[IMC-US-Tech] Re: [IMC-US] Indymedia press release draft #1

Fri Oct 15 17:09:16 CDT 2004

OK, here's the first draft for our press release. Do w/it what you will  :)  
  I used some copy from our site and in the process of poking around found 
some problem links which i'll post seperately on the list.

d.o.

**********************
For immediate release:

U.S. Indymedia site comes on-line

With what may be one of the most critical U.S. presidential elections in 
decades just weeks away, and with countless political demonstrations taking 
place around the nation, it seems fitting that Indymedia should be launching 
its new U.S. site today. The U.S. Indymedia site is a network of solidarity 
between communities engaged in struggles for social, environmental and 
economic justice. Linking autonomous and participatory US-based IMCs, 
Indymedia.us seeks to generate alternatives to the biases inherent in the 
corporate media controlled by profit, and to identify and create positive 
models for a sustainable and equitable society.  The site features local IMC 
stories and will be an outlet for connecting those stories to a  larger 
national context.

As with all IMC sites, the U.S. Indymedia newswire offers people the option 
to become the media by posting their articles, analysis, videos, audio clips 
and artwork directly to the web site, but the U.S. IMC encourages readers to 
visit their local sites first (listed in the left-hand column) and interact 
within their community. The U.S. IMC's main goal is to present local 
features from Independent Media Centers across the United States and to 
feature stories that are of immediate critical importance nationally.

Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of 
journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a 
democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and 
passionate telling of truth. There are currently about over sixty 
Independent Media Centers around the world. Each IMC is an autonomous group 
that has its own mission statement, manages its own finances and makes its 
own decisions through its own processes.

Visit the site at: http://us.indymedia.org/en/  or  in Spanish at: 
http://us.indymedia.org/es/

For further information contact the U.S. IMC at:

>From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
>To: Tribal Scribal <valeoftheoaks at hotmail.com>
>CC: max at michiganimc.org, imc-us at ucimc.org,inner_alchemy at SAFe-mail.net, 
>imc-us-tech at ucimc.org
>Subject: Re: [IMC-US] Indymedia election plans
>Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 09:15:26 -0500 (CDT)
>
>On Fri, 15 Oct 2004, Tribal Scribal wrote:
>
>>Excellent! One thing on this end though: i've never seen the site!  :O Sad 
>>but true, Can someone post the url?  I tried old ones, but
>>

Indymedia.us is a portal site syndicating news from local Independent Media 
Centers (IMCs) in the United States
2) Indymedia.us volunteers maintain an open publishing newswire to which 
anyone can post text, images, audio and video using the online publish form
3) Indymedia.us volunteers promote articles into the center column

no luck.
>
>It's now up at:  us.indymedia.org (yeah!).
>
>>I'd be glad to work on either the email or the pr when i return late this 
>>afternoon (EST). I'll check-in here  then to see if anyone else has 
>>already done that. Also, can you guys post a few bullet points on what 
>>needs to be said to use as a guideline?
>
>That would be great if you could do a first-run of the press release.  I'd 
>suggest having information about:
>
>1. What is the IMC-US site.
>2. Why it's needed (i.e., election coverage).
>3. How it's an inter-US-IMC collaboration (the first(?) national 
>collaboration of IMC-stas).
>4. How it connects local stories and will be an outlet for connecting local 
>stories to the larger (trans)national context.
>
>Anyone have other thoughts and ideas?
>
>--Sascha
>
>>>From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
>>>To: max <max at michiganimc.org>
>>>CC: imc-us at ucimc.org, Tribal Scribal 
>>><valeoftheoaks at hotmail.com>,inner_alchemy at SAFe-mail.net, 
>>>imc-us-tech at ucimc.org
>>>Subject: Re: [IMC-US] Indymedia election plans
>>>Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 20:40:22 -0500 (CDT)
>>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>First off, the site looks GREAT!  I'm incredibly impressed by what 
>>>everyone's pulled together and I think we're ready for the next steps.
>>>
>>>On Thu, 14 Oct 2004, max wrote:
>>>
>>>>I'm ready to start hiding junk on the newswire NOW.  I'm also willing to 
>>>>start working on features.  I would propose that we just start doing 
>>>>this stuff and work out the kinks on the fly.  we've gotten a lot of 
>>>>groundwork covered, and it might be most efficient to see what we still 
>>>>need to be by actually starting to do it, and seeing what we actually 
>>>>need. if we treat the site as live starting tomorrow, and give ourselves 
>>>>a week to pass the URL among relatively small circles, we could check in 
>>>>after five or six days, work out whatever problems we encounter, and 
>>>>then start publicizing, publicizing, publicizing.  how does that 
>>>>timeline sound?
>>>
>>>I've been talking with a lot of folks and there's definitely tremendous 
>>>interest in getting IMC-US up-and-running ASAP.  I think we've got the 
>>>expertise and the people-power to deal with whatever might arise -- we 
>>>just need to announce ourselves more widely and make one more invite to 
>>>IMCs to have liaisons participate.
>>>
>>>Two next steps that'll get us going and help build momentum:
>>>
>>>1. It would be great if someone could start drafting a press release for 
>>>general dissemination (e.g., to allied press, groups, e-mail lists, 
>>>etc.).
>>>
>>>2. An e-mail to key Indymedia lists inviting folks to become involved 
>>>with the IMC-US editorial group, tech group, etc.
>>>
>>>Anyone have a few minutes to make these happen?
>>>
>>>In solidarity,
>>>
>>>--Sascha Meinrath
>>>Urbana-Champaign IMC
>>>
>>>--
>>>Sascha Meinrath
>>>Project Manager & Pres.   *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
>>>Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
>>>www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *   www.freepress.net
>>>
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>IMC-US mailing list
>>>IMC-US at lists.cu.groogroo.com
>>>http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/imc-us
>>
>>
>
>--
>Sascha Meinrath
>Project Manager & Pres.   *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
>Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
>www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *   www.freepress.net
>
>