[IMC-US] ed. policy

[max]

I believe this is the most recent, agreed upon policy for US IMC.






"featurewire" policy:
        -fully automated, syndicated wire of all features from US IMCs

center column policy:
-the center column is the place to feature:
        1) articles promoted from the featurewire
                -these articles will be either:
                a) bumped to the center column with no changes from the
feature wire
                b) bumped to the center column with spelling and grammar
corrections if needed
                c) bumped to the center column with added links and content
with the exclusive purpose of adding context for a US-wide audience
        2) articles written by an editorial team specifically for US-IMC
                a) these articles will be written collaboratively over an
email list, in a very similar fashion to global

criteria for center column:  
        1) center column features should be articles produced by local IMCs
with content relevant to the US-IMC readers
        2) center column features should be original features compiled by
theUS-IMC editorial team
        3) there will be an emphasis on featuring articles produced by local
IMCs rather than by the US editorial group
        4) respect "standard" imc op guidelines
        5) be of interest to the entire us
        6) should not be reposts of articles published elsewhere
         7) should be drawn primarily from independent media sources rather
than the mainstream press, and should be written (in html) with  links to
these sources
        8) should be primarily news-reports, that is, reports on events
which are taking place or will take place, rather than commentary. 
indymedia is a mechanism for the distribution of information, not a
political soapbox.


process:
        1) there will be a US-IMC editorial group that will communicate over
an email list.
        2) this group will work out a more detailed policy regarding the
promotion of features to the center column from the featurewire as needed
(see above section "criteria for center column").
        3) all feature articles (promoted articles from the featurewire and
original content) will follow a similar process to global (proposal -->
6hrs without blocking --> publish - this can be articulated in greater
detail if people want)
        4) the email list and the internal message boards in Mir will be
used for inter-group communication
        5) the editorial group is open to anyone who is already working on a
local IMC in the US

open newswire:
        1) there will be an open publishing newswire, moderated by the
US-IMC editorial group
        2) the newswire will not display on the front page, but there will
be a "publish" link located on the front page
        3) additionally, there will be an easily accessible page listing all
of the US IMCs and information about open publishing (maybe links to their
publish pages?)