[Imc-oceania] PROPOSAL: United IMC

[takver]

I don't think the idea is to replace the work of existing collectives.
Certainly Perth and Sydney will continue to maintain their sites and I
would definitely expect Aotearoa to maintain theirs.

An Oceania IMC would provide the opportunity of providing newswires for
Timor Leste, Tonga, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New
Guinea, etc which might actually stimulate people from these areas to
post news.

Alex from QC Indymedia has also expressed interest - QC IMC has not
effectively recovered from the porn spam attack last year, as they
lacked the tech skills to counter the attack. 

In the current scenario each of our collectives is being picked off
because we are only working as individual collectives. QC last year,
Melb this year. What happens when there is a concerted spam attack on
Perth or Aotearoa, neither of which currently have authenticated logins
for users? Both collectives probably have enough mods to cope, but for
how long?

I am aware of the dangers of Australian material dominating the main
page so we would need to look at this carefully and devise ways to
promote minority cultures in a big way. I'm not sure if this is possible
but I think it needs to be seriously looked at. Certainly oz IMCs have
tended to give some prominence to indigenous struggles, so I think there
is some hope.

But if there are still objections to an Oceania IMC, I am quite happy to
leave Oceania as a syndication site and be part of the development team
on a lesser project - Australia IMC. It would definitely be easier and
more straightforward, but sadly provide less opportunity to stimulate
news from minority cultures in the region. The other issue is that an
Australia IMC does not resolve the problem with QC IMC.

And please don't give up on Melbourne yet. I think there is a good
chance the collective might reorganise. For several weeks the collective
 discussed our situation. The spam attack from an irate contributor was
the last straw, when we realised our present software with minimal
moderators working could not effectively counter a determined spam
attack. It was discussed that we might need a schism, some abrupt event
to stimulate community interest and reinvolvement in Indymedia. Well,
now we will find out over the coming weeks.

Indymedia needs to keep evolving and the Melbourne schism provides an
opportunity for us in Melbourne, and maybe across Oceania to evolve our
sites a little, to make them more relevant.

Diet Simon said:
> I am sad about Melbourne closing and puzzled that they gave in to
ludicrous troublemakers. Is that failure government-driven, I wonder,
hiding behind 'groups'? It's amazing what a few well placed dollars can
achieve.

As a collective we decided to pull the plug on open publishing, but I
found it difficult and emotional having to personally authorise the
technical action to disable open publishing. There just wasn't enough of
us left at the end to moderate the newswire 24/7 to piss off the
"ludicrous troublemakers" - and no it wasn't a Government plot, it was
an irate regular contributor who refused to moderate their behaviour who
  launched the attack. 

As I have said elsewhere, 
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2007-June/0612-o3.html
we really needed a software upgrade to cope with such a persistent
attack - and yes I was expecting some sort of attack on the site to come
sooner or later based upon the experience of the Darwin conflict. As a
collective I don't think we discussed this: we should have.

in solidarity
Takver


> hey all,
> here are some comments from other people (omar, ken, cameron,
> torrance) of the imc aotearoa editorial collective.
> solidarity
> smush
> 
> Omar wrote:
> > Hey not sure if i understand the emails in the oceania
> > archive properly but it seems to me that people are
> > suggesting we amalgamate the a-imc newswire into a broader
> > regional one.
> >
> > If this is the case then i would be stridently against
> > it!!!!!
> >
> > While there are major similarities between the issues
> > facing aotearoa and australia and the pacific, i dont
> > think that subsuming aotearoa into a regional mix will
> > help further "our goal to further the self-determination
> > of people unheard and under-represented in media
> > production and content."
> >
> > If anything it may have a negative effect. I'd prefer that
> > our features are streamed onto a oceania site in some
> > way-like they are at the moment. but we would definitley
> > be overwhelmed by australia that would have a negative
> > effect! but i agree, lets keep the talk going!
> >
> > omar
> > p.s. hopefully get video interview with tongan folk today
> > at uni, right now have an exam to go to!!
> 
> > On 14/06/2007, at 9:15 AM, ksimpson at ihug.co.nz wrote:
> >
> > I'm against it too. Ken
> 
> Cameron wrote
> > Me too.  I agree entirely with Omar.
> > Cameron
> 
> On 6/13/07, Torrance <torrance123 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I agree. We don't have the same issues as OZ - we have spam under
control,
> > vibrant features/newswire, and a small but active group. I don't
think we
> > need an Oceania site, and as other OZ people suggested, a straight
Oz indy
> > would be the most practical thing to implement right now.
> >
> > Torrance
> 
> Omar wrote:
> > Sad to hear about the demise of Melbourne Indymedia but t was propably
> > pretty urealistic to have five imcs in australia when the uk only has
> > one. I hope to see a newer and better Australia imc in the future.
> > Spam is low, (praise the lord) but i have caught a couple especially
> > in the other press.
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 

-- 
in solidarity
Takver