Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Mobile Indymedia and Indymedia on your mobile

IMC hits the streets



Often, for really big mobilisations, the collectives that make up the Indymedia Network pull together to set up an Independent Media Centre near the location of the main activities for the duration of the event. Such IMC access points not only provide people with a place to upload their reports and photos but often also provide facilities such as webcasting and video and audio editing facilities.

These physical IMCs are the roots of the indymedia phenomena. They actively encourage and facilitate people to tell their own stories and 'be the media'. Some examples in the UK include : the IMC set up for the 2003 DSEi arms fare and the IMCs set up in Scotland for the 2005 G8.

However, setting up these phyical centres takes a lot of work and money - hiring a building, arranging bandwidth, as well as locating, transporting and installing the required hardware. As an alternative, some people have developed mobile IMCs which fulfill similar roles without the need for expensive venues and therefore making it more practical to provide indymedia facilities at a much wide range of events than with the traditional IMC.

Mobile IMC's are street level grassroots media access points. Like the conventional IMC, they enable ordinary people to submit their own view of events along with any photos, video or audio clips they have prepared. The mobile IMC can also (assuming a decent wireless internet connection is available) provide internet radio streaming direct from where the action is, and if equipped with a webcam they can also provide a live video feed.

Most importantly perhaps, the presence of a mobile IMC acts as a powerful outreach tool to visually promote the open publishing concept - encouraging people to share their views and get involved in producing their own media. Opportunities are created for people to produce media even if they don't usually have convenient access to the internet at home and have not previously heard of, or contributed to, Indymedia.

Current mobile IMCs under development

The tr(((i)))cycle is a concept project, am internet enabled three wheeled bike that carries a bunch of 12 volt powered laptops for people to write reports on or upload photos. It also carries a mini radio studio for doing live webcasts. It was intended to be ready to take to Scotland for the G8 but there was no transport to get it there so the project stalled.

The (((i)))trike project spawned the (((i)))Box concept, which is a mini Independent Media Centre in a box (and therefore fewer transport issues). It's basically a mirror of the entire indymedia site on a small wifi enabled computer that can run on 12 volts if need be. Using a mail2newswire gateway it can do time delayed publishing if no internet connection is available for real time use.

Indymedia from your pocket



A logical step down in size is made possible by advancing technology. With ever more clever gadgets hitting the market all the time, grassroots media now has the potential to break out beyond the traditional confines of the internet via mobile phones, PDAs and other expensive toys. Wireless and GPRS have moved the digital revolution into the street and created new ways to contribute and share stories be it text, audio, photos or video.

Indymedia isn't exactly quick to implement the latest advancements but there is some progress. Australia was quick off the block with an automated voice to newswire service called PIMP. Indymedia UK has preferred to use a manual system, basically a set of phone numbers which put you in touch with indymedia dispatch volunteers during some large mobilisations but nothing is yet in place on a day to day basis.

A few Indymedia sites provide gateways that allow people on the streets to post their photos, audio or videos direct to the newswire from their mobile phones for really up-to-the-minute reports. Such instantaneous system bring new opportunities and new problems to Indymedia but with text and media messaging clearly playing an increasingly important role in the way we communicate, Indymedia can't afford to ignore the trend.

A couple of time during the last year or two, Indymedia UK has publicly utilized a dedicated email to newswire gateway which allows most mobile phone users to contribute text, images, video or audio recordings direct to the newswire but although the software appeared to work, there was not the collective will to fully implement it as a 24/7 facility. That however has now changed and MMS messages and emails can be sent direct to the newswire using the address publish[at]indymedia.org.uk

Browsing indymedia on a mobile device is a painful experience since the three column layout is extremely content heavy. To solve this problem an experimental web proxy has been developed for indymedia which strips the bloated pages down to a more manageable size and adds navigation specific to mobile users. Not only does it provide access to IMC UK and the regions but it also provides access to Indymedia Bristol, Scotland, Ireland, the Global site and more. Try is out at mobile.indymedia.org.uk now.


More info on imobile at http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/MobileIndymedia

mobile IMC, 31.05.2005 15:14

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech