[imc-melbourne-work] new crew?

[Anna]

hey all,

i thought i'd mention i had a conversation with someone recently about a 
crew of young energetic types who might be interested in re-starting MIM 
the other day. who knows what may come out of this but this is cool as i 
think it will take youth and/or energy to do it.

i ran through my personal take on the major issues that MIM has faced 
(as i see it, and certainly i'm no expert, as someone with casual and 
event-based experience in MIM in the last few years rather than a 
fully-fledged member of the old-guard ;) ) and suggested that there are 
a few vital lessons learned or mistakes made to pass on, but also that 
whoever they are shouldn't listen too hard to cynical old naysayers 
either. basically i said that the model as it stands is flawed, the 
software hugely inadequate, and the old rules probably need to be torn 
up and an new approach taken by whoever chooses to give it another bash 
- all IMHO.

i mentioned projects like CCNonline as an interesting independent news 
project that attempts to focus on quality of writing, pairing amateur 
and professional journalists, and working with existing community media 
projects like community radio - all of which i think are positive 
alternatives to the old MIM model.
http://ccnonline.org.au/?q=home

not that this site is necessarily a shining example of what works (most 
of the content is old, i'm not sure how vibrant the project is anymore), 
just an example of fresh ideas that could be used as part of a new MIM 
or new entity that will fill the gap created by MIM shutting down. there 
are many other ideas too that have been discussed on this list - 
aggregation of progressive bloggers, forks, etc.

i also mentioned that the idea of an AUS-IMC is being discussed, which 
would take the pressure off individual tech collectives, though this 
would not address the other issues inherent in running an IMC.

anyhow i suggested she join this list, i'll let them take it from here. 
if new energy shows up it would be nice to organise a meeting, or even a 
day of informal workshops to help nut out what could be.

cheers,
anna