[IMC-US] US IMC

[deva]

Hi People,

One concern I have about the US imc that is being set up. (I assume 
this is it - http://us.indymedia.org/ )

I very much do not like the email verification approach of the Dada 
software. Well, specifically, I do not like that it is pushed upon 
users. On the publish page of dada sites it says "If you do not 
validate, users will be encouraged to distrust your information."

The trustworthiness of information has nothing to do with a verified 
email address. So this statement is pushy and misleading. For any local 
imc that wants to make such a statement, that is up to them. I do not 
like it, but it is not my business. However, the US imc is now supposed 
to have some representation of all us local imc's so on this site I 
wish to oppose it being there, or any effort to push people into using 
a login system.

Also, does defaulting to public domain, allow any corporate media 
outlet to make use of the material as it wishes? If so, that is not a 
good default at all.

Has there been discussion about a syndicated us-featurewire on the 
front page? That seems more useful than a national newswire.

I have some other questions:

Where is this site proposed to be hosted?
What costs are involved?
Where would that money come from?
Is this the right list to talk about design issues?
Has there been discussion about editorial policy?

Here in Portland we are changing our cities list. There are categories 
such as Europe, United States, Canada etc. We are adding Cascadia which 
will have all the northwest imc's including Vancouver and Victoria. For 
the time being, and to prevent confusion, we are keeping the NW IMC's 
in their respective country listing, but eventually may move away from 
the country listings into a more bio-regional approach. This is a first 
exploratory step.

Culturally, and environmentally Portland has more in common with 
Vancouver BC, than with an east coast imc. We share common interests of 
forest issues, salmon, dams, hydroelectric power, weather, climate, 
earthquakes, indigenous rights etc.

Would it be better to have a North America IMC instead of a US IMC?
Should there be regional IMC's (that include Canada and Mexico?) that 
collect features and stories from those regions rather than a US IMC?
Do we want to encourage the national concept and such a big scale or 
rather stay smaller and more locally focused?

These are some questions currently being discussed here in Portland.

cheers
deva

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