[Imc-newsroom] URGENT: SCRA Conference

[Sascha Meinrath]

Hi everyone,

If anyone would like to come to the SCRA conference to be a co-presentor
on an innovative session, please let me know by tonight!!!

Three people have offered to come to the conference (June 3-7, 2003), it
would be great to have more participants.  I will be home all evening
(344-0183), so please let me know if you're interested.  One of the
presentors is driving down and has extra room, so total costs for the
conference shouldn't be more than $100 and we can work things out so that
funding is not an issue.  More information on the conference as a whole is
available at:

http://www.nmhu.edu/scrabiennial/

Below is a synopsis of the presenation:

"Indymedia (R)Evolution: The Global Network & Rise of One Indymedia
Center"

Over the last three years, there has been a resurgance in grassroots media
production and empowerment efforts. This global movement, called
Indymedia, espouses a rhetoric of social justice, non-discrimination,
democratic and participatory organizing structures, egalitarianism, local
control of media production, skills-sharing and education, non-hierarchy,
and devolution of decision-making power. At the center of this movement
are media production and disseminations centers called Independent Media
Centers (IMCs). In September, 1999 there was one IMC. Today, there are
over one hundred IMCs in over forty countries worldwide.

These alternative settings provide an ideal case study for investigating
the processes and procedures that are conducive to their continued success
and the logarhithmic expansion of the Indymedia network. Much of the
research on alternative settings dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. Today,
organizational research is mostly focused on coporate and established
institutional settings. This forum provides an opportunity for an in-depth
study of factors that support collaboration, sustainability, and expansion
of alternative settings -- from the point of view of the participants
themselves -- and offers a window into the successes and problems within
the modern-day Global Justice movement.

Truly understanding the factors that create successful outcomes requires a
holistic analysis of the setting and deep knowledge of the organization.
One way to gain a comprehensive undersanding is to participate and observe
in the setting. As an ongoing participant and co-founder of the
Urbana-Champaign IMC (UCIMC) and a core organizer of the Global Indymedia
Network, the convenor been studying changes in the climate, processes, and
protocols of one local IMC and Indymedia as a whole. This forum, provides
a venue for:

Viewing front-line Indymedia coverage of protests and events throughout
the world; and,

Listening to the stories of Indymedia participants;

Sharing strategies and tactics that have led to participants effectively
working together.

Through participants' observations, we hope to contribute additional
insight to answering the continuing question of "What contributes to
effective collaboration?" In particular, we will attend to elements of the
group process (e.g., decision-making, conflict resolution), structure
(e.g., organizational tactics, evolution of the organization),
goal-setting and implementation, and those factors that facilitate and/or
impede collaborative work.