Northern Indymedia meeting, Salutation Pub, Manchester, 9th Jan 2010¶

Present: JD, JRF, m3shrom, ptg, marker
Apologies: libjf, nab, D

Minutes of last meeting¶

No record available. There was mention of a drink being spilt on a laptop.

IP logging proposal on IMC-Communication¶

Protag explained mcp’s mail to IMC-Communication reviving Bart from Linksunten’s proposal about POU, particularly with reference to no IP logging. Should we agree? Should we say that all indymedias must keep no logs?

Plan: to draft a letter to imc-communication saying that we agree with the No-IP logging, and perhaps expand to no other browser-identifiable info; to work up this draft on crabgrass.

Crabgrass – our use of¶

We currently use the tasklist feature, but there are some concerns that it may not be being read regularly. Should we try a different way of keeping up with our tasks?

Discussed – we will stick with this and just try to be more on the ball about it.
AP – all

Complaint about IMC Cyprus from Athens and Cyprus¶

Jim to write letter to IMC Tech recommending hyperactive as a CMS.

At present we don’t have enough information to support the proposal to close IMC Cyprus. We want to hear what Anthens have to say about Cyprus’s response. We think that it would be helpful for problems like this to be addressed between the parties concerned before bringing it to (several) global lists.

SMS-to-tumble bridge¶

Some people have developed a mechanism to bridge SMS to tumblewire. Allows people to use Indy as an anonymising gateway to status.net and other services. There would be some sending phones that were pre-promoted, others would be published. Process could be attended, so good posters could be added. Need a warning about the limits of security of GSM networks.

Someone will configure the hardware to make this happen.

Other media and blogs in Manchester & beyond¶

There are loads of great opportunities for collaboration and exploring our relationships with other publishers. Lots of discussion about if/why/how to syndicate content from other publishers.

We invite people to publish their media on our site.

What recommendations can made for people who have similar aims but don’t necessarily want to be part of this collective?

How does aggregation mix with open publishing?

To what extent does indymedia need to reinvent intself for how the internet works today?

Proposal: to try out a new form of aggregation/syndication by taking the stuff on the mule which is tagged #manchester (as currently used by mindymedia) and pulling it in as auto-promoted to our right-hand newswire: agreed.

Network X¶

There will be a one-hour session on media on Saturday, featuring us and Mule.

We will be distributing Tech Tools For Activists booklet.

The main things we push should be status.net, Northern Indy, hosted wordpress blog, secure email.

We can expand on the role of anonymity and verifiability of news sources. Our approach to verifiability is a decentralised one, through open publishing which can be cross-checked by the reader, rather than a central voice of authority.

Flier: to be prepaed with our phone no (SMS bridge), web address, forthcoming meetings (Newcastle, Treehouse.)

Organisation of meetings¶

Standing agenda point:
- a person volunteers to organise the meeting in 2/12 time
- the person who volunteered last time says where & when the meeting next month is

agreed.

AP: Protag will check up the March date with Anna
AP: JD to check with SRL.
We will talk to nab and libjf about what’s happening in Newcastle, next week.

What can we do to help The Movement move forward at this momentous point in history?¶

(discussion followed)