[IMC-US-tech] RE: [IMC-US] Re: Acorn Active Media Worker Collective Offer: (Sascha Meinrath)

Mon Jan 5 19:08:20 CST 2004

hi all,

i was going to wait until all the concerns were on the table to respond,
but there's a bit of confusion over what the Acorn off is, what Acorn is,
etc. that i felt needed to be immediately addressed.  Acorn is a
non-profit foundation created with the goal of supporting the global
justive movement through technical development.

Acorn's offer is very much akin to what was done on the Global Indymedia
site (with a link in the lower left column pointing to Acorn as opposed to
IMC Geeks) and acknowledgement in a feature story.  basically, following
previous precedent that's already been done on other IMC websites.  this
isn't about free ads for a for-profit company, it's about acknowledging
the work done by a non-profit foundation that happens to do tech
development.  much like the links to mir, dada, etc. that already are
normative.

josh's proposal is fine since that's pretty much identical to what acorn
is asking for.  if folks don't want to accept the offer by Acorn, we don't
have to, but it's a good-faith offer that addresses a major bottleneck for
IMC-US development.

--sascha

On Mon, 5 Jan 2004 max at michiganimc.org wrote:

> After reading posts here and being in IRC, I do have some more concerns
> about this proposal than I did before.  Kris' d.o.'s and josh's concerns
> all resonate with me. In IRC there was some brutal ripping of Indymedia in
> the US that ended up turning into an interesting discussion.  Many people
> outside of this country were fairly flabbergasted that we were even
> considering offering a "free ad" for a "for-profit" company.  I put those
> terms in quotes cause I don't necessarily agree with those interpretations
> exactly, but after talking to some people I can understand that side of
> the story enough to feel that we shouldn't rush in to accepting this
> proposal.
>
> I'm glad that something this controversial came up because it seems to
> have sparked some real discussion and hopefully movement on this project.
>
> For what it's worth the best ideas (IMO) that I've heard so far are josh's
> "reworded" proposal, and d.o.'s suggestion that the people involved in
> Acorn and Indymedia just do the necessary work as Indymedia, like everyone
> else.
>
> I will be away from email for a few days starting tomorrow.
>
> max
>
> > Why do i feel like the invisible man over here?  No one seems to be
> > addressing my point about the  inequities of singling out groups for
> > public
> > praise, about how so many other teams (features, audio, etc.) forgo paying
> > work to put endless hours into Indy w/o such acknowledgement?
> >
> > d.o.
> >
> >
> >
> > ****************************************
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> >
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> >>From: faith swords <faith at ucimc.org>
> >>To: imc-us at ucimc.org, <imc-us-tech at ucimc.org>
> >>CC: aam at ucimc.org
> >>Subject: RE: [IMC-US] Re: Acorn Active Media Worker Collective Offer:
> >>(Sascha Meinrath)
> >>Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 14:33:00 -0600 (CST)
> >>
> >>i am just tuning into this debate and would like to point out a few
> >> things
> >>(as someone who has been around for the IMC-US start-up as well as the
> >>Acorn start-up).
> >>
> >>as a fledgling company, Acorn is pursuing projects that mirror the ideals
> >>and visions of the people involved. everyone in the
> >>collective is active in the UCIMC, in many different arenas and
> >>capacities. getting involved with the US-IMC is, i'm sure, something that
> >>they would be willing to do anyway, because this is exactly the kind of
> >>project that they're looking for. that said, as a brand new company,
> >> being
> >>able to present the US-IMC site as work they have done to other potential
> >>clients would help Acorn get off the ground.
> >>
> >>given that we are all working together, i see no problem with letting the
> >>Acorn collective do the website work and putting a little box in the
> >>bottom corner saying who did the design. it's the equivalent of saying
> >>"this site is maintained by the webmaster at usimc.org" or whatever. in the
> >>spirit of generosity, it seems to me that this discussion, which is great
> >>because it's discussion which leads to activity which there hasn't been
> >>enough of lately, is not what we need to be talking about.
> >>
> >>sascha was not implying that "indymedia folks alone don't have the
> >>resources to get an IMC-US site up." i think that involving Acorn in this
> >>way is a great way of getting new blood into this project. these are
> >>people who are willing to dedicate a large part of their time exclusively
> >>to getting the site up and running. it seems to me that one of the
> >> reasons
> >>we don't already have an IMC-US site is that there hasn't been anyone
> >>willing to do that, for one reason or another.
> >>
> >>they're not asking to be paid, and would probably work on this
> >>individually whether or not they get any kind of acknowledgement for
> >> doing
> >>it, but i think it would be quite generous of the IMC-US group to
> >>collaborate with Acorn on this.
> >>
> >>as for the whole point being made about how indymedia should be able to
> >> do
> >>this without help, i would like to reiterate the fact that every member
> >> of
> >>the Acorn collective is a "member" of indymedia.
> >>
> >>i share sascha and max's frustration with this new concern; i also would
> >>like to know if the people concerned are blocking this proposal or not,
> >>and if they are, i would like them to come up with a viable alternative,
> >>but it seems to me that further discussion of this is yet another stall
> >> in
> >>this project, and in my opinion, there have been enough of those.
> >>
> >>--faith swords
> >>UCIMC
> >>
> >>
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