General Meeting Minutes

Thanks to minute-taker Hannah Sassaman!!
Next meeting: third Sunday of November.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

IMC PHILLY MEETING -- October 20th, 2002 -- MINUTES

In Attendance:  Peter, Hannah, Pete T., Kristina C.,
Amy, Josh Marcus, Jon Waxman.

1)  We introduced ourselves to Peter, a law student
living 8 miles outside the city, about a mile from
Swarthmore.  Josh introduced the Philly IMC to Peter
in a general and concise way.

2)  Amy discussed the budget report.  We are doing
pretty well, she says, although we have an outstanding
loan of $3500 for the space work weeks.  IMC general
owes $150 to tech for the phone bill, and we have
approved splitting the bill with the Lancaster space
for the future.  The Unconvention/print group needs
reconstitution -- their money abides.  Same from the
video group (although we owe a bit to R2K legal.) 
Volta is doing pretty well, the Resist grant has been
spent down, although the dues structure of  Volta
brings money in.  $800 for the server has come in
through the mailing!!!  So -- web/tech has about
$2200.    Refer to the budget report below for more
details.  Future prognosis -- no income flow in the
forseeable future... next bread and roses grant
deadline is in January.  IMC/Volta is eligible to
reapply for Resist in the spring.  We _did_ send out
the mail appeal, but not an email one.  Also, Rolando
and Molly will spearhead the next cheap art auction,
an IMC effort for the Space.

Although there is a lot of money on this page, we
still are not, by all means, fiscally sound, because
we have no general operating income, and we do have
some general expenses.

3)  Report back on the space -- the open house was
really successful.  3 dozen people from the break the
media blackout conference and from the general
neighborhood.  We also gave a general space overview
to peter.

4)  Servers.  It looks like we have enough money to
buy our first new server!  (~$1500).  We need to
design the specs for it and order the computer. 
What's the best way to order it?  Perhaps a check? 
Make an order and then mail a check.  Or order it on
Rolando's credit card.  We should move forward and get
it.  But -- WHICH PROJECTS WILL BE PARTICIPATING/BEING
HOUSED ON THE SERVER?  

		a)  IMC website.
		b)  Green Delaware.  The tech collective has had a
policy -- if someone wants to take on a project like
this, we'll host it.  Jon has taken on Green Delaware
(a group that has contributed money for us.
		c)  Prometheus will host two web databases on the
server.  Prometheus has given money.
		d)  WPEB/Radio Volta will host MP3s on the server.

Projects up in the air:

		a)  WBIX.  They wanted to be a partner.  It's a bit
muddled -- they need something beyond the resources we
could provide.  Josh thinks they might not need as
much bandwidth as they think they need.  But if they
do need it, it's exponentially more than what the
other groups involved require.  Amy asks -- would a
second server help?  Josh says no -- it's all the
amount of data -- the bandwidth.  We can't provide a
service for many hundreds of listeners to listen at
the same time.  Datarealm just can't provide it.   

		-- global IMC owns 3 servers, host 80 sites,
database server, development server.  access is loose
and decentralized.  there are OODLES of serrvers tha
support sites.  the sanfran site has its own server,
hosts other imcs.  we used to host new mexico, now
they run  on bandwidthcoop.org or something.  12
diffrent servers that host some site or another.  

i hope we host turkey!  says hannah.

		b)  we will host economic human rights.org -- KWRU. 


	this general policy we've had of not taking on
projects without a bottom line person is good and nice
for josh.  the server will live in conshohoken in a
data center, with other computers, rented by
datarealm.  this place will provide lots of
maintenance and reliability.  petri asked if we could
use one of our crap servers for i n s t a n t  r e d u
n d a n c y!!!  eh, maybe, says josh.  we could buy
one of our old systems a new hard drive.  we will
maybe keep jon's computer (the current server)
continue as the primary server and have the new one
share tasks when it arrives...

hannah suggested a grant for the ongoing cost of
bandwidth?  josh says that peer to peer systems let
you depend on computer-to-computer transfers.  or,
freenet.  this has been a fun idea -- perhaps a
research grant.

	  e)  maybe the indypendent -- the nyc print effort. 


