We have a date for the conference!
Attention, fans and producers of independent media:The Progressive Roundtable's Conference on Independent Media will take place on October 7th of this year from 9:30 to 1 PM. That's the first Saturday of the month for those of you without calendars.
At that event, we will have short presentations by people who have successfully created new media properties in each of several classes of media. Those classes include, but are not limited to:
DIY (Stickers, graffiti, stencils, etc.)
Peer to Peer sharing - DVDs, MP3s, etc.
Alternative Radio - community radio, public radio, college radio, and for-
profit radio
Alternative Press - print publications
Web-based news sites - like this one
Public Access TV
Film Screenings
Documentary Filmmaking
After the presentations, we would break into working groups to discuss how to produce our own versions of this media or learn how we can help projects already in existence.
There was some talk about having some kind of show or concert after the conference to raise funds, but that was held over for some enterprising person to take command of it. So far, we're strictly focusing on getting producers of this stuff on board.
Also at this last meeting, we met Dick Mansfield, retired schoolteacher from Tacoma who has become adept at downloading and sharing of alternative media off the internet. He brought several discs to the meeting and talked about how with just an internet connection and a DVD burner, you can make a lot of media for not much money. If we also had a digital projector, film screenings would be a snap.
Bill Johnston had a cool idea that is probably much farther off - eventually getting together with a progressive business owner or unioon to buy a mixed-use building that we could actually use to create indy media but also have a coffeeshop and bookstore in the same building. That would sure be a great resource for organizers.
Those of you who plan to come to our next meeting should be thinking of three things: 1) come up with a cool name for our conference, 2) come up with innovative ideas for promoting the conference, to ensure that we get plenty of people to come, and 3) bring more people to the meeting!
Our meetings take place at Tom's house from 7-8:30 PM every second and fourth Wednesday. Be there or be square! Email me to get the address, or call at
(253)227-6884.
We can win, if we come together! Let's make the media work for us, and not the other way around!
Categories: Announcements
Independent Media Conference in South Africa
Here's a great model for what we can accomplish here [PDF file]. These folks even had a Labor Film Festival going at the same time. What a great idea!
Categories: Media Around the World
Help build an Indymedia Center in Olympia!
Looks like we're working on parallel tracks here! Let's do our part to support Olympia in this effort.
Here's the email, sent to us by Petra Boston:
Visit
http://olympiaimc.orgThere's a lot going on with the project to build an Olympia Independent Media Center (IMC)!
Its a great time to get involved! There will be an Olympia Indymedia meeting 6:00 pm Tuesday, May 16 at Media Island, 812 Adams St. (by the public library). Help build our new IMC website and media production space!
Finally, Olympia IMC has space to create media. Media Island is offering us a whole room for media production. Media Island also has a lot of equipment we can use like a copy machine, computers, printers, video equipment and more. Help make this space and equipment useful to local media activists.
Visit
http://olympiaimc.org/The Oly IMC website is live! There is still alot of work to be done on it, but the newswire is working and people are already posting to it. To post, click on "PUBLISH >>" on the left side of the page. You can be a part of creating a new open publishing news and media node for the Olympia, WA community!
We are excited about the prospect of having an open publishing media site and production space in Olympia and we would love for people to get involved by producing and posting news and media and by helping us with technical needs, fundraising, and outreach.
Olympia IMC has an email list that you can subscribe to in order to get involved with making media open and free in Olympia. Send an email to oly-imc-subscribe@riseup.net or go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/oly-imc to subscribe.
For more information email
oly-imc@riseup.net.
The mission of the Olympia Independent Media Center is to provide the Olympia area and south Puget Sound region with noncommercial and underreported daily news, and space for commentary and debate. We seek to gather, interpret, write, speak, and record news events as they occur. Our focus is to facilitate self-reporting and self-publishing in our community. We aim to inspire an independent media revolution that anyone can participate in.
Globally, the Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity and liberate the planet.
The first Independent Media Center (
http://www.indymedia.org), was established in Seattle, WA by various independent and alternative media organizations and activists in 1999 for the purpose of providing grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests.
Through a decentralized and autonomous network, hundreds of media activists setup independent media centers in London, Canada, Mexico City, Prague, Belgium, France, and Italy over the next year. IMC's have since been established all over the world on every continent, with more to come.
Olympia Independent Media Center
- e-mail:
oly-imc@riseup.netHomepage:
http://www.olympiaimc.orgMuch thanks to our helpful allies at
http://portland.indymedia.org !
Categories: Announcements
Our first meeting was a wonderful success
We had our first ever meeting of independent media advocates at the home of one of our members. I think I can speak for all of us when I say it was better than we could have imagined. I've set up a listserv through
riseup.net to benefit our activities, and thanks to google, we have this excellent resource to use as well.
Summary of tonight's meeting:We met, had introductions, talked some about
reclaimthemedia.org and their list of Northwest community radio stations. Then we made a list of which types of media were available to us, and discussed each in some detail. Among the media we selected were: public radio, public access TV, Agitprop (or guerilla art), low-power FM, blogs (like this one), web radio, and many more.
We each resolved to try to get one or more people to come with us to the next meeting, as well as to think about what sort of presentations should be given at the Independent Media Conference this September. I mentioned that I thought we should give thought to making the final piece a big show with some notables in the field, an idea that wasn't universally accepted. We shall soon see exactly what our efforts will produce. I am confident that we will achieve something great, exactly what, I'm not sure.
I will begin making categories for the blog that match the categories of media we discussed.
See you in two weeks!
Categories: Announcements
The Northwest Media Action Fund is on the web!
Greetings, friends of independent media! If you're looking to change the world through changing the media, you've come to the right place. We are looking for producers of independent media, owners of quality equipment, friendly local businesses, and community activists of all kinds to join us in this effort.
What are we doing now? We are planning an Independent Media Conference scheduled tentatively for the first full week in September.
Can you help us? Do you know someone who wants to make independent media but has no connections? Send them our way? Maybe you know someone who's story isn't getting out because the big corporate media giants don't care, or aren't interested in threatening their cozy relationship with their advertisers. This Conference is the opportunity for folks to come from miles around to discuss why we need a robust and responsive alternative to corporate media, and what we're going to do to make it happen.
We are actively searching for individuals in the field of independent media who would like to run workshops or give speeches on the need for this important community resource. If you know anyone who would like to be involved, have them call me, Jeff Richardson, at 253-227-6884 or email me at
tahomaactivist@yahoo.comAlso, if you belong to an organization that feels that the media hasn't adequately supported their efforts, perhaps they would like to help build an organization committed to changing the media to support we the people of the United States. We need contacts in the community who want to help build alternative media, and who are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the work it will take to get there.
Thank you for your interest and everything you do to help your community. Together, we can make a difference!
Categories: Announcements
Media Around the World
Good websites:Labourstart.org - great resource for working people and union activists
Past Postings:Independent Media Conference in South Africa
