Organising Indymedia - Punk or NGO?

Indymedia - the movement's photoalbum or CNN's competitor (Urbana-Champaign)?

Indymedia+wikimedia+blogosphere - interfacing physical and virtual spaces

Hume's Paradox: where alterglobalisation meets color revolutions

• HumesParadox - color revolutions, Hume's Paradox and what relation indymedia does have or should have to these

ideas for an indymedia research website

• ImcResearchSiteDebate - some excerpts from debate on what sort of web site to create for imc research/strategy: wiki? blog? a new web on this docs.indymedia twiki?
• a website named reflections.indymedia.org which seems to be a draft,

mentioned on imc-research Jun 9 2005

---

-- GarconDuMonde - 11 Mar 2005 - haha! started but didn't actually do anything... i shall come back!
-- BouD - 24 Oct 2005 - did something, not much, but something :)
-- IonNec - 16 Nov 2005 - restructured our own resources, added stuff
-- GarconDuMonde - 20 Dec 2005 - created 'Research' web
-- BouD - 30 Mar 2006 - shifted deas for an indymedia research website to the end
-- BouD - 30 Mar 2006 - goals (general goals or specific projects)?; added hume's paradox project link