VANCOUVER REGIONAL FREENET ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES OF MEETINGS APRIL 12, 1994 Vancouver Public Library Present: Phil Lyons, Eric Yung, Brian Campbell, Jacqueline Van Dyk, Steven Chan, Guy Thomas, Boodie Arnott, Susan Pendakur Ann Doyle, Sharon Zaluski Absent: Tom Hansen, Mike Hrybyk, Fritz Radandt, Margaret Coates Mike dropped by to pick up 2 Cardinal modems to test on the Freenet system but left before the meeting due to illness. Phil Lyons left early. Meeting was called to order at 7:20pm 1.0 Agenda * Additions of BC Freenet to Other Business, and registration report/ operations recommendation from Steven under Membership. Motion: (Phil/Eric) To accept the agenda with the above noted changes. PASSED. 2.0 Minutes of March 29 * Guy noted that there was one change under Community Content: Change: "Human Resource Development and EDnet want to come to Freenet." to: "Human Resource Development wants to do the same thing they're doing on edNET on Freenet, there are two apps they want to move over, how do we do this?" Motion: (Guy/Ann) To accept the minutes of March 29th. PASSED. 3.0 Communications * Brian: concerned about Freenet communications (or lack thereof). * Eric: new Board mailing list (board@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca) and asked all Board members tell him what addresses to use for the mailing list. * Susan asked if her spool files can be moved over from poplar. * forward requests for voice communications to Audrey at Freenet voicemail. 4.0 Six Week Timeline * modems from Cardinal have arrived at VPL and Mike has taken 2 for testing. Roundtable: a timeline was drafted from the Board members' input on what needs to be done for public launch. The timeline is a separate document, and only tentative time periods and issues are included in the here. * Susan: - working on new members/new accounts - working on procedures for processing new members/accounts - in future, gather volunteers and train. * Guy noted that 30-40 accounts for IPs will be needed. - tentatively, entered 34 accounts in an hour. - suggest 8 hours work for input of members - suggest 2 weeks for membership, draft of procedures after that, and May 1st for training to begin, with Sharon's help. * Steven: - 3 items to be addressed: - finalize upload procedure (within 2 weeks) - online registration working & debugged (within 2 wks.) - menu interface & initial configuration (1 week) * Guy: - procedures to get new IPs online (by April 25th) - training liaisons to train IPs * discussion about use of liaisons in short-term * require a features list * suggest that we actively pursue those organizations with liaisons now and get data online as higher priority than training new liaisons. - working with current liaisons for features and menus and data of IPs. - how to handle "individal" IPs - how to handle endorsements of potential IPs * the last two points above to be dealt with later this meeting. * Ann: - need accounts for writers and trainers - authorities for accounts(permissions) to be cleared up - online registration and office staff to process - recruit trainers - training facilities to be in place - training volunteers, then trainers then libraries. * suggest that draft of discussion paper within 2 weeks * June 1st (public launch) requires public help sheets * Mid-May for training trainers and libraries. * user guide for next week's agenda * Sharon: - need office - staff by May 1st - orientation for volunteers - end of Apr./beginning of May - volunteer coordinator account (separate account) - treat volunteer coordinator as IP and get forms etc. onto FreeNet * Boodie: internet access to her account(s) to demonstrate FreeNet * Phil: - go over list of endorsers and convince more to donate (2 weeks on the outside) * Eric: - mostly ongoing work - IP upload mechanism, paperwork, electronic phone book - helping with upload of information * Steven mentioned that the automated IP upload stuff is not critical path work. * Jacqueline: - fielding questions from librarians about when FreeNet will be up. * Brian: implementation of hardware at libraries? - Jacqueline: online for staff May 15th, working for public launch. Help and training for librarians by May 15th. * Brian: - money/fundraising - staff/office - policy and government info. * PR: Sharon: a process for distribution of T-shirts/buttons? * phone lines and modems have to be installed. * Eric designated as IP for Vancouver FreeNet, and to act as liaison to get our own information online. * June AGM will need to be planned. 5.0 Policy Issues: 5.1 Telnet IPS: Eric * discussion around whether to inform users about changes in context between FreeNet local stuff, and telnet, gopher, WWW applications. * Guy: design issue - do we inform users? * Ann: we should do so, as an educational factor to the public * include terms in the menu and include in glossary under "About FreeNet" Motion: (Guy/Susan) That the system design committee implement a way to warn users of context switches. DEFEATED by vote. Motion: (Ann/Guy) That the system design committee implement codes to wan users of telnet/WWW/gopher switches and have drop screens of warnings. DEFEATED by vote. Motion: (Jacqueline/Steven) That we mplement codes on the right-hand side of the menu (under description) to warn users of context switches. PASSED. 5.2 Gating to local BBSs: Eric * introduced proposal by Geno Dellamattia to gate newsgroups and email from FreeNet and distribute to local BBS. * after some discussion, concluded that resources were to scarce to pursue this now, and a taskforce would be formed after launch to investigate this. 5.3 Individual IPs: Guy * some offers have come in from individuals wanting to moderate newsgroups. This raises the question of individuals (not organizations) that want to become IPs to the Freenet. * at the moment, IPs are not required to sign anything - this is probably an oversight. Motion: (Guy/Steven) That individual IPs sign the user agreement and be treated as IPs (and thus may be required to sign an IP agreement). PASSED. 5.4 Veting potential IPs: Guy * how do we decide if an organization is to become an IP? * resolution was that Guy would post a note to the Board about potential IPs and any problems can be brought up at a Board meeting. 5.5 IP Upload procedure: Steven * accept the distributed Operation Centre paper for information 6.0 Membership: Susan * we have 11 new members for a total of 259. * entered 34 accounts into the test registration procedure for members. * Board members should sign and return the user agreement. Operations Document: Steven * Brian: we will require a good secure audit path for money at the office. * two sites were discussed: SFU Harbour Centre and Britannia Community Centre. SFU offers telnet access to FreeNet, while Britannia is a better community location. Access issues were discussed. * Brian: could everyone please start passing the word out that we're looking for donations of office equipment. Motion: (Steven/Guy) That we accept the Operations Document in principle. PASSED. 6.0 Committee reports: 6.1 Hardware/Software: * Mike took two of the Cardinal modems for testing and left early. * concerns about the price of phone lines - some discussion about the possibility of setting up a modem pool at SFU Harbour centre for use by all universities. 6.2 System Design: Steven * nothing new to report - Operations document covered issues. 6.3 Fundraising: Brian * Law foundation went in yesterday - "had merit". * BC 21 application is in, but no word on that yet. * Friday morning, we're meeting with VanCity * BC Tel application is in, but Victoria FreeNet, IBM and BC Tel are working jointly on a proposal for the Commonwealth games. * meeting tomorrow with Human Resource Development for a possible 3-person proposal for OutReach funding - Brian invited Guy along * Advisory committee - Brian Williamson, Nancy Bain (Real Estate Board), Libby Davies (possible), Councillor Kennedy, Chuck Davis, David Mattrick, David Levy (possible). * Margaret and Wallace to pick on 6 more corporations. 6.4 Public Relations: * Fritz absent * questions about process for T-shirts and buttons * office problems * electronic versions of documents should be made available 6.5 Community Content: Guy * BC Systems operates a gopher server for FOI - but FOI couldn't afford a WAIS searchable system - can we offer something better? * general consensus was that we could, but Brian cautioned against going against BC Systems' resources. 7.0 Endorsement: Phil * Phil left early 8.0 Volunteers: Sharon * a paper was circulated from a meeting of the Volunteer Coordinating Committtee on April 8th at 5pm at the Neil Squire Foundation. * paper outlined some concepts as to developing a process for placing and training volunteers. 9.0 User Training/Support: Ann * UBC library has offered 4 network terminals for training * technical writers are working on the documentation for FreeNet. 10.0 Library Liaison: Jacqueline: * VPL has offered 3 terminals at the main branch and one at each other branch for June 1st opening. * 4 other libraries are interested in public access terminals. * Guy: what about Carnegie? 11.0 Social Services: Boodie * demo setup for libraries and North Shore community centres (run by Jacqueline). * speaker (needed) at the BCAIRS AGM on May 5th. 12.0 Party: Sharon * Please remind everyone that the party is RSVP to Sharon 12.0 Other business: * BC Freenet - telephone conference last week - proposals in future should go to 4 people (members of BC Freenet board) and then checked out by email before BC Freenet proceeds with them. Meeting was adjourned at 10:20pm.