[liberationtech] Indymedia: It’s time to move on

[Anne Roth]

Hi,

this article about Indymedia is not liberation tech in the strict sense
of the word. But then a lot of people who are or were involved with
Indymedia are subscribers here and there's considerable overlap of
interest, I'd say?

http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/indymedia-its-time-move/

A local Indymedia group in Nottingham, UK, is discussing whether to
close down and what will be next (or whether there will be something
next). "Indymedia: It’s time to move on" discusses whether Indymedia "is
still useful and necessary to the social movements that it grew from".
Many Indymedia groups have closed or are in the process of discussing
whether to continue.

One of the reasons Indymedia is dying a slow death in many places is (a
lack of) liberation tech: easily available independent tech
infrastructure, CMSes suitable for big multi-user platforms in different
languages that can be administrated with little prior knowledge,
attractive (!) alternatives to YouTube and the like.

That's definitely not the only reason but when YouTube took over the
wind of defeat swept through Indymedia chat rooms. I'm saying that
knowing how many dedicated people have put in so much hard work and
still do today.

Another reason is the dynamics of movements and the simple fact that the
Anti-Globalization movement that was one of the roots of Indymedia had
had its peak years ago.

The need for independent media (using independent infrastructure and
open source software) is bigger than ever (ok, same as always). Is the
glass half full with citizen journalists all over and more than enough
option to publish whatever we like or is it half empty with filter
bubbles defined by mainstream media?

When looking at different threads of "independent vs. commercial" media
production is looking particularly bad. Two other 'branches' are
software (open source) and knowledge (Wikipedia) - both are now
established as inherent parts of their respective spheres. Why wasn't
that possible for media?

Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Anne


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