And article written for the Mule Newspaper based in Manchester looking at some of the challenges faced by Indymedia and evolving video projects which are coming out of the network.
The Old face of New media v. the New face of Old Media
Too much information? Web 2.0 getting a bit much? Thinking about retiring from the electronic age and pining for a time when it was enough to read a daily paper and send your friends birthday and christmas cards. You may be suffering from New Media burn out! But don't worry! You're not alone.
Indymedia was a pioneer of 'user generated content' websites. Indymedia was one of the first sites where you could provide the news, and collaborate to create reports. The focus of Indymedia is local and global events ignored by corporate press. If you go to the global site
http://indymedia.org or the UK site http://indymedia.org.uk you'll see a very direct way of seeing the world through first hand reports of those struggling for their rights, and those of others.
The Indymedia network started to mushroom around 1999. There was such a need for radical politics, marginalised communities and direct action protest to be covered in a non-mainstream way that it was almost inevitable that something like Indymedia open posting technologies should come along to server that community. It's something that activists and media activists can be legitimately proud of.
As Indymedia grew and groups started cropping up everywhere including over 15 cities in the UK. The momentum was huge, everyone was excited, starting new projects within the network. Global days of actions happened and new services were created. A mailbox where phone messages were uploaded to the internet as mp3 files. Cheap satellite technologies were used to create Indymedia centres in rural camp locations.
Where are we now? 8 years on since the start of Indymedia in the UK and the UK-based website and extended family of volunteer news reporters to vital work in the communication and recording of action and protest for radical social change. However face to face communication of the imc-uk collective are increasingly sporadic. The last well attended ones were in preparation for the 2005 G8.
New initiatives are hard to get off the ground, and changes to established technology takes a long time too. And while large parts of the network are falling apart about without people seeming to notice, there are a lot of spin-off projects happening which hopefully will be reincorporated into the core of Indymedia. The challenge is to keep new people coming into the Indymedia process with new ideas and energy. Newcomers need to be given the information to take on the ongoing work or running local Indymedia sites and take on a level of autonomy for how Indymedia reorganises. Maybe a revolt against the inactivity of the Indymedia old guard would be in order! Let's face it they'd love it if it happened.
The practice of self publishing is has gone ballistic! Everyone's got either a myspace, facebook, custom blog etc. So if that means Indymedia is becoming redundant is that something to worry about or to celebrate? How should Indymedia react to bloging, and other self publishing technologies?
Case Study – Video Distribution and the Indymedia network
Let's take the example of Video and see what's happening with Global Indymedia networks. Here users face a legitimate question, Why put video on UK Indymedia or other Indymedia videos sites when it's easier to watch and you're going to get loads more hits on YouTube? There are currently very few Indymedia websites where you can "click and play" video.
There are valiant attempts to restart and upgrade the global Indymedia Video site, but it's slow work. And you have to ask yourself, if all this content is already out there, what purpose does it serve to put it on Indymedia as well? Afer all what's wrong with YouTube? Well there's a campaign by a network of Indymedia related video collectives called Transmission, that would like to let you know, with their "No Screw Tube campaign.
Q: Why shouldn't I just use ScrewTube ?
1. Exploitation. ScrewTube exploits your free videomaking labor to gain ad revenue for the empire of Google/Murdoch.
2. Surveillance. Since ScrewTube records your IP address, posting your videos there puts you at risk for surveillance and IP tracking, both by corporations and by law enforcement and the state. For example in 2004 Yahoo collaborated with Chinese authorities to identify dissident blogger Shi Tao. He is now serving 10 years in jail. many sites record your IP address, not just corp projects.
3. Censorship. Putting your videos on ScrewTube opens the door to censorship since they will do takedowns for copyright violations or at the request of the State.
4. When Sharing isn't really sharing Sites like Youtube only allow you to share videos with other members, or by embedding a YT video in your blog. There is no re-distribution via p2p networks, or availability of high-res downloads for use in screenings, film festivals or compilations.
5. When Free isn't really free These sites are free to use, they don't cost anything. However the platform is closed - if you want to use ScrewTube technology you have to use ScrewTube. We need free software platforms so anyone has the freedom to create their own video-sharing site.
6. When a community isn't really a community YouTube was sold to Google for $1.65 billion in Google stock. If a community can be bought and sold, is it really a community (or is it a buzzword)? There is no community control of ScrewTube sites, they are organised by the profit motive, not the concerns of the people who constitute those communities. Editorial control, control of the software should be in the hands of the community.
7. Intellectual Property Sites like ScrewTube place exploitative terms and conditions on your contributions which allow them to re-sell and remix your work. ScrewTube for example state...
"…by submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successor's) business… in any media formats and through any media channels.”
If we use existing ethical and pirate technologies we can do so much better. And if you're going to put a bit of time into trying to distribute ethical, social justice content you really have a duty to at least make an effort. .
Projects like VisiononTv from Undercurrents, Ifiwatch.tv, Engagemedia.org (Australia) and numerous global Indymedia video spin-offs are linking up their databases to create decentralised search tools that will greatly increase the profile and possibilities of social justice video online. This is being co-ordinated by a rebel alliance of Indymedia related groups called Transmission. http://tranmission.cc
Using open source tools like Miro the Video podcast player, these video projects hope that once you start watching video in this way you won't want to go back to YouTube or it's evil cousins. Miro allows you to subscribe to different channels of video content, some are themed by subject and some are just the pick of the channel editors. You can even subscribe to YouTube channels in Miro as well and it sneakily downloads those videos for you to keep if you want to.
Conclusion:
There is so much going on with the Transmission network and related video indymedia projects to even begin to cover within the scope of this article. Please do your own research if you are interested. But what is clear is that Indymedia is not stagnant, it's simply mutating. We should start to see the fruits of this mutation soon.... so stay tuned.
Resources
Miro player
http://getmiro.com
Indymedia uk
http://indylmedia.org.uk
Find your local collective here
http://lists.indymedia.org
Transmission network :
A global network of video collectives working to use and create tools for Video distribution for social change.
http://transmission.cc
VisonOnTV:
A Online TV project, a series of edited channels from undercurrents.org the award winning activist video collective.
http://www.visionontv.net
Clearerchannel.org:
A source of activist videos especially environmental and culture jamming. Also experimenting with using Media RSS feeds.
http://www.clearerchannel.org
The Pirate Bay :
Download whole series for free with no adverts. Do it and then teach your Gran!
FlossManuals.net:
Many tutorials and how to-guides for downloading distributing Video online and pirating DVDs.
Sillicon Valley Insider:
Experts try work out if YouTube will ever make any Money.
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/08/mary-meekers-yo.html
Too much information? Web 2.0 getting a bit much? Thinking about retiring from the electronic age and pining for a time when it was enough to read a daily paper and send your friends birthday and christmas cards. You may be suffering from New Media burn out! But don't worry! You're not alone.
Indymedia was a pioneer of 'user generated content' websites. Indymedia was one of the first sites where you could provide the news, and collaborate to create reports. The focus of Indymedia is local and global events ignored by corporate press. If you go to the global site
http://indymedia.org or the UK site http://indymedia.org.uk you'll see a very direct way of seeing the world through first hand reports of those struggling for their rights, and those of others. The Indymedia network started to mushroom around 1999. There was such a need for radical politics, marginalised communities and direct action protest to be covered in a non-mainstream way that it was almost inevitable that something like Indymedia open posting technologies should come along to server that community. It's something that activists and media activists can be legitimately proud of.
As Indymedia grew and groups started cropping up everywhere including over 15 cities in the UK. The momentum was huge, everyone was excited, starting new projects within the network. Global days of actions happened and new services were created. A mailbox where phone messages were uploaded to the internet as mp3 files. Cheap satellite technologies were used to create Indymedia centres in rural camp locations.
Where are we now? 8 years on since the start of Indymedia in the UK and the UK-based website and extended family of volunteer news reporters to vital work in the communication and recording of action and protest for radical social change. However face to face communication of the imc-uk collective are increasingly sporadic. The last well attended ones were in preparation for the 2005 G8.
New initiatives are hard to get off the ground, and changes to established technology takes a long time too. And while large parts of the network are falling apart about without people seeming to notice, there are a lot of spin-off projects happening which hopefully will be reincorporated into the core of Indymedia. The challenge is to keep new people coming into the Indymedia process with new ideas and energy. Newcomers need to be given the information to take on the ongoing work or running local Indymedia sites and take on a level of autonomy for how Indymedia reorganises. Maybe a revolt against the inactivity of the Indymedia old guard would be in order! Let's face it they'd love it if it happened.
The practice of self publishing is has gone ballistic! Everyone's got either a myspace, facebook, custom blog etc. So if that means Indymedia is becoming redundant is that something to worry about or to celebrate? How should Indymedia react to bloging, and other self publishing technologies?
Case Study – Video Distribution and the Indymedia network
Let's take the example of Video and see what's happening with Global Indymedia networks. Here users face a legitimate question, Why put video on UK Indymedia or other Indymedia videos sites when it's easier to watch and you're going to get loads more hits on YouTube? There are currently very few Indymedia websites where you can "click and play" video.
There are valiant attempts to restart and upgrade the global Indymedia Video site, but it's slow work. And you have to ask yourself, if all this content is already out there, what purpose does it serve to put it on Indymedia as well? Afer all what's wrong with YouTube? Well there's a campaign by a network of Indymedia related video collectives called Transmission, that would like to let you know, with their "No Screw Tube campaign.
Q: Why shouldn't I just use ScrewTube ?
1. Exploitation. ScrewTube exploits your free videomaking labor to gain ad revenue for the empire of Google/Murdoch.
2. Surveillance. Since ScrewTube records your IP address, posting your videos there puts you at risk for surveillance and IP tracking, both by corporations and by law enforcement and the state. For example in 2004 Yahoo collaborated with Chinese authorities to identify dissident blogger Shi Tao. He is now serving 10 years in jail. many sites record your IP address, not just corp projects.
3. Censorship. Putting your videos on ScrewTube opens the door to censorship since they will do takedowns for copyright violations or at the request of the State.
4. When Sharing isn't really sharing Sites like Youtube only allow you to share videos with other members, or by embedding a YT video in your blog. There is no re-distribution via p2p networks, or availability of high-res downloads for use in screenings, film festivals or compilations.
5. When Free isn't really free These sites are free to use, they don't cost anything. However the platform is closed - if you want to use ScrewTube technology you have to use ScrewTube. We need free software platforms so anyone has the freedom to create their own video-sharing site.
6. When a community isn't really a community YouTube was sold to Google for $1.65 billion in Google stock. If a community can be bought and sold, is it really a community (or is it a buzzword)? There is no community control of ScrewTube sites, they are organised by the profit motive, not the concerns of the people who constitute those communities. Editorial control, control of the software should be in the hands of the community.
7. Intellectual Property Sites like ScrewTube place exploitative terms and conditions on your contributions which allow them to re-sell and remix your work. ScrewTube for example state...
"…by submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successor's) business… in any media formats and through any media channels.”
If we use existing ethical and pirate technologies we can do so much better. And if you're going to put a bit of time into trying to distribute ethical, social justice content you really have a duty to at least make an effort. .
Projects like VisiononTv from Undercurrents, Ifiwatch.tv, Engagemedia.org (Australia) and numerous global Indymedia video spin-offs are linking up their databases to create decentralised search tools that will greatly increase the profile and possibilities of social justice video online. This is being co-ordinated by a rebel alliance of Indymedia related groups called Transmission.
http://tranmission.cc Using open source tools like Miro the Video podcast player, these video projects hope that once you start watching video in this way you won't want to go back to YouTube or it's evil cousins. Miro allows you to subscribe to different channels of video content, some are themed by subject and some are just the pick of the channel editors. You can even subscribe to YouTube channels in Miro as well and it sneakily downloads those videos for you to keep if you want to.
Conclusion:
There is so much going on with the Transmission network and related video indymedia projects to even begin to cover within the scope of this article. Please do your own research if you are interested. But what is clear is that Indymedia is not stagnant, it's simply mutating. We should start to see the fruits of this mutation soon.... so stay tuned.
Resources
Miro player
http://getmiro.com Indymedia uk
http://indylmedia.org.uk Find your local collective here
http://lists.indymedia.org Transmission network :
A global network of video collectives working to use and create tools for Video distribution for social change.
http://transmission.cc VisonOnTV:
A Online TV project, a series of edited channels from undercurrents.org the award winning activist video collective.
http://www.visionontv.net Clearerchannel.org:
A source of activist videos especially environmental and culture jamming. Also experimenting with using Media RSS feeds.
http://www.clearerchannel.org The Pirate Bay :
Download whole series for free with no adverts. Do it and then teach your Gran!
FlossManuals.net:
Many tutorials and how to-guides for downloading distributing Video online and pirating DVDs.
Sillicon Valley Insider:
Experts try work out if YouTube will ever make any Money.
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/08/mary-meekers-yo.html