National Capital FreeNet Strategy For 1998 ========================================== Christopher L. Cope Executive Director October 14, 1997 Preamble ~~~~~~~~ This strategic plan has been developed as a foundation for the 1998 planning process. The goal of the Organization is to continue to fulfill its mission while ensuring continued viability. The specific objectives and priorities identified below will provide a framework for the development of an Operations Plan an will serve as a guideline for the 1998 budget process. NCF Mission ~~~~~~~~~~~ The National Capital FreeNet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale is a free, computer-based information sharing network accessible in both official languages of Canada. It links the people and organizations of this region, provides useful information, and enables an open exchange of ideas with the world. Community involvement makes FreeNet an important and accessible meeting place, and prepares people for full participation for in a rapidly changing communications environment. Current Situation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The National Capital FreeNet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale will mark it's fifth birthday in 1998. Since opening formally in February 1993, NCF has steadily grown and evolved into a vibrant community network serving the National Capital region. The NCF system is currently based on FreePort software, running in a Unix environment and developed over a decade ago. Considerable amendment and patching has been done over the years to facilitate greater functionality and special needs. We have embarked on a path towards augmenting this obsolete technology by moving towards web-based technology. Approximately 64,000 members have registered since inception and of these, approximately 18,000 remain active, with some 10,000 logging in at least once per week. Access, which has been highly reliable, is via some 169 telephone dial-up modems (mostly 14.4 Kbps) and 23 public access and special service ports. Historically connections have been text-based but all 169 modems now also offer a PPP connection with graphical user interface enabled. Off-site mail and news readers can be used and Internet browsing is possible using graphical browsers via a proxy server. Ten of the lines ("Internet Sampler Lines") offer 33 Kbps connection and full Internet access. In 1996/97 a membership renewal process was initiated, which allowed the removal of dormant and unwanted accounts and provided greater financial predictability for the organization through its provision for member donations at time of renewal. NCF now operates on a member-funded financial model, with corporate and institutional sponsorship together with grant programs relied on for expansion, special projects and modernization. Most of the work at NCF is done by volunteers with "members-helping-members" an underlying theme. Content is a major issue. A significant element of both interest and success for NCF is the large amount of community oriented information available to members and the world. NCF now hosts approximately 300 information providers. Each of these community agencies develops and maintains its own dedicated space on the system, either in menu form (some 2460 menus) or on Web pages or both. Additionally, some 1,250 users have located their personal homepage at NCF. In all, some 25,000 documents are presently available to members. Challenges ~~~~~~~~~~ Community networks in general and NCF in particular are faced with an ongoing challenge to stay abreast of the changing and evolving nature of online services. The division between traditional Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and community networks has blurred, while institutional funding sources typically see themselves in the role of providing "seed money" rather than offering ongoing sustaining funding. NCF will have to monitor trends carefully and remain flexible, adapting and focusing on areas and/or services desired by or of benefit to the community but not otherwise available. ISPs are taking on some of the burden that previously had to be carried by community networks. Similarly, web sites are now the favored cheap and easy way for people to deliver content. NCF therefore, must recognize that its membership is the key to ongoing sustainability and plan to capitalize on its existing strengths, and explore new ways to enhance member usage and participation. Opportunities & Strategies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A. System Administration Members of NCF have grown accustomed to a reliable system, rich with functionality and ease of use. A desire to augment this with web-based technology must incorporate the following elements: 1) System upgrades must be planned to generate minimum disturbance. 2) New applications should be "off the shelf" and well tested as much as possible, to enhance ease of support, to minimize downtime and to minimize life-cycle costs. Infrastructure will be standard, modular and simple. 3) System administrators will hold reliability and stability as their first priority. 4) Develop and implement FreeNet Next Generation, a new user interface, a new way to manage mail, a new authentication mechanism, a new registration system: i) Subsystems should depend as little as possible on other subsystems. Interdependencies between machines & systems should be eliminated. ii) NCF will continue to be accessible in text mode, but having all the menus web based to make it more appealing for users who access FreeNet using a PPP connection. B. Operations On a day-to-day basis, NCF has successfully moved from a grant dependent organization to become self sustaining through member donations. In order to grow and prosper, the organization must continue to prudently manage it's cash flow to ensure sustainability. Elements of a financial plan will include: Revenue: 1) Continue to use the renewal program to facilitate member donations. 2) Actively pursue corporate partnerships. Seek partners to defray or participate in major costs including: hardware/software upgrades, telephone charges, Internet charges, wages for special projects. 3) Seek grant opportunities from Public institutions and private agencies and trusts. Aggressively promote "get online." 4) Campaign to increase the average donation per member, thