Server troubles for indymedia

We all appreciate the enormous commitment tech imcistas put into the imc project and it's obvious we need more technically orientated people but the tech imcistas also have a responsibility to share the wealth and empower and train more people to become technically proficient. You just can't assume people can do it all on their own - Do It Together rather than Do it Yourself should be an ethos we embrace.

For the last couple of years that i've been active as an imcista i have never really come across a workshop or tutorial about technical issues - please correct me if i'm wrong here. And whenever i or other imcistas ask about technical stuff there's often a muted response that mostly includes some technical shorthand that we then have to spend hours looking up!

If the rest of us non-technical imcistas responded like this to other areas of indymedia like film- making or writing reports then I'm sure no-one would feel empowered to contribute. For example, there are simple and complicated ways of explaining codecs or for that matter how to write a good article. Sorry if this offends anyone but that's how i've experienced it.

Perhaps the time is ripe to really reflect on how we share information technically as a network and think more inclusively about this? We can't just rely and assume that people will find out technical stuff all on their own and that's why i reckon we've got this skills shortage.

Simple really innit?

Through being involved with indymedia, I have learned: Using and admining mailing lists, basic html, using digital camera, basic video editing, contributing to the maintenance of an open publishing website, using chatrooms, using wikis, writing features, installing simple linux distributions, using openoffice, basic command line use, and probably some more things. Reading the f****** manual was the most important, and I would advise you to do the same.

There are many local imc groups, linux user groups, media groups. If you really want to learn, get in touch with them and you will be surprised how much there is to pick up.

Come now, be realistic, it's not as simple as that. Do you seriously think that a person with no background in programming and hardware diagnostics would pick up these skill by going to a couple of skill sharing workshops?

Programming is highly skilled profession which takes considerable time to master and those skills must be constantly maintained as they become outdated and redundant quickly. Usually, people that have these skills are using them professionally and not merely as a hobby. Programmers learn their skills over years spent teaching themselves, reading, practicing and evolving from one language to another. It's not like using a camera or video editing where a complete beginner can be taught the basics with a day and start producing their own material.

Likewise with computer hardware technicians. Most are self taught from building and maintaining their own machines or from employement. You could quickly learn some basic skills, enough to diagnose some simply problems but if you don't really have a technical background and intend to continue to exercise such skills on a regular basis then you will not really progress. Everything changes pretty quickly in computer hardware so you have to continue to use the skills or they become redundant.

That doesn't mean that there is no place for indymedia training for techincal skills and in fact there have been quite a few indymedia related training events for people to share tech skills. For example, the resent gatherings about video included sessions on encoding and uploading to indymedia, regular radio workshops in the radio studio at rampART taught people not only how to record and mix audio but also how to compress and upload. However, these skills are fundamentally different from the kind of advanced technical skills I think we are talking about here.

Nether-the-less, there are a number of hacklabs around the country were people could go to share and develop such skills if they wished but I don't see much of that happening or even much demand for it unfortunately.

Additionally there are the indymedia IRC channels were people regularly request and receive help on technical issues and share their skills or diagnose problems. Clearly there is a willingness by techies to share their skills and it is in their interest to do so in terms of indymedia work since it is not a competition over contracts and wages.

p.s. There are a couple more articles on these issues in the newswire at the moment...
see

Indymedia needs you
 https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/336029.html

and
hacklab report
 https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/335993.html

There is a _lot_ to learn, you can do it a page at a time, It helps to know where to look..
I have found these resources useful;

1, a good intro linux  http://www.openicdl.org.za/courseware.html#releasecourseware

2, a intro to the command line  http://www.linuxcommand.org/

3, This is pretty much everything you need to know
 http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

4, This covers webservers see in particular section 36 Apache servers
 http://rute.2038bug.com/node39.html.gz