Terman Library in the Terman Community Center, 661 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA
The Community Network began on Earth day 1990 with a City sponsored Task Force to look at a data community network. DCN began its partnership with University of California at Davis (UCD) who signed a $500,000 research contract with Caltrans. The contract called for the development of a community-wide network which would test a variety of network technologies. DCN's role was to attract community volunteers who would take on the tasks of developing content, offering training and support, do marketing, etc. UCD was to look at how networking and telecommuting could impact traffic and congestion. There were people on the Task Force who pushed for the effort. The City was not a major player nor did it have a strong interest at first. The contract helped to provide equipment, technical support, lab space, and staffing support to the non-profit to build a state-of-the-art test bed. The technical aspects are complex and include ISDN and other types of net connections. When they began there were no Internet access providers, so the DCN provided it. Fees for access provide income, but they are looking to get out of that area and into content development, establishing information kiosks, and being a community resource. The look and services of the network are rather homespun because it's run mostly by volunteers and a few paid staff members to operate and maintain three servers for Internet access and news groups.
Users understand this and are co-operative. They have 1000 members who pay $15/month. The projection was 15,000, but they overestimated the interest of people in Internet access.
Davis has population of 50,000 including 25,000 students at UC Davis who get free Internet access and thus are not potential customers.
A splinter group was set up independently because it was thought that the DCN couldn't serve commercial organizations. This split the market. The Network has been very good at working with government agencies and interest groups and getting support.
DCN provides some service to the business community, for example, including a pointer to Davis Virtual Market in DCN Home Page. DCN also provides Davis Election Information on its Web site.
DCN is viewed as both Internet Service Provider and as a Community Network. They are a non-profit organization awaiting formal IRS status as 501(c)3. There is a 17-member appointed Board which expects to transition to a membership organization which then will elect Board members.
There are 7 committees including training, public policy, strategic planning, outreach, marketing, information provider, etc. While volunteers handle the bulk of the committee work (including content recruitment, web development, training, marketing, and technical, financial and strategic planning) DCN employs several individuals who handle the day to day operations; a full time system administrator, a full time technical support provider, a half time operations manager, a half time customer service representative and a quarter time manager (for lack of a better title). DCN also out-sources billing and collections.
The content committee works with proposals that come from various non-profits and organizations, evaluates them and helps develop content and how it is provided. For example, they created a web site for the Council election with information on candidates, forums, cablecast schedule, financial reports, photos of candidates, etc.
They have three servers donated by Sun, and have credibility with the University support. They provide 400 free accounts to City employees which greatly helps the city and community to operate together. The City and DCN depend on and work with each other.
They also advise organizations on how best to use the Internet without duplication or poor use of resources. Various government agencies are investing independently in communications and access. The County School Board was setting up a network which would compete with a local school network. The Davis Community Network argued that it is more efficient to get all bodies to plan and work together so that they can cut costs and be more compatible with each other.
Council members and the City Manager are very interested in supporting and preserving the Network. They offer funding and other assistance whenever possible.
DCN focuses on training, providing kiosk access to the Internet, adding local content and trying to co-ordinate efforts to increase efficiency. There are 2 kiosks which have been up for 6 months and 5 more are being set up. There are many issues in having kiosks, including security, maintenance, hours of operation, support, limiting access to approved users, preventing damage to the system by hacking, etc. Two were set up in computer stores which has advantages in that there was support there and it was available during business hours. It's preferred that they be in places like teen centers, senior centers, city hall, libraries, laundromats, etc. not just places where computer people will be anyway.
The major new attraction for DCN is the election, which seems to be drawing lots of interest and new users.
People aren't going to just log on and use the Internet because it's there. The critical mass of users isn't there yet but it will be. There are many news groups set up by DCN, and new ones can be set up as requested. They would love to bundle community communication services by setting up accounts for the organization and members, a web site, production of PSAs, get a crew of volunteers, and in general provide tools to set up Web sites and explore issues in a variety of ways. For example, a cable news show on the election, a candidate forum, followed by on-line discussions and questions and answers. The goal is to get technology to be transparent or at least not intimidating and have people use it. They are carried on the cable system which she estimated has 40% penetration. She thought that about 30% of households in Davis have computers but less than 15% had modems. They considered having special deals on modems to encourage people to get access. How much emphasis to give to modems depends largely on who else is providing access and what type. TCI in Davis isn't a player for access yet, but PacBell is pushing ISDN. They heard that some areas are getting Internet access via cable providers which offers advantages but means standard modems won't work. High speed access to the Internet should increase the number of users.
They don't plan to be an ISP long term, but want to work closely with the City. The City really depends on them and needs the network for support. Community Net want ISPs to be required to set aside access for community organizations and non-profits. The City still is considering this policy. A number of small contracts with University of California at Davis helped develop and fund activities.
They began offering ISP service in Dec. 1993 with about 500 users. At that time there were few ISPs, and DCN was the only reasonably priced way to get on the Internet. After commercial ISPs became widely and cheaply available in the latter part of 1994 it became unnecessary for DCN to act as a primary ISP.
The group thanked Kari for her excellent and interesting talk.
Eventually such as partnership could have the City finance and build the fiber trunk, Cable Co-op would provide local access and local and regional programming, data services, high speed Internet access, and special communications services. The Private Cable Operator (PCO) would provide video programming, premium services, PPV, movies on demand, etc. and also would maintain the system and provide customer service, unless the City and community preferred that Cable Co-op do so. The exact structure of such a partnership is not fully developed and is subject to modification and revision. It is anticipated that under such a partnership all 3 organizations would operate at a profit. The PCO may or may not be TCI. It's not clear if a PCO would object to using city-owned fiber trunks rather than provide their own.
In order for the partnership to succeed the City must decide to move forward rather quickly. An affirmative decision by early August probably is needed to allow the fiber trunk to be built and operating before others attempt to put separate fiber systems in place.
It was suggested that Keith attend and speak at the City Council meeting of Feb. 26 where the recommendation of the Utility Advisory Committee to go forward with Phases 4 and 5 of the study, and to consider active partnering with other organizations will be taken up. Keith would reiterate the positions taken by PA-Comnet before the UAC, as adopted at prior PA-Comnet meetings. It would be useful to emphasize the social and community benefit aspects of such an Information Utility, not just financial issues for such a utility.
The meeting adjourned at 8:50 AM.
Next meeting is Wednesday March 6, Terman Library, 7:30 AM.
Submitted by Bob Moss.