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

[Ryan Kaldari]

Sorry I haven't responded to this debate previously. I was out of town 
since New Years. Here's my take on this situation, for what it's 
worth...

In order to get the US-IMC site off the ground, it is going to required 
the dedicated, sustained, and coordinated effort of a core group of 
experienced tech people. That is, if we want this site to meet people's 
expectations of being a viable, robust, and compelling alternative to 
mainstream US news sites like CNN.com (rather than being a continually 
patched hack like most IMC software). And I honestly don't believe 
there is any way that will happen on a strictly volunteer basis. As 
someone who has worked both for a commercial web applications company 
and tinkered with existing IMC software I can tell you there is a huge 
difference in what we currently have and what is possible. I have no 
affiliation with Acorn myself, but I do know the people involved and 
I'm confident in their abilities. I don't see Indymedia sacrificing any 
of it's autonomy simply by acknowledging the work of this group and 
helping it get off it's feet (which can only be beneficial to 
Indymedia, IMO).

Also, I would like to challenge the claim that Indymedia is completely 
self-sufficient. Indymedia would be impossible without the dedicated 
effort of the following organizations:
The Apache Software Foundation (maintainers of Apache and PHP)
MySQL Inc. (maintainers of MySQL database software)
The Free Software Foundation
and numerous other organizations that make the tools we use every day.

I know we currently don't acknowledge the contributions of these 
organizations, but to me that is more of an oversight than a policy 
decision. Regardless, it doesn't matter much either way since these 
organizations are well established and don't need acknowledgment. Acorn 
however presents a unique opportunity for us. They would be an 
incredibly useful resource to Indymedia seeing as that the organization 
is comprised completely of dedicated indymedia folks who would be 
responsive to our unique needs. It's true we can't acknowledge everyone 
on the website, but does that really mean we can't acknowledge anyone? 
That's a ridiculous idea to me. I think we should acknowledge as many 
people and organizations that support us as possible. It's a mutually 
beneficial situation. Acorn is not a for-profit company. And I assume 
the only reason they are even incorporating as a company is because it 
will allow them to dedicate themselves to their work full-time and be 
accountable to each other. Developing web applications to run a 
national news syndication site is not an endeavor to be undertaken 
lightly. If these people want to step up to the plate, we should be 
willing to make a modest effort to help them establish themselves as a 
viable organization in return.

I do, however, have one big caveat, which I believe is much more 
important than the size of the acknowledgment on the website. I would 
like a guarantee that the software developed for the US IMC site is 
released under a public license such as the GPL. That way the software 
can be used and developed in a completely open manner consistent with 
Indymedia goals and policies. I would also like the US-IMC software to 
be hosted on Sorceforge so that anyone can easily get access to the 
source code and contribute to development and bug fixing. Besides the 
licensing issue, I really don't see any reason why we wouldn't be able 
to work with Acorn and support them in their efforts. All this 
hand-wringing is unnecessary and misplaced, IMO. We should be more 
worried about getting good software developed ASAP and getting this 
thing off the ground. Sure, we're going to encounter criticism for this 
(as we have already encountered for the very idea of having a US IMC), 
but I really believe that the proof is in the pudding, and if Acorn can 
deliver I think our efforts will eventually be emulated rather than 
criticized.

Ryan Kaldari, Tennessee IMC