Mike asked -- WHAT HAPPENED TO LOUDEYE?  there was a
fellow there who hosted lots of stuff on loudeye, this
multimedia server.  he left loudeye, and things
continued to work for awhile...  yay troy!!  now what
to do?  some IMCs have had their services slowly fall
off... a lot of IMCS are still using bits of loudeye.
We need to patch around the loudeye problems to make
our video streaming work, but we really need a new
solution.  jon thinks we'll have the resources to
stream for the philly IMC.  josh thinks we can get our
things from loudeye, we should get that data soon,
before it goes away.  there are other people in the
world who used loudeye for live streaming -- which is
now dead.  people are left out in the cold --
blastfurnace from pittsburgh needs help.  we shouldn't
host live streaming, as our bandwidth we can fairly
use will be eaten.  

mike gave some history on loudeye -- they are the
premiere streaming host on the web.  they have a lot
to donate but they have risk in doing so, because of
the commercial involvement.  on peer to peer -- mike
has been using kazaa for awhile now... could we use
existing software for peer to peer streaming/hosting?

josh on freenet - anonymous peer to peer.  a bit
slow... but the guy who invented it wants the IMC in
particular to use it.  this sounds practical for
getting grant money -- buying three servers to
coordinate over the network.  

petri asked -- is there a way to deal with these
bandwidth programs by offering non-profit tax donation
writeoff by donating it to us?  loudeye was a comp.
account, done on the down low.  

if we applied for a progressive technology grant, it
would make sense to apply as the local philly imc.  

josh will do an email blast!!! about paypal...?

3)  FOCUS GROUPS.  was mentioned in the letters we
sent out.  we want people to use the website, people
who could be using it from the progresssive comminuty,
to tell us how to make it fit the needs of people who
could use it.  get more involvement with it. 
useability, interface issues, also outreach issues....
why have people been turned off to the philly imc?

some ideas have come up in discussion -- the rating
system.  other issues.  like, announcing MEETINGS ON
THE WEBPAGE!  mike would like to get moving with a
meeting in the next week or to brainstorming what
issues to discuss in focus groups.  what we feel we
need to prompt discussion.  let mike know if you're
interested in this!

josh did a server log check -- we get lots of traffic
on the website.

amy thinks we should have several discussions, so
there are multiple options about where you can come. 
lots of accessibility -- important in this issue. 

4)  Break blackout report back. relationships formed
between us and economic human rights forum, human
rights tech, and us.!  i was speaking during this. 
jon?  josh?  details?  there are lots of people who
want work-study and voluteer with the imc.  housing at
prometheus?  these kinds of relationships were housed
at the break the media blackout conference.  

we need someone to take on responding to the info box,
and to volunteers.  

5)  coverage brainstorming!
writing features!  people should write them quickly.
dzzenungh dzzenugh!    
we should divide these as longer-term coverage and
immediate coverage

kristina suggested -- she needs help on knowing how to
write a piece of journalism.  making tips available on
the web, and perhaps getting a mentor... "do you have
a draft you want someone to look at..?"

	-- the daily news boycott!  whooziwhat?
	-- writers for the inky and daily news are protesting
new coverage policies and job structure.
	-- the elections.
	-- the war?
	-- protest in washington next weekend.
	-- research piece on free software/jeffersonian
ideals/new political economy
	-- next weekend -- the penn groups organize protest
of cheney visiting the new wharton building
	-- the new observer and its political coverage --
could we reprint some of their work?
	-- tom ridge as the homeland security dude?
	-- bike walk to washington on nov. 11th, veteran's
day.  alternative transportation protests, raising
awareness on the arctic wildlife refuge drilling.  
	-- barnraising -- hannah will write a feature.

6)  IMC GLOBAL REPORT BACK -- ford foundation issue. 
imc not accepting money from ford for imc
urbana-champaign.  people were mad about it -- imcs
protested heavily.  they will not accept money so
there will be no big divisive issue, and also because
'ford is icky'.  there was lots of confusion in the
global and the local network, but the general
sentiment is one of solidarity.  the importance of
local autonomy was, however, strongly reiterated.

global features -- our version of it was shortened for
the global homepage.  there were links to a longer
version on their newswire.  global has added a cookie
that when you return, it leaves it in the same
configuration you had it in as the last time you
looked at it.  

some argument about features from locals put onto the
global site -- there was editing of our MOVE feature
that didn’t represent the actual story. amy asked mike
to ask the global features team to put their process
into clear light for everyone.  is it their policy to
edit and post without notifying the local imc of the
changes?  what's the deal on translations?


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/