indythoughts – questionnaire

  • 10 March 2005

1. do you see indymedia, apart from being an alternative media outlet, blah blah, as some kind of experiment, where co-operation, non-hierarchy, and other principles that indymedia reporters preach, are put into practice? In other words… is indymedia an alternative community that practices a different style of relationships between people? Is it a valid model of alternative society?

2. if we can consider that some of the objectives of indymedia are…

a) to inform about issues that do not appear in the mainstream media
b) convert people to anticapitalism
c) inform the converted about how to practice anticapitalism
d) [help to] create a new society

in which order or importance do you think they stand? Which one would you add or remove? (You can answer regarding both indymedia.org and/or “your” indymedia)

to what extent do you think these objectives are being implemented?

3. if you were involved in the creation of your local indymedia, or if you got involved with the existing indymedia collective, why did you decide to do so? What are your reflections after… (how many years again)?

4. in relation with the objectives, and with the theories and practices within indymedia, what do you think helps to advance towards those objectives? What does not?

5.
* Who uses Indymedia? * What makes it different?
* Why hasn’t it happened before?
* Why do we need it? * Why does Indymedia suit Pro-Change protes?

indythoughts

  • 9 March 2005

The human being does not wish to make the same mistake twice, it wishes to learn from mistakes, mainly in order to not suffer so much.

This is why processes, instructions, norms are created. They should be drafted by people who have been in that given situation and have learned from it. Instructions and norms tend to turn into structures, which are almos always hierarchical.

They are primarily defence mechanisms to face a situacion that has given negative results in the past. They are not opression mechanisms as such.

Skype

  • 4 March 2005

For those who are mad with the b**y skype…

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,9481674~mode=flat

commitments

  • 4 March 2005

Some from one of the hacklabs from Madrid has come to London and I saw him today, because I have not forgotten how hard the first days in London were, when I didn’t know where to start, I didn’t know anyone, and I was desperate to talk to some one, happy to talk even in English.

Dissertation Proposal. Indymedia

  • 3 March 2005

I have been involved in this website for some time. Quite a few academic researchers have attempted to analyse it, but on the one hand, much of their efforts went into understanding the dynamics of how it works, and on the other hand, inevitably their analyses were limited to an external vision and whatever glimpse they could get from interviews with volunteers. I would like to analyse it from the inside, which is something that has not been done so far and would be very useful for indymedia volunteers.

Public Transport

  • 28 February 2005

As I write this, I see a train passing by, through my window. I can not see the whole of the train, because between my garden and the railway there are some buildings and a tree. So I can only see a fraction of each train as it goes along. Not too much of their noise reaches me. More than the noise, what annoys me is the amount of bridges under which I need to walk in the night, to get from the bus stop to my house. They are not lightened and there are gaps besides the wall of the bridges, big enough for a person or two. So it is not very nice to go through those rail bridges and I analyse my route from different bus stops to try to avoid them.

Very near my house, there is a street called “Station Road”. There is no station nowadays, but this name tells me that there must have been some station right there. They call it rationalisation, when they eliminate stations to make the trains “run” faster. Yes, the long-distance traveller now travels faster, because three minutes are saved on each journey by eliminating my nearest train station. The small price of that is to eliminate this public service to the local neighbours, who, not having a train service, still have the inconvenience of living near a busy and noisy rail lane. Very rational.

Latin wrap-up

  • 27 February 2005

We dedicated the morning to publishing the many pictures that my friend the photographer had taken, of course together with the text drafted by Eleuterio and others. It is my task to translate it! Well, for now you can enjoy the pictures here. I took some pictures myself, but they look so crap compared to Guy’s, it would be shameful to publish them together.

From there, I went to rampart. Some one was giving a workshop on how to write articles and ended up teaching us how to manipulate pictures. That is what I call professionalism…

After that, there were films and documentaries downstairs. I really wanted to see the documentary about this hip-hop group from Colombia, Zona Marginal, because I had seen them singing once and they really are worth it. But the documentary itself was not that great. In any case, the night ended with live music, and it was the best live music I can remember. We were all asking for more, until we realised that they really did not have any more pieces to play. Apparently it was the first time they played together. Radio Revolución. What a name, eh? One guy didn’t fit in the stage so he just sang down, next to us. The girl playing the bass was simply beautiful, and for some reason she had her blonde hair covered. It is possibly the first band I see that does not use the only female component as a sexual attraction, or even as the voice! The singer had so little ego he spent most of the gig with his face covered with his hair. And then there were the guys playing maracas, drums, trumpets, the flout… the lot.

Latin wrap-up

  • 26 February 2005

We dedicated the morning to publish the many pictures that my friend the photographer had taken, of course together with the text drafted by Eleuterio and others. It is my task to translate it! Well, for now you can enjoy the pictures here. I took some pictures myself, but they look so crap compared to Guy’s, it would be shameful to publish them together.

CIPO in London

  • 25 February 2005

Last day /evening of talks for Ana as translator, for now. I tried to take some pictures, and also asked a friend to take some for me, but well… it is a bit difficult when you are intending to take a picture with lots of people but you don’t want to show any face in particular. And, in any case, I had to be alert for my turn to go out and speak, rather than study the best position for a picture.

CIPO in Brighton

  • 23 February 2005

Another day travelling, but this time it was Brighton. Elizabeth has already returned to Mexico, which was quite disappointing because I thought she would return today. But, her visa has run out, and travelling with a scale in Madrid was cheaper so she had to leave today. So we did the chat with Eleuterio only, with me translating as it is (or feels) the custom already.