WHAT'S NEW AT INFOSHOP.ORG
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Week of June 10, 2002 | number 1
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Welcome to the first issue of what is hoped will be a regular update on
the Infoshop.org project. As the Infoshop.org project grows and includes
more an more volunteers, regular communication is becoming more important.

Infoshop.org has been causing trouble on the web since it went online in
January 1995 as the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop. With over 3 million hits a
month as of last year, Infoshop.org is considered to be a valuable
resource to the anarchist and anti-capitalist movements, as well as
thousands of people who are simply looking for alternatives to the current
capitalist system. The website is graciously hosted by the
flag.blackened.net server, which is part of a collective of anarchist and
anti-authoritarian digital activists. The webmaster and coordinator of
Infoshop is Chuck "Chuck0" Munson, but the website is becoming more of a
collaborative project every day.

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LINKS OF THE WEEK

Chumaba.org
 http://www.chumba.org/
A new website about radical politics from everybody's favorite infamous
band.

Southern Girls Convention
 http://www.southerngirlsconvention.com/
The Southern Girls Convention is an annual grassroots meeting of pro-woman
activists devoted to empowering women and girls in the South, and
discussing Southern culture, views and stereotypes of the South, and the
struggle for social justice.

Class Struggle Online
 http://anarchosyndicalism.org/as.php
The newly revamped and renamed website, formerly known as
Anarcho-Syndicalism 101.

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NEWS WIRE FROM INFOSHOP.ORG

Join the Infoshop.org News list at:
 http://flag.blackened.net/mailman/listinfo/infoshop-news

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NEW FEATURES AND PAGES AT INFOSHOP.ORG

Terrorism
 http://www.infoshop.org/terrorism.html
Anarchist perspectives on terrorism and the so-called "War on Terrorism."

Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry
 http://www.infoshop.org/pharm_focus.html

Focus on Palestine
 http://www.infoshop.org/palestine.html

Focus on Venezuela
 http://www.infoshop.org/news6/venezuela.php

Left Communism or State Department Surrealism?
 http://www.infoshop.org/myep/munis_meese.html
Blogs
 http://www.infoshop.org/blogs.html

Anarchoféministes
 http://www.infoshop.org/fr/afem_kiosk.html

Against the Corpse Machine: Defining A Post-Leftist Anarchist Critique of
Violence
 http://www.infoshop.org/rants/corpse_last.html

Babylon 5 Zone
 http://www.infoshop.org/news6/venezuela.php

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UPCOMING FEATURES

Features that are in development can be divided into three categories: new
pages and sections, new interactive services, and new feature content.

## New Pages and Sections ##

Since the main focus of the webmaster this month is on the development of
interactive web services, there isn't much to announce. Possible new pages
include:

* "Office of Homeland Insecurity" - tracking the Bush administration's
current wag the dog campaign.
* "How to do an anarchist bookfair" - in development at:
 http://www.infoshop.org/library2/pages.php?page=How+to+do+an+anarchist+bookfair

## New Interactive Services ##

Many of you are familiar with the popular Infoshop News Kiosk
( http://www.infoshop.org/inews/), an interactive anarchist news service
that runs on phpWebLog software. Other interactive features on
Infoshop.org include The American Gulag (prison news -
 http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/) and the Anarchist Librarians Web
( http://www.infoshop.org/library2/). Several new interactive features are
currently in development (thanks to the volunteers who are helping), which
include:

* Non-English sections: We are currently at the start of a project that
will migrate the non-English sections of Infoshop to an interactive news
and content system (probably phpnuke) which will allow native speakers to
post news and content in the relevant language section. The goal is to
make these sections more collaborative, so that collectives can be set up
for each language. The interactive software will allow people to add news
and will provide user accounts and some customization.

* Anarchist Youth subsite: Another project will migrate the current
"Anarchy Kidz" section to the same interactive software. Here the goal is
to give anarchist and anti-authoritarian teens the ability to be involved
in running and developing this section of Infoshop.

