s|a|m on Mon, 17 Feb 2003 05:07:01 +0100 (CET) |
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[Nettime-bold] mySpinach - Independent Server Report (Feb 02) |
mySPINACH REPORT – FEB 2003 (by Sam de Silva) ------------------------------------------------------------------- mySpinach is an Australian-based independent server providing net services to a difficult-to-categorise bunch of people who are somehow involved with working towards challenging, discussing and celebrating the worlds around them. The server was established in late 2000 and is hosted on the VA network. Unlike some of the other net servers (such as cat.org.au and octapod.org), mySpinach is not run by a collective, but is currently managed primarily by a couple of volunteers. I am its coordinator and its technical side is professionally serviced by Iain Pople of brunny.com. Having said that, mySpinach does provide facilities to a like-minded community of people and is guided by peer feedback, especially from members of the SpaceStation Media Lab (www.spacestation.org.au). The mySpinach server lives on the Virtual Artists (va.com.au) network. We have a commercial relationship with VA where we are effectively charged a little bit more than what it costs VA to provide us internet connectivity. During the past 2 years, mySpinach has grown to host some diverse content. Some of the virtual websites that call the server home includes the Coober Pedy Community Radio (www.dustyradio.org), net theory and research group Fibreculture (www.fibreculture.org), the environmentally aware dance party group (www.tranceplant.org), an independent newspaper (thepaper.org.au) the living archive of public trouble-making and street creativity (www.cleansurface.org), an exploration of community media in the Asia-Pacific (www.smallvoices.org) and a space for websites of Aboriginal & Islander people and their friends (www.kooriweb.org). And it hosts some activist campaign projects such as the Woomera protest (www.woomera2002.antimedia.net). More sites are indexed at www.myspinach.org There are over 40 virtual domains (full websites) on mySpinach and many of those domains sub-host smaller sites. According to Webalizer log file analysis, on a monthly basis, mySpinach web content is accessed by over 76,000 visitors, generating more than 1.2 million hits, and the lists provide regular discussion and announcements to over 700 active users. The mySpinach server also provides email addresses for users – and currently there's over 50 individuals and groups making use of email and webmail. The server is performing under capacity. It could easily host about 3 to 4 times as much as it currently does. Though the mySpinach server was originally established to provide spaces for projects that may have difficulty finding a home, the most significant threat at the moment is not the possibility of content censorship, but rather the financial cost of bandwidth. Unfortunately in Australia, bandwidth is not cheap. The mySpinach server is in a catch-22. The more content it hosts and the popular it gets, the higher the bandwidth costs involved. Virtual Artists provides us with one of the best deals in Australia – so its not really possible to shop around in the domestic market. Therefore, one of the solutions to our problem is to relocate our server to the US, where bandwidth costs are significantly less. But mySpinach is not interested in this 'sweatshop' strategy. Rather, I feel that it is important to host the content in Australia – not for any nationalistic reason – but rather because it is important to create spaces where we live where we can afford to host high-demand content. Virtual Artists is not a large corporation – and mySpinach would rather be connected with a friendly business here in Australia than an anonymous and indiscriminate server farm in the US. The strategy that I am interested in exploring to fund the mySpinach server is a combination of a voluntary user-pays system and a careful sponsorship plan. The volunteer user-pays system has been adopted by some of the users and around 30% of the current mySpinach costs are being covered through that process. Much of the content on the server is from groups and collectives who operate on zero-budgets, and will not be able to make a financial contribution. So far, a subsidization strategy has been in place. I have been fortunate enough to have obtained a couple of grants from Cinemedia for an electronic art project – and effectively, the component of the grant allocated to me is being used to fund mySpinach. But this grant has now come to an end – and during 2003, the user-pays system and the sponsorship plan needs to be implemented in a more complete way. Sponsorship is the other strategy that we will explore during 2003. There is content mySpinach hosts that attracts specific audiences. For example, some of the art and culture content attracts a large audience interested in graffiti and street art. There are many organisations that would like to expose their messages to this kind of audience. Of course, I am not talking about corporations such as Coke and Nike (who would probably love to be connected with mySpinach) – but rather creative design faculties and government funding bodies may be interested in sponsoring content that engages with audience. There are many other examples of sponsorship plans – but I am very aware that we need to proceed with caution. If external sponsors ever influence the content on mySpinach, then that is when the mySpinach project dies. Finally, it is important to stress that mySpinach is not a provider of services to the general public. Rather, it only wants to work with particular types of network groups and individuals. Like any machine, like any community, it needs looking after and mySpinach is operated on a professional level whilst maintaining its independence. How long mySpinach lasts will depending on the sustainable strategies it is beginning to implement. Let's see what happens! Comments, feedback and advice always appreciated :) _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold