Cool.
I'm working on two follow-up articles, one that goes into the things that Indymedia is doing well right now and one on the future of Indymedia.
I was really surprised that my little essay generated such a firestorm of discussion on IMCs around the world. I guess the contents hit a chord. Somebody posted the essay to most of the English-speaking IMCs and I know that it was translated into French. The positive thing about it is that it generated lots of discussion.
Sadly enough, one of our local anti-semitic assholes took advantage of the quiet holiday period, when most of our local IMC volunteers were busy with holiday stuff, to post a bunch of right wing and anti-semitic garbage to IMC DC. I happened to be online alot last week and had to find a volunteer to get rid of one of the threads, which included 34+ comments of whacked out right wing and anti-Semitic crap. The sad thing is that liberal misconceptions about free speech are often tying the hands of IMC volunteers who should be more aggressive about moderation. They get so worried about being called a censor by some anonymous skinhead that they don't realize that their inaction allows content to stay on the newswire that alienates potential readers and DIY journalists.
I hope that in 2003 that the Indymedia network can get its act together and restore Indymedia as a valuable resource to the international progrssive movements.
Chuck0
------------------------------------------------------------ Personal homepage -> http://chuck.mahost.org/ Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ MutualAid.org -> http://www.mutualaid.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/
"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..." ---Utah Phillips