* Anarchist Matchmaker and Infoshop Rideboard: Other than having
submission forms, these two features currently require much copying and
pasting and general HTML wrangling from the webmaster. The goal is to set
up these sections so they pull from a database, thus allowing different
way to search and making the information instantly fresh. Completion date:
by mid July.

* Comprehensive link database: Infoshop.org has thousands of links, which
means that managing them all is a webmaster's nightmare. The goal of this
project is to create one big database of links for the website, which
would allow many different ways of presenting and organizing information.
It would make it easier for people to add links, update links, and point
out broken links. This will also allow Infoshop to provide more ambitious
services, such as an alternative directory like Yahoo. The webmaster has
been working on this project since last year and anticipates a completion
date of late July.

You can see the Infoshop Alternative Directory right now at:
 http://www.infoshop.org/inews/links.php

## New Content ##

This includes special features and e-books. Current examples include the
"Love and Treason" section and the online edition of "Seizing the
Airwaves."

The only current project in this section is a digital edition of David
Watson's book, "Against the Megamachine."

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HOW TO HELP!

First, some important, helpful pages:

Infoshop FAQ:
 http://www.infoshop.org/faq.html

Volunteer:
 http://www.infoshop.org/volunteer.html

We can also use the following volunteer help:

* Help answering queries sent to Infoshop.org. See Infoshop-help list info
below.
* Writers and columnists: We are always looking for more writers and
columnists. We can't pay anything, but anything you write for us will be
read by thousands of people. This is not an open invitation to people who
can type rants, but who are sloppy writers. If you can't capitalize the
beginning letter of a sentence and can't be bothered to use a spell
checker, please reserve your precious gems for Instant Messenger.
* Graphics: We're always looking for graphics and volunteer artists
* Programming: Can anybody tell Chuck0 an easy way to get data out of an
MySQL database?

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INFOSHOP.ORG TRANSLATION AND HELP E-MAIL LISTS

The following lists are for Infoshop volunteers:

infoshop-ca :: Infoshop.org spanish
 http://flag.blackened.net/mailman/listinfo/infoshop-ca

infoshop-de :: infoshop.org auf Deutch
 http://flag.blackened.net/mailman/listinfo/infoshop-de

Infoshop-fr :: Infoshop.org in French
 http://flag.blackened.net/mailman/listinfo/infoshop-fr

infoshop-it :: infoshop.org in italiano
 http://flag.blackened.net/mailman/listinfo/infoshop-it

infoshop-pt :: Infoshop.org portuguese
 http://flag.blackened.net/mailman/listinfo/infoshop-pt

Infoshop.org Virtual Reference Desk
If you'd like to join a list to help answer Infoshop queries, please send
an email to  chuck@tao.ca

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PROMOTE INFOSHOP.ORG

We appreciate the grassroots efforts by folks to publicize the existence
of this website, including whoever spraypainted the URL on the sidewalks
of Ontario. You guys make it possible for the Graffiti Abatement Squad
workers to keep drawing paychecks.

First of all, we'd like to ask people to help us publicize the existence
of the American Gulag news site ( http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/). That
service has so much potential.

Secondly, we need help getting word out about this website to average
working people. We have a page with ideas and materials that can help with
this at:  http://www.infoshop.org/outreach.html

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DONATE TO INFOSHOP

Unlike many big progressive political websites, Infoshop.org does not
receive any money from foundations or grants. While our financial needs
are modest, anything you can contribute will help this project thrive.

Donate via PayPal

 https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?return=http%3A//www.infoshop.org/&item_name=Infoshop.org+donation&submit.x=33&submit.y=7&business=chuck%40tao.ca&item_number=1&cmd=_xclick

Donate via snail mail:

Chuck Munson (make check payable to this name)
Practical Anarchy
PO Box 76930
Washington, DC 20013

MANY THANKS go out to those of you who have generously supported this
project with your donations and words of support.

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Contact the Infoshop.org webmaster at:  chuck@tao.ca

Anti-copyright 2002
Infoshop.org

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