The Internet

WSM policy on using the internet including the editing of this website. Last updated Spring 2009

The Internet

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1. Use of the internet has grown at a phenomenal pace over the past number of years. As a tool for communication, propaganda, information sharing and decision making it presents us with huge opportunities.

2. While determined to exploit the full potential of the internet, we recognise that its development has been uneven. Even in the Western economies, there is a social imbalance in regard to those who do and do not have access to the net. Nevertheless the Internet is - and will continue to develop as - a very important tool.

3. Inside the WSM

Use of the Internet will be developed in a number of ways as an internal organisational tool.

a) Communication/Information sharing:-

(i) All members will be given an account on the WSM web site so that they can view and contribute to internal discussion on the web site.

(ii) The internet should not be used for confidential communication unless encrypted.

(iii) It must be remembered that even where people have access to internet , this does not imply immediate access. Where a communication requires an urgent response, it should also be made by phone where possible.

(iv) All WSM sub-groups will maintain an Organisation thread(s) on the WSM site for their working group through which all members can make suggestions and follow the progress of that group.

4. The Internet as a Propaganda/Education Tool

Work will continue on developing the WSM website and related sites. This work will be co-ordinated by the Internet Working Group. This group will also will train interested members in developing internet related skills

5. Using the Internet for Decision making

The Internet Working Group will look into the technical aspects on creating a mechanism for online referendums on the internal web site. Once this is available it will submit a motion to conference to define how this can be used.

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6. The technical development of the WSM site will be carried out by an Internet administration group. National Conference can decide to subsidise the broadband connection of members of the Internet Admin group

7. This group will be elected from National conference. In order to run for election a WSM member must have regular access to broadband. At its first meeting and at least every 6 months thereafter this group will delegate one of its members as secretary to have responsibility to prepare reports for DC and conference and ensure all queries are answered within one week.

8. Editorial actions on the public section of the WSM site will be carried out by the Internet Editorial group. This group will be comprised of one delegate from each of the branches able to contribute a delegate.

9. Editorial delegates must have broadband access and the ability to check the WSM site for actions that need to be taken at least four days of an average week. Branches can decide to subsidies the broadband connection of their delegate to the Internet Editorial group.

10. The branch delegates will have a monthly online meeting via Skype conference call to review the previous month and plan for the next.

11. The online version of official WSM publications will continue to be published by a nominated delegate of the editorial group for that publication.

12. The internet editorial group will also be responsible for improving content on the WSM public site: creating and maintaining static pages, transferring old content from the struggle site, and otherwise improving the look and usability of the public site.

Publication of personal articles on WSM site

13. Any member may submit a 'personal opinion' article for publication to the WSM public site by following the procedure below.

14. Articles are submitted by using the 'publish to public site' button on the front page of the public site. This will put the article on the public site but in a hidden form.

15. Articles must be submitted suitable for publication. That is they must proofread to remove spelling and grammatical errors. A title and summary must be provided. Articles that are not submitted in this format may not be unhidden until they have been fixed up by the author or someone they find to carry out this work.

16. The 'organisation' field must include the members branch and the tag 'personal capacity', the name field must include the members name or a recognised pseudonym for that member.

17. Articles may not contain personal attacks on named individuals on the left, nor may the expose the organization to libel action.

18. At least 50% of the content of the article must be unique and written by a WSM member (ie no 'cut and pastes' from other sources).

19. Articles may not contradict the agreed policy of the WSM.

Unhiding procedure

20. Any member of the editorial team may unhide an article that meets the above requirements. They should not unhide articles they have written.

21. Suitable news articles should be unhidden at the first opportunity, ie the first act of an editorial team member of logging in should be to unhide any suitable news articles. The only exception to this is where the article has not already been published on indymedia in which case the editorial member can choose to first publish it there and then tag the article to be published 24 hours later.

22. If any member thinks an articles breaks one or more of the conditions above they can post a comment objecting to its publication. If three or more such comments are posted the article must be hidden and the internet Editorial group must vote on its suitability by posting hidden comments under the article before it is unhidden once and if a majority of potential votes has been reached.

23. Articles from groups and individuals outside the WSM will not normally be republished on the WSM public site. Exceptions to this are
a. Events submitted to the event calendar which WSM members will be taking part in.
b. Summaries of articles and a link to them posted to the 'Items our members found interesting' section of the public site.
c. Articles that a majority of internet editorial delegates have voted as to be of sufficent interest to reprint on our public site with an introduction written by a WSM member.

24. Featurization process
i. When selecting articles to feature the editorial group will prioritise those that have gone through a collective editing process.
ii. No member of the editorial group can feature an article they have written.
iii. When each new publication appears the editorial group will 'meet' and identify articles from it that are suitable for featuring.
iv. As far as possible news features will not be one single personal opinion pieces but articles that will link to multiple such pieces along with relevant position papers, collectively edited articles etc.
v. Any member of the organisation can propose an article be featured by posting that proposal as a comment to a piece. If two members of the editorial group post that they consider it meets the criteron above it can be featured. Editorial group members cannot vote on individual opinion pieces that they are the author of.

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Last updated by National Conference Spring 2009