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6th Conference: Sydney, April 9-13, 2007
http://www.ourmedia07.net/
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Dear OURMedia friends

Your steering committee is busily gearing up for our 6th OURMedia/Nuestros
Medios conference, which promises to be the most exciting yet.

Hope you will join us for a week of presentations, dialogue, exchange (bring
your media!), polymedia lab, film screenings, field trip, broadcasting,
webworking, networking and good company, much of which will be webcast. Not
least: a series of working group meetings on the future of the ourmedia
network, in which we will hopefully come up with ideas for improving our
infrastructure.

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HE FUTURE OF OURMEDIA/NUSTROS MEDIOS (OURfuture)
- a series of working group meetings at the OURMedia 6 conference and online
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WANTED: Coordinators and participants for the following working groups to
faciliate the discussion, and some questions to start the work. Even if you
cannot come to Sydney, please feel free to join. Send a message to:
k70 (AT) mac.com

Possible Working Groups (WGs) include:
- WG1: Governance and Financing
- WG2: Communication & Tech Infrastructure
- WG3: Next Conference

³Whatever we decide to do, it has to be feasible, not just wishful
thinking.² Alfonso Gumucio Dagron

OURMedia/NUESTROS Medios has evolved into a vast network, almost entirely
fuelled by enthusiasm (and largely without structure, funding or paid
staff). Over the last years, we have had a number of discussions, both on
the mailing list and face-to-face about OURfuture, the future of our
network. So far, a steering committee was set up (mostly by self-nomination)
every time to organize a conference and to tend to the other needs: the
website, the mailing list, financing, selecting the next conference site and
organizing the next conference with a local organizing team. The steering
committee has somehow managed many of these tasks, though usually out of
sight of the rest of the network. Many issues remain only barely Œpatched¹
and some issues (such as another organization using the same name and
similar URL) could not be dealt with at all. In these, a number of pressing
issues, both in terms of day-to-day running and long-term vision have come
up:

1) governance and/or organizing structure ­ how much is necessary and
feasible? 2) securing funding, 3) securing a stable communications
infrastructure (including the website, e-mail lists, translation needs,
designing new communication spaces such as blogs, a wiki or at least
bulletin boards), 4) transparent selection and effective organization of
next conference.
Where should we take OURMedia? Re-structure it? Re-think it? Do you see
OURMedia as a network with several functions and working groups (such as
funding, governance, collaborations between academics and activists,
archival site for alternative media materials, etc.) or only as an annual
event (or bi-annual)? What would YOU be willing to do as a member? What
would YOU like to do and be a part of? What would you like OURMedia to be?

To further discuss and hopefully settle some of these issues, there will be
working groups formed at the Sydney conference and online who will meet
daily and present the outcomes of their discussion and research to the
closing plenary and the OURmedia mailing list. Working groups will research
the issues (e.g. how these issues have been dealt with, how far they have
been discussed so far and who has offered to help, what solution options we
have, etc.), pre-discuss them and compile the results into a document to be
used in the final plenary session.

Look forward to hearing from you!

G