Terman Library in the Terman Community Center, 661 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA
The draft letter to the City was reviewed. The question of who should sign it was discussed. The consensus was for all those present who wish to sign to do so. The content of the letter was noted in general terms. The drafts had been posted on PA-Comnet.
The question of PA-Comnet organization, and how we review and approve documents was raised. It was noted that the drafts were posted on PA-Comnet, and everyone was equally able to read them and submit comments and suggestions. It was agreed some time ago that the organization would be loosely structured, and not have officers.
Dianah Neff spoke on the transition at City Hall after she leaves later this month. Bernie Strojny will take over the Internet function. A consultant contract with Persimmon will be signed next week for evaluation of the City's communication operations. Ellie Chan is retiring at the end of May, so there will be a transition period in her area too. Until then we can give her our minutes for posting to the Home Page. Bernie will be the main contact. The proposal to form a communications utility was approved as a study by the Utilities Advisory Commission. The budget has not been approved for the study yet, but is in the process of being reviewed and approved. Due to a heavy schedule, the Council can't have a communications study session until June or July. Other phone companies are interested only in serving businesses, not universal access to homes. There is funding for T1 access and Unix support for the City to continue its Web Home Page. New projects are not in the budget yet. They would have to be funded later by budget amendment since the next budget is too far along to include them now. Work continues on the City Wide-Area Network, security, and tying in libraries. Mary Jo Levy is working with the library access.
Some items on the PA Home Page are out of date. Certain parts of the Home Pages are on the DEC server, and are inaccessible to the City for changes. Additional information and more current information will be posted in the future. Funding for improving the Home Page exists, and will be used to add features such as the Enjoy catalog, current events, activities, etc.
Persimmon will work to make the home pages work together and look consistent. They are certified DEC consultants and value added resellers. The Finance Committee meeting on April 18 will focus on funding, not on comprehensive evaluation of the issues. It still would be useful for PA-Comnet people to attend, and to lend support to continued City funding of the Internet project.
It was noted that the draft Comprehensive Plan section on Governance has not been reviewed and discussed yet. It includes sections on communications and public involvement, which we would be interested in reading and commenting on. If possible, that section should be posted for electronic review and comment. Several other cities, such as Blacksburg, VA, have posted such documents on line.
Netscape is comming out with a web server for community groups, which can be set up for organizations such as ours. We might be able to get one setup free as a demo. It is Internet-based, and uses Unix. Netscape is an advanced service, but the Mac and PC versions are different, and not always compatible. It is important to be sure that the systems will talk to each other correctly.
We should set up a special interest group on conferencing systems. It can be done on-line with reports at monthly meetings, but it would be better to have a more formal group, so that they can give tutorials on systems, features, status, etc. Marilyn Davis has offered a copy of Participate, a conferencing and voting software package, to PA-Comnet.
The question of forming a non-profit organization was discussed. There are serious problems establishing such an entity, and it takes significant time and effort to maintain. A better approach is to have contributions made for PA-Comnet operations via an existing tax-exempt non-profit, which would pass on the money, but be responsible for the record keeping and reporting. (Liza Loop has such a non-profit, and has already received contributions of some IBM computers to be used for PA-Comnet, if necessary).
It isn't necessary to have a large server for a local PA-Comnet node. Reference was made to the article in last Friday's Mercury News about Yahoo, which runs on a 486 with 30 Meg of HD capacity, and gets two million inquiries/day. They just moved to Netscape, and can be accessed via http://www.yahoo.com
Loop Center is available with three modems for people who want free lessons on using the Internet. How do we get information out to those not part of the group on what classes and training are available? Also how do we interact with non-networked people in general?
The next meeting will be 7:30 AM, Wednesday, May 10. The May 3 date conflicts with the Apple conference May 3-5, plus several people will be unavailable that day.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45 AM.
Submitted by Bob Moss