Out in the open: Indymedia networks in Australia

Indymedia is a global open publishing project that has redefined what we might understand as ‘media’. Based upon the premise of openness the alternative media network has employed many novel features. It has attempted to practice participatory democracy to enable users to create, distribute and filter their own news. Analysis of this network enables the exploration of the complexity of such a project and the way in which the activists involved have dealt with its challenges. Indymedia has been highly successful in generating online participation and in creating a global identity. However, participants have had to modify the openness of the network to retain its workability, both in the scale at which it operates, and by imposing certain structures on the decision-making processes and daily website functions.