[Imc-web] Re: 4th of July feature

[Mike Lehman]

Jan,
Just some thoughts here about things that can help...

First, we have two VISTA workers coming on board for the next year to help us specifically with things like institutional capacity building and outreach in order to encourage and train more people to take advantage of the extensive, yet far too often underused media resources that UC IMC offers. One of the things we'd particularly like to do is to encourage more use of the website by community organizations and individual media producers. We've talked for years of having a brochure that gives a step by step orientation to potential website users to encourage them to write, photograph, post, etc their news, as well as describe what we look for when we make a decision about promoting a posting to the Feature section.

Second, while it's good to push stories to the Feature section when we can, we've always had some notion that these do need to provide readers with the basic info about what's happening in order to make it accessible and useful to everyone. Danielle's concerns echo my own on these specific stories. A Feature really needs to cover the who, what, when, where and how of basic journalism. We often get announcements, which are fine and go in the side menu so they get noticed, but many of these could also generate followup stories, which would probably be good Features. However, it often seems from the lack of followup that so few may have attended that there was nothing to report on. In fact, things did get said, people took action, and organizations made a difference. Except there's no news on it, just the original announcement!

Third, I and the few other editors doing this work now would be glad to help explain things about how the website publishing system works, especially so because we don't yet have the how-to brochure on using the website. The first of the pics about the parade was posted anonymously. In these cases, an editor has to do make any changes, but if you drop us a line, we can usually help with that. In the case of the other two, as long as you are logged in to your user account, when you return to the story, you should see tabs at the top of the story right underneath the headline, including one that says "edit."  Click on that and you can make changes you need to, if you are logged in. However, once a story is promoted to be a Feature, then only the editors can make changes.

Fourth, we've been trying to organize a meeting to orient and train new editors for the Web group for some time, but this has kept falling through the cracks. In part, the need for this is due to my being a candidate for office, which creates potential ethical conflicts if I were to be the one making some decisions. Since I began my run for office, I've stepped back from making any editorial decisions that could represent a conflict of interest and stuck to handling pro forma editing work that is in accord with previous Web group decisions. Specifically, I have not engaged in making decisions about Featuring stories. For some years now, I've handled the bulk of the website editing, with occasional help from a few others.  We REALLY need to expand the pool of editors, as I will be in the same position until the election is over with.

Fifth, UC IMC was the target of what was an apparently politically motivated accusation to the IRS that we had violated our 501c3 status during the municipal elections of Spring 2007. While we were always confident that our policies met the restrictions on 501c3 organizations, Indymedia as a concept had never before been vetted by the IRS. It turns out that the IRS agreed with our position and existing policies. We were given a clean bill by the IRS and the investigation was dropped, but only after lots of work on our part and  and with the assistance of exceptional pro bono legal advisors that we have access to. 

However, there can be little doubt that by our giving voice to those previously without it, we have irritated many of the local Powers that Be, or as one of my friends calls them -- the Forces of Evil. This is a reminder of how important it is to bring new editors on board who must have a good idea of how Indymedia works, as well as what policies we must follow to preserve UC IMC as an institution against those who would just as soon silence the communities we serve.

Finaly, we've had anonymous commenting turned off for some time, as the captcha system that we used to prevent being spammed with ads for body enlargement, cheap but questionable meds, etc had been cracked. We currently have just one person who does the sort of programming needed -- and he is often busy with other things. We could particularly use someone who can code in PHP, etc to help with the technical side of the website. That way we can permit anonymous comments again.

Please let me know if I can be of assistance in helping you understand how to use the site. Along with the others who currently do editorial work, we'd welcome the opportunity to train those who want to become involved with the Web group. I'd very much like to get this done in July, as I will be traveling and doing research in the August/September timeframe, and then I have dissertation to write as well as a campaign to run.
Mike Lehman

-----Original Message-----
>From: Jan & Durl Kruse <jandurl at comcast.net>
>Sent: Jul 5, 2008 11:16 AM
>To: Mike Lehman <rebelmike at earthlink.net>, Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com>, Danielle Chynoweth <chyn at ojctech.com>
>Subject: Re: 4th of July feature
>
>Thanks for trying Brian.  I see what Danielle means.  The short text 
>was from copied from a prior message and I was tired when I posted.
>I am not sure how to use edit on the site.  I have just never been able 
>to figure out the new ucimc website..... I guess i got used to the old 
>one.
>The main reason I wanted to post this was because the IVAW and VVAW  
>were walking with AWARE and that seemed important.
>If you (or anyone) can and wants to bother go ahead and edit it for me. 
>  I am not sure how to get into edit and do it myself.  Thanks either 
>way.
>Sorry it's not very well written.
>JAN K
>
>On Jul 5, 2008, at 8:28 AM, Brian Dolinar wrote:
>
>> Hey Durl.
>>
>> Can you go to the edit button
>> and clean up the article on the 4th.
>> Then we'll get it featured.
>>
>> BD
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Danielle Chynoweth <chyn at ojctech.com>
>>  Date: Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 1:14 AM
>> Subject: Re: 4th of July feature
>> To: Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com>
>> Cc: imc-web at ucimc.org, Mike Lehman <rebelmike at earthlink.net>
>>
>>
>> Brian, the photo is nice but the text doesn't use complete sentences, 
>> is filled with acronyms that are not explained, and doesn't speak to 
>> anyone but an insiders audience, so I left it where it was at.  If we 
>> syndicate, it goes to UC IMC.  If you want to edit to so have at least 
>> 5 sentences that speak to a broad audience - who, what, when, where - 
>> then I would be happy to promote :)
>>
>> cheers,
>> Danielle
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 9:33 PM, Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>>> Can we get this up as a feature:
>>>
>>> http://www.ucimc.org/node/3081
>>>
>>> Its "Aware #60..."
>>>
>>> Thanks, BD
>>> -- 
>>> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
>>>  303 W. Locust St.
>>>  Urbana, IL 61801
>>> briandolinar at gmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
>> 303 W. Locust St.
>> Urbana, IL 61801
>> briandolinar at gmail.com
>Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no 
>path and leave a trail.
>~Ralph Waldo Emerson