Anyone can contribute articles or media on this site by clicking the “contribute” button in the sidebar or the main navigation bar.
A valid email address is required. We will only block content which violates our mission statement or code of conduct. Questions? Let us know on Twitter!
This website is created and maintained by members of the Occupy Oakland Media Collective. All content is provided by the community. Authors work do not necessarily reflect the views or decisions of “Occupy Oakland”, nor can it, as the Occupy Wall Street movement does not have leaders or spokespeople.
OOMedia Collective Mission Statement
“We seek to provide an open and accessible space for people to contribute writing and other media supporting social justice, Oakland and the Occupy Wall Street movement.”
As of March 1, 2012, the former Occupy Oakland Media Committee reconstituted itself as the Occupy Oakland Media Collective. The collective is an autonomous group made up of autonomous individuals whose goal it is to create media about social justice actions, Oakland and Occupy Wall Street, including Occupy Oakland.
We are the owners and stewards of all media platforms maintained under the Occupy Oakland Media Collective name, including hellaoccupyoakland.org, Occupy Oakland Media Facebook page, and OO Media Twitter account. We will continue to provide an open and accessible space for people to contribute writing and other media related to social justice, Oakland and Occupy Wall Street. Our goal is to provide accessibility and visibility to everyone who supports social justice work in Oakland and the Occupy Wall Street movement.
We do not consider it our duty to provide content for corporate media by holding press conferences and issuing press releases; however, we will do our best to cover press events which contribute to social justice.
Occupy Wall Street does not negotiate with politicians because we do not have to prove we are a legitimate political movement; the government has to prove that they are a legitimate government. Similarly, Occupy Oakland and Occupy Wall Street media does not have to prove that we are a legitimate source of information, corporate media does. We feel that the primary purpose of Occupy Oakland Media should be to document social justice actions of all movement organizations, including Occupy Oakland. We produce our own content, tell our own stories, and give oppressed and marginalized people the tools we all need to express ourselves.
We reject all calls for media centralization. The concept of “staying on message” does not and should not apply to horizontal organizations like Occupy Wall Street. We see this as an obvious attempt to control speech. Everyone should be able to speak and be heard. For that reason, we will continue to provide hellaoccupyoakland.org as a public service and a platform for personal expression and public discussion.
We reject all forms of censorship. We reject the idea that any group of people, including a General Assembly, can limit the speech of any individual or group. We reject any attempt to control individual voices by collective decision.
We do not trust demands for self-censorship, especially when they are thinly disguised as calls for solidarity. We believe transparency is the only viable defense against hierarchy, domination, power, control, and censorship, all of which characterize corporate media and the State.
We are committed to empowering the community through workshops and skillshares wherein we will teach and share the tools for producing media.
OOMedia Collective Guidelines
In order to move forward with our goal of providing this open publishing format while giving ourselves space to work in which we remain free from the use of abusive and disruptive language and tactics, we have adopted the following guidelines and code of conduct. Our intention is to offer these ideas to the larger community, to be improved upon and adopted by all.
There are two tracks to joining the OOMedia Collective: contributor and member.
Contributor
Anyone can contribute media by going to hellaoccupyoakland.org clicking the “contribute”tab or button. A valid email address is required. We will only block content which violates our mission statement or code of conduct.
Collective Member
To participate as a member of the OOMedia Collective, one must
- be vetted: New members will first request membership by filling out a basic informational form including address and phone number, and connecting with current members via social media.
- embrace a policy of full disclosure
- agree that there will be no censorship (no editorial board)
- agree to uphold a high standard of personal accountability
- exhibit emotional, psychological, spiritual, sexual, verbal, intellectual, ideological and physical respect to other members (nonviolent communication: for an introduction to NVC, see basic steps here and here, or check out the Bay Area Nonviolence Communication network)
- contribute constructive, respectful critique of content balanced with praise
- attend meetings of the collective
- successfully participate for the duration of four weeks in probationary status
- contribute to production of at least two projects per month
- engage with the collective and the public in accordance with our Code of Conduct
- be willing to engage in a restorative justice process for resolving disputes
If a person is having trouble adhering to these points, collective members agree to help that person succeed. If a member or prospective member has trouble communicating with the group, another member will lead that person to access nonviolent communication training. If any member, probationary or prospective member, or contributor refuses to adhere to our code of conduct or mission statement, that person will not be allowed to join/ remain in the collective.
New members must be approved by every current member, ie by consensus. One member has the power to restrict membership.
Responsibilities and Access
Only members will have access to private member discussions or a say in the consensus process for the collective, including the power to approve or block the invitation to membership. New members will begin to have these powers plus administrative access to our online social media after the probationary period is successfully ended.
All members will follow the agreed upon code of conduct, and work toward fulfilling our mission statement.
All members must contribute to some publication an average of at least twice monthly.
Occupy Oakland Media Code of Conduct
Due to decades of poor social training, living in situations of considerable strife, and our personal and social differences, we occupants have been experiencing regular instances of verbal abuse and are often being exposed to behavior which threatens us as individuals and as a group, and also degrades us as a people.
To address these issues in our attempts to treat each other well and present the world with a beautiful model of social interaction, we propose this code of conduct.
We as a people agree to use positive language in our efforts to communicate with one another and the world, even and especially when we disagree.
We will refrain from personal verbal assaults, including the use of name calling or threats, taking responsibility for our knowledge and understanding of age old problems such as discrimination. We will continue to educate ourselves regarding all aspects of these issues in our efforts to retrain ourselves to speak and act with respect and honor for each person’s ethnic, racial, and every other identifying characteristic.
We each will take personal responsibility to assume that a verbal attack on us may be being made out of ignorance rather than malice, which will guide us to grant each person the possibility of retracting offensive comments and behavior.
We will take a moment to breathe before responding to inflammatory comments directed toward us, or uttered in our presence.
Occupy Oakland Media Collective Members:
wiseoldsnail
Samsarah
DR
Anthony
Shake
Wendy Kenin
Kevin
Benjamin
Cami
We welcome new and returning contributors, and thank you for your continuing support.
Occupy DeColonize Everything!
The content of this website is curated from the Occupy Oakland supporters and the Oakland community, and licensed under Creative Commons. If you find copyrighted, illegal, or inappropriate content, please let us know using the contact form below.
Occupy Oakland Media by Occupy Oakland Media is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at hellaoccupyoakland.org.
