[IMC-Tech] Indymedia Hosting Cooperative:

[Sascha Meinrath]

FYI:  Hi all, this proposal just came across the global finance working group. 
Call me crazy, but isn't this something where the UCIMC/Acorn/Chambana.net 
infrastructure would be _insanely_ useful?  My main concern would be that we'd 
need more (and more stable) bandwidth than we currently have, but this seems 
like a natural fit.  On the other hand, there are folks who dislike the UCIMC 
with wild abandon -- but I wonder if we shouldn't pitch the idea anyway?

What do folks think?

--Sascha



Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:56:44 -0300
From: <argentina at indymedia.org>
Subject: [IMC-Finance] FUNDING PROPOSAL: To help start a San Francisco
	based	hosting cooperative
To: <imc-finance at lists.indymedia.org>

[Eng]
November 20, 2006 by IMCs Hosted on Linefeed servers.
DEADLINE: December 1, 2006

SHORT INTRODUCTION.
This is a funding proposal to help start a San Francisco based hosting
cooperative which will be used largely to host Indymedia websites [1].
(See list below)

SUMMARY.
For over six years, volunteers in San Francisco (with sysadmin volunteers
from Latin America, Europe and the Middle East) have operated and maintained
web [1][2] and database servers [3] that are used to host Indymedia
websites. For all that time, we have paid out-of-pocket for everything.
In the next month, the cooperative we worked in to make this happen is
closing down. We are organizing a new cooperative so that we don't have
downtime but we need money to get it started.

DETAILS.
Around Christmas, we expect the bandwidth cooperative we work with
(California Community Colocation Project)[4] to "go dark" and the servers
will go offline. There is a lot of momentum right now to create a
replacement organization that can continue providing bandwidth at collective
prices. We have already met a couple times and we're actively moving the
project forward.

This incurs a lot of costs, however. Aside from replacing parts on the
machines as we move them, we also have to sign a bandwidth contract and
begin paying on that immediately. If we had a financial cushion, we would
have the time to finish getting ourselves organized and spread the costs out
over many collective members. The current plan is that collective members
will front all these costs from their own pockets but its unclear if we're
financially solvent doing it that way.

We would like $3,000.00 USD (Three thousands dollars) from the global fund
to provide a basic bank account for us and so we can begin making
arrangements for bandwidth. The money would be sent to San Francisco
Community Colocation Project, a fiscally-sponsored non-profit entity.

Investing in the people who have proven themselves to be in this for the
long haul and investing in a project which can provide sustainable bandwidth
for Indymedia are both very important. Especially in a time of crisis like
this (with Ahimsa leaving soon), we need to have reliable and collectively
managed bandwidth resources.

DEADLINE.
This is an emergency situation that is directly facing many Independent
Media Centers and the sooner it can be solved, the better.
Our externally-imposed [4] deadline is sometime around Christmas Day and so
we need to be setup and moved as soon as possible. So, we have set a
deadline of December 1, 2006.

Mat from Indymedia Argentina.
In name of the Indymedia Collectives that have their Indymedia websites
hosted at Linefeed servers on San Francisco.

[1] https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Sysadmin/StrayInfo
[2] https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Sysadmin/BlackCatInfo
[3] https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Sysadmin/HugoInfo
[4] http://www.communitycolo.net


List of Independent Media Centers hosted in the Linefeed servers.

Arizona - http://arizona.indymedia.org
Argentina - http://argentina.indymedia.org
Chile - http://chile.indymedia.org
Germany mirror - http://de.indymedia.org
Hawaii - http://hawaii.indymedia.org
Houston - http://houston.indymedia.org
Istanbul ? Turkey - http://istanbul.indymedia.org
Jerusalem ? Palestine - http://palestine.indymedia.org
Maritimes - http://maritimes.indymedia.org
Peru - http://peru.indymedia.org
QC - http://qc.indymedia.org
Rosario - http://rosario.indymedia.org
San Francisco - http://sf.indymedia.org
Santiago de Chile - http://santiago.indymedia.org
SF-Active info site - http://sfactive.indymedia.org
South Africa - http://southafrica.indymedia.org
Thunderbay - http://thunderbay.indymedia.org
Utah - http://utah.indymedia.org
Worcester - http://worcester.indymedia.org

-- 
Sascha Meinrath
Executive Director  *  Principal          *  President
CUWiN              *** The Ethos Group   *** Acorn Active Media
CUWiN.net           *  EthosWireless.com  *  AcornActiveMedia.com