Terman Library in the Terman Community Center, 661 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA
We began at 7:40 with Harry Saal talking about the meeting he attended in Japan on community internet access. It was held in the southernmost island in the small town of Oita, in Oita Prefecture. The community network system is called COARA. It began about 4 years ago with a group of rural and small town people who wanted to communicate with each other using dumb terminals and a BBS. It was encouraged and supported by the Prefecture government. They use Japanese to converse, and now have Internet access, upgraded equipment, home pages, have no problem communicating internationally, and have no concerns about being non-professional and not having artistic home pages. They are more interested in the type and depth of interaction rather than looking good. Orientation of communication is very human, down-home. Access is provided by the Prefecture, but full Internet access has a charge. There are hundreds of users who are very proud of the entire operation. Women are a majority of participants. Most were young professionals, with not many seniors. They are interested in exchanging messages with us, but are a little shy about their English ability. There are people who can translate and use English but they are not as comfortable using it on the Internet. Funding for the system was begun at a low level with a few people who acted as spark plugs. Government provided the communications backbone with 6 free dialin points and a server. Next step for the community is becoming involved in World Expo which is a cyberspace worlds fair to create a lasting effect by producing a continuing Internet presence with some structure and linkage. It's being supported by large companies. Biggest present Internet problem is linkage between countries. As a result of World Expo there will be a 45mbps worldwide link which will remain and provide much better international access in the future.
They have less information than the Palo Alto home page, and no real connection with local business. There are cultural differences in Japan, but often they are overstated by the Japanese. The technology can bring various groups together to learn from each other. We can look into creating on-line sister cities and sister schools. Harry and Paul will take the lead in creating an electronic relationship with COARA.
Estimates of gender usage by surveys range from 60 to 75 % male, less than 2% housewives, which seems to understate female participation. It's likely that many more women use the net than are reported.
Elliot spoke of working with seniors or a neighborhood in Palo Alto to do a pilot on-line interaction in areas of mutual benefit and concern. It's hard to get to the entire group of seniors since they are more fractured in different organizations. He is looking at working with either Barron Park or Midtown, meet with the organization, and ask them to get information on who has computers and Internet access, pass out questionnaires possibly funded by local merchants, then look at results. He will take the results and use them to help set up people to instruct users on how to get on and use the Internet, and work with those who already have access to improve interactions. Midtown may be a useful area because of the special study that will begin this year. There will be a meeting Jan. 8, 2 PM at the downtown library to flesh out goals, budget, and procedures. MPAC can serve as a non-profit recipient for donations to create a neighborhood network. University South neighborhood will be involved with the study for reuse of the PAMF site. They have lots of knowledgeable people who can interact on-line and create a computerized meeting place. They also may be a good test area. If 1 neighborhood does something interesting others will want to pick up on the idea and perhaps expand it.
Keith reported on the latest status of the consultant report on telecommunications. He posted a summary last nite with a model for leased access and a preliminary financial study. There were several financial models with break-even from 3 to 20 years. Technical features of the system seem practical using ATM. The report didn't articulate community benefits, just economic issues. They recommend doing Phase 4 with more detailed evaluation of system features, possible partners, and approaches. It will go to the Utility Commission Jan.10. The financial projections don't take into account the ability to finance from existing utility surplus. Bob, Jay and Keith will put together a position on community benefits and circulate it to PACOMNET for comments and enhancements. It was agreed that the community benefits should be considered in addition to financial issues. We will try to generate a 5 or 6 sentence summary statement on community benefits.
The City Council divided the Governance Section of the draft Plan and sent the communications part to Policy & Procedures for hearings possibly in late January. The government part hasn't been scheduled or discussed yet.
Jay summarized status of the Telecommunications Bill. There's a rally in S.F. Thursday to complain about the proposed bill. Its slanted more towards the big players, not true competition. The bill actually is anti-competitive and will allow media concentration. There's a big push by the religious right to limit "pornography" on the Internet. It probably will cause some systems to close rather than try to police what goes on. It's best not to leave it to the Supreme Court to overturn the law. We should make every effort to oppose censorship like this.
Next PACOMNET meeting will be Wed. Jan 10, 7:30 AM at Terman Library.
Adjourned at 8:45 AM. Respectfully, Bob Moss