further development of indymedia

international | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday November 18, 2003 14:23 by dunk - FUSPEY duncancrowley at hotmail dot com

now its nearly 2 years old

a few thoughts on past, present and future.
2500 years ago, socrates and the other philosophers chatted about ideas, did things, were in awe of life- from that western civilisation developed

where are we today, what are we starting to do?
what are we creating?

free and clean powered energy things work and matter

rinky dink- free energy powered music machine

a few of us had a good chat last night, amongst other things was the idea that the now existing line between politics and culture should/ can be gotten rid of, so that doing cultural things means that in essence they are political. be it getting to know more of your neighbours or putting on events. a political demo at shannon can incoporate street theatre in limerick, an attempt to further communicate to people whats going on, why people are going there, what they hope to achieve....

we also lookes at the present state of indymedia and a rough conclusion, perhaps unfair, is that it is at present mostly a space for the left of ireland to communicate with each other. a lot of the time this turns into ranting and slagging, this is not helpful. some good things are coming out of it but it definately can be improved upon. last week was the first public indymedia get together, it was succeessfull and much needed, this will grow
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=62057

indymedia should expand, more communities should be aware of it, add to it, and use it as a resourse for them and us. this will lead to just more "us". we have only started to explore what we can do.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61275 earlier post about this

at present most activities from the left are reactionary- bush is coming, do a demo against him.
what about being pro-active, showing new things, new ideas, sharing skills and ideas. creating a more exciting city and country life- this is starting to happen in bits, little by little.
the upcoming exhibition and film festival @ moore st is an attempt to do this, this will coincide with the "convergence festival" @ cultivate and a feedback irish/ dublin social forum of sorts, presenting what went on, what is going on..

last saturday was "communication is the key"
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=62183
a wander and chat @ moore st, to play with and test a few ideas, and to meet more people- it was a fine weekend

some interesting things going on at present:
perhaps indymedia/ some of you are already invovled, perhaps not yet?

http://www.metroeireann.com/
metro eireann- irelands first and only multicultural newspaper

http://www.spirasi.ie/index.shtml
working with refugees and Asylum seekers in Ireland and beyond.

http://www.shiningemerald.com/
News for Chinese Community in Ireland- poster on wall beside "talk is cheap" communication/ phone shop on moore st.

http://www.cmn.ie
CMN is a 32 county not for profit organisation embracing all forms of media.
It brings together groups and individuals involved in:
Community Television and Video
Community Radio
Photography
Alternative Print
New Media/Web

http://www.netdaysireland.ie/
The Netd@ys initiative takes place from the 17th to the 23rd November 2003 and is co-ordinated at a national level by Léargas. The theme of 'Dialogue between Cultures' will be imaginatively and innovatively explored with schools, colleges, universities, education centres, youth organisations, youth information centres, NGO's dealing with intercultural issues, libraries and museums.
is indymedia involved with this already?- seems like the ideal thing it should be working with?

these are just some interesting things that are going on.

some reckon that in world history terms we are in the next stage of world civilisation, after the one that existed for the last 2000-3000 years, the one that led to the "western world" becoming the controller of the world (at present london city is almost shut down due to the arrival of george bush) but things are changing. technology has changed and again allowed for the flow of ideas and communication. with this nodes of all sorts of things are sprouting up, many of these nodes are still insular and inward looking (specialization in the sciences was perhaps essential, but they forgot how to talk to each other) but now, new communication systems, perhaps the best being the social forums and indymedia, are starting to weave a web that is slowly connecting these nodes. with this the overall network is getting stronger. but it has to continually question itself, allow for change and new direction. allow for all inputs, grow then output.

if the irish left, or whatever is the proper name for this community of sorts which uses indymedia?, gets talking more, doing more, creating more. things will improve

the virtual world is grand, but the real world is better, we can use them hand in hand. on that note a new bike repair workshop is starting up in mountjoy square DIT tomorow 5.00-6.00, come along, fix your bike, make a new one, learn how. meet new people, socialise more
a machine like the "rinky dink" would be a fine thing to construct
http://www.baka.co.uk/rinky/works.htm

on the real side, creating festivals is a great thing
cowley road carnival in oxford
perhaps we could have something like this @ moore st soon?

on a final note on
"buildings as trees, cities as forests" a simple idea from William McDonough
http://resurgence.gn.apc.org/issues/mcdonough210.htm
how can we embrace this?
perhaps an indymedia event @ the community garden in ballyfermot would be a start- gardening, indymedia screening in local library followed by indymedia computer workshop

just a few thoughts, interested in indymedia`s reaction.