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Compiled and revised from information available on the main Indymedia site and from information provided by volunteers on many of various IMC working group lists. Send questions or corrections to imc-winnipeg@indymedia.org.
Independent Media Centre-Winnipeg is a member organization of Indymedia.org. One of over 75 IMCs around the world, IMC-Winnipeg is committed to the Indymedia 'Principles of Unity' and the goal of providing alternative news through independent (not corporate-owned) venues. IMC-Winnipeg is also committed to using the 'open publishing' model shared by IMCs operating world-wide.
Our main mission at IMC-Winnipeg is to provide a centralized news service which all individuals, activists, and public interest groups in Manitoba can make free use of. This service is intended to facilitate reporting on events, networking, planning and the sharing of reliable information. This service is also intended to serve as a media outlet for activist journalists, and to provide coverage of news that will surpass in quality and even embarrass that of local mainstream media outlets.
Towards this goal, IMC-Winnipeg is intended to also serve as a networking and skills-sharing venue for activists / journalists, aspiring activists / journalists, and other members of the community who wish to provide alternative news and otherwise contribute to the Indymedia mission. To this end, IMC-Winnipeg is intended to empower members of the community (across the Prairie region) with the skills, and confidence to participate fully in the Indymedia mission, to "become the media". For more information, please see the About Us page.
IMC-Winnipeg is committed to community-based organizing, to non-hierarchical structures, and to consensus decisionmaking. Rejecting the claim of 'objectivity' which corporate-owned media outlets profess, the activists / journalists of IMCs argue that editorial control and the influence of large corporate owners has made objectivity impossible, particularly when covering stories related to world economics. Without apology, the 'bias' of activists / journalists is seen by IMCs as more clearly honest about showing a broader perspective when reporting news.
IMC-Winnipeg has no official affiliation with any political organization or party, nor with any government or government agency, nor with any corporation or business interest. IMC-Winnipeg does not receive funding or endorsments from any commercial project or interests, nor from any political campaign or candidate.
We are entirely volunteer-run, with all decisions made by the IMC-Winnipeg Collective. For more information, please see the About Us page.
We do, and you can find it here. Editorial policy is determined through consensus decision-making, in accordance with our Mission Statement.
The short version is: IMC-Winnipeg reserves the right to remove any posting which interferes with our mission or which may result in a libel action, except where the collective agrees to invite the suit.
A significant feature of IMCs is the 'open publishing' model, where anyone visiting the website can contribute an article, or comment on something already posted. This model provides both a more accessible venue for reporting news, and its own form of editorial control—criticism by whomever reads it and holds a differing view. See the links below for more info.
IMCs became popular after the success of Indymedia.org during 'The Battle of Seattle', the event which brought anti-globalization demonstrations to the attention of the general public. As an umbrella organization for all subsequent IMCs, Indymedia.org requires each local centre to maintain the ideals of its original mandate.
Relying entirely on volunteer labour, individual membership in an IMC is determined simply by making an ongoing sweat-equity contribution, and is open to all who accept the IMC's Mission Statement and Principles of Unity. More general information on Indymedia.org is below.
The IMC-Peg Collective of activists / journalists began with a posting to a discussion list (winnipeg_activist at yahoo), a flurry of email, and weekly meetings begining in March of 2002. After passing muster with the New IMC Working Group, IMC Winnipeg was officially accepted into the Indymedia family on March 26, 2002. We were alerted by email on Wednesday, April 3 of 2002, at 09:43:12am.
Since, we have spent endless hours trying to overcome the technical barriers of finding a server and developing the code for our website. In January of 2003, we built a server from donated parts, and completed development of Prairie Active version 0.1 in late September 2003.
We are a stubborn lot, wot?
In a slight twist on the usual IMC activities, the IMC-Winnipeg collective will be inviting a wide variety of organizations to participate, going so far as to make presentations at meetings of NGOs, environmental groups, unions, community-based organizations, First Nations associations, etc.. The goal at this time is to get the widest possible representation of progressive organizations and media-savvy types involved, fully participating, and making sure that their own voice is heard.
If you are a member of an organization that you think may wish to contribute news articles to IMC-Winnipeg, or have questions about how your organization can use the website to full advantage, please send us an email: admin@winnipeg.indymedia.org
IMC Winnipeg does not have an office -- it is an on-line 'space', organized through discussion lists and regular meetings at a favoured downtown cafe.
If you are interested in joining the IMC-Winnipeg Collective, please feel free to contact us at: imc-winnipeg@indymedia.org.
You may also make a direct request to join the IMC-Winnipeg discussion list by visiting http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-winnipeg. You MUST provide a short introduction to yourself and your organization when using the online sign-up form.
If you still have questions about IMC-Winnipeg, you may contact us at: imc-winnipeg@indymedia.org.
For questions about the Indymedia.org network, contact: general@indymedia.org.
Please understand that Indymedia is a volunteer-run project and sometimes there are hundreds of messages to go through each day. We will try to get back to you as quickly as possible.
For more immediate answers or to just learn as much as you can about Indymedia, the links below are a good start....
You too can now become the media!
Distilled from our mission statement: Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. There are currently about over fifty Independent Media Centers around the world. Each IMC is an autonomous group that has its own mission statement, manages its own finances and makes its own decisions through its own processes. To learn more about each IMC, visit its web page. You will find links to IMC web sites on the left column of the main page Indymedia page (http://www.indymedia.org). Most of the below information answers questions that site visitors frequently ask about 'Indymedia.org,' an organization composed of independent media activists from around the world who are working to coordinate international independent media projects. The Indymedia.org group manages an international Indymedia page (http://www.indymedia.org) and coordinates technical and editorial policy issues that affect all IMCs that are associated with the Indymedia network.
Indymedia is the collective effort of hundreds of independent media makers from around the world who are dedicated to providing a forum for independent reporting about important social and political issues. Several hundred media activists, many of whom have been working for years to develop an active independent media through their own organizations, came together in late November, 1999 in Seattle to create an Independent Media Center to cover protests against the World Trade Organization. The Seattle IMC provided coverage of the WTO through both a printed publication called "The Blind Spot" and the first IMC web site. The web site received almost 1.5 million hits during the WTO protests. In February of 2000 a small IMC formed in Boston to cover the Biodevestation Convergence, and a larger one came together in Washington D.C. to cover the A16 protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. After that request from local groups interested in forming their own IMCs started to pour in. There are now over fifty local Independent media centers around the world and more are on the way. You will find a list of local IMCs on the left column of the www.indymedia.org site.