Development and Operations Update
=================================
By Lisa K. Donnelly (am412), 19 November 1996

1. Development
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
a. Proposals have been sent to Mitel and to Royal Bank requesting funds.

b. Several key partners are being approached for various hardware donations.

c. We are continuing to pursue line sponsors and have set up a
    comprehensive database.

d. The final report for the $10,000 from the RMOC this year will be
    completed and submitted in December.

e. The on-line donor recognition are has been updated.

f. The 'go funding' and 'go development' areas on line have been
   overhauled and updated.

g. A Funding web page has been created to promote our activities.

h. Fifty-eight pieces of Microsoft software and five pieces of Corel 
    software will be auctioned off in the 'NCF Microsoft Auction' starting
    this month.

2. FreePlan
~~~~~~~~~~~
a. FreeNews and FreeMail were launched this month.   FreeMail has 375
    users to date.

b. Freepages are available to members and organizations. Currently we
    only have eight organizations up. We are in the process of setting up 
    the administrative procedure for requesting a URL. Type  'go 
    FreePages' for more information.

c. FreeWeb will be available soon. The  Internet Sampler lines will be
    offered to members in early December pending replacement of eleven 
    faulty USR modems.

d. FreePlace is active and members now have access to NCF using
    graphical browsers. Access is limited to our domain for the moment.
    We are configuring a proxy server and administrative structure which 
    will allow members to request access to select off-site URLs. 
    Currently members trying to browse off-site URLs are getting a 
    message stating 'This service coming soon.' 

>From 6 to 19 November, 5,955 PPP connections have been made by 
1,305 unique members; 769 tried only once, 138 used PPP twice, 93 have 
used it three times or more.

3. System Upgrades
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
a. The new 14.4  modems were installed and the hunt groups 
    reconfigured. Additional system improvements were made. See the
    ncf.status.technical newsgroup details.

4. NCF Account Renewals
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
a. The renewals program was launched on Thursday, 7 November.  A
    'go renewal' menu has been completed and can be found under the
    Operations menus (go operations).

b. Final notices and programming are still to be completed. This should 
    take to three days of work.

c. The Office has prepared donation data on renewals to date and will 
    post this in the ncf.operations.q&a newsgroup.

5. Small Businesses on NCF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
a) We are developing a relationship with the Homebased Business 
    Association.  Working together we will develop the on-line presence 
    of home-based and small businesses  on  NCF as well as lead classes at
    the NCF Electronic Resource and Access Center (ERAC).

--
	  **  Lisa K. Donnelly, M.B.A., Executive Director  **
     * National Capital FreeNet/Libertel de la Capitale nationale *
	       Telecommunities Canada, Board of Directors
	       (613) 241-9554 voice & fax (613) 241-2477