There have been several reality checking events this year in which independent media producers have got together to assess their efforts to build support networks aimed at nurturing autonomous media production – improving visibility, accessibility, knowledge sharing and participation – as commercial players make ever deeper inroads into the participatory power of the net. In Part 1 of Mute's double review, Emily Munro reports on the Mag.net (Magazine Network of Electronic Cultural Publishers) meeting which took place at Glasgow's CCA this April as part of the Work of Media Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction symposium organised by Street Level Photoworks.