[Imc] thanks, and a few questions (fwd)

[Brian Hagy]

Hey, Jacqueline,

first, thanks for attending the open house.  i hope we have inspired you
or at least got ya dreamin of what can happen in our community.

Let me try to address some of your questions.

As for the editorial policy, we have none.  if someone wishes to post
something, then it's posted.  we are not going to edit, censor, or
deliberately discourage any posting (though, many may wish to avoid
certain topics, everyone seems to be agreeing that all voice, no matter
how controversial or opposing, must be welcomed).  as you pointed out, if
all we do is present "our" side of the story, then we are no more of a
community resource than the news-gazette.  true, most of our postings have
been "slanted", but this is due to who has posted, not due to some
qualifications.  many "left-wingers" feel their voices are left out of
mainstream media (with good reason they feel this), and thus the
indymedia's seem to be offering a place for those voices.

i think our goal is to make sure that the indymedias are a voice for
anyone who feels left-out of the the corporate media scene (and this does
include those who's opinions i would disagree with strongly...but at least
when those opinions are presented, then i can perhaps begin a dialogue
with that person or group to find out why they say what they say...if
things are always silent, there's no hope of sorting things out).   we're
still young as an organization (both here in urbana, and the whole imc
idea), so we're still trying to figure out ways of doing this.

one way i've heard of, though can't give you specifics as to where this is
happening), is that on a web site, a "ranking" program can be used.  with
this software, people can rank an article (1 for slimey, don't read, and
up to 5 or 10 for excellent, rather important).  Then, all articles are
sorted according to ranking.  Thus, all articles are present on the
website, but only the articles that people consistently consider to be
necessary, or thought-provoking, or whatever, appear at the top of the
list.  The more "offensive" or "intentionally disturbing" articles are
near the bottom of the listing, thus requiring people to do the dreaded
scrolling in order to get down to them.  we haven't employed such a
software program with our website yet.  and i don't know off hand which
websites have, though i've heard rumors that some have.  but i think it's
something we'll be researching, as it seems to be an interesting solution
to a touchy problem.

Another aspect of the website we have is that people can respond
immediately to an article.  so, if someone thinks some of the information
is not clear, or is inaccurate, then that person can comment on the
article immediately, and present more information.  this is also possible
if the person doesn't agree with the article.  a hope we have is that the
website doesn't turn into a flame war area.  we dont' have any plans to
avoid this yet, and probably won't until it becomes necessary to address
the problem (if it even arises).

now, of course, there is a dilemma with audio, video, and print oriented
news that we will be producing.  as of yet, anything that's been offered
to us to put on the radio has been accepted.  true, nothing too
confrontational has been offered, so we haven't crossed that bridge yet.
however, the structure of the imc (at least here in urbana) is such that
no one person has editorial powers.  all major decisions are either
addressed by the newsgroup (which currently has around 10-12 people
participating), or, if necessary, by the entire crowd that works,
volunteers, or is interested in the imc.  we do have some buffers to help
us deal with difficult situations.  fortunately, nothing has come up yet
(or unfortunately...if you think as i do that conflict is necessary to
find peaceful solutions beneficial for all involved)

i hope i've address most of your questions clearly.  feel free to ask more
questions.  i'm sorry you felt that you shouldn't have asked these
questions at the orientation.  these questions are important, and
continually are addressed by us all here at the imc.

hope to see you involved in the future.

brian hagy
bhagy at onthejob.net




 > Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 18:29:28 -0500
> From: Jacqueline Waters <waters at soltec.net>
> To: info at urbana.indymedia.org
> Subject: thanks, and a few questions
>
> Hello,
>
> I was at your IMC introduction/open house today and first wanted to thank
you all for all the work you are doing and for taking the time to show us
around and introduce us to your work.  My partner and I hope to be members
in a couple of paycheck's time when we can fit it into the budget and intend
to check out a few of your meetings to see how we can begin to help.
>
> I had a few questions I wanted to put forth at the open house but time ran
tight and I didn't want to subject everyone to sitting through questions and
answers they might not have been interested in.  Maybe someone at the IMC can
take the time to answer these questions at their convience?
>
> First, how do you decide what articles and pieces you put the IMC name on?
My understanding is that anything anyone sends to your website gets published.
  Is this correct?  Obviously, there must be limits to this, but what are
they?  If someone sends in a piece that might be libelous or is full of
innacurrate facts, how is this delt with?  I guess my concern, if I am just
blunt about it, is that there obviously has to be a screening process but how
is that process run and how do you keep it from being bias by personal
politics?  For example, there are many members of the community that are
pro-chief (I am not one of them) and someone might submit a piece that has
it's facts pretty much straight but is somewhat slanted to the pro-chief veiw.
  Is this work posted?  Is the IMC intending to allow the whole community
use their resources no matter if their political agendas match?
>
> This is a little all over the place, please bear with me.  Trying to get a
little blunter, I have always considered myself left-leaning and believe
strongly in many of the causes I have heard espoused by IMC's so far.  Yet,
I am concerned that this become a political organization, not a true
community resource where it becomes about subscribing to a certain agenda or,
at least, a compatible one, instead of allowing the community truly open
access to tools to represent themselves without bias of personal politics.
>
> I mean no insult when I imply that I believe this could happen at the IMC.
It can and does happen in many different kinds of well-intentioned
organizations.  I am simply concerned about investing in an organization that
might turn into a left-leaning-welcomed-only group.
>
> Also, what about fair reporting and getting facts straight?  Many of the
articles I've read so far on your web site and in the Octopus under the IMC
banner have been clearly slanted politically and sometimes have had sketchy
facts attached to them.  Does the IMC see this as not something they ever
intend to police (bringing us back to the idea that just the same sketchy
facts and opinion slanting then having to be accepted every time someone
wants to post something pro-capitalism, pro-chief, etc.)?  I am not implying
it should, I just want to know it's stance.
>
> Thanks for you time today at the center and your time in reading this.  If
someone is able to spare the time to respond to all of this I will be really
greatful and I am not expecting any kind of quick turn around time.  I do not
personally agree with political, exclusionary extremism, left or right, and I
want to know if that might be a factor at the IMC now or in the future, or if
this is truly an open community resouce to help everyone in the community,
without regard to political affiliations, get informed and find their voice
as individuals and as a community - something I would love to be a part of.
>
> Jacqueline Enstrom-Waters
> waters at soltec.net
>
>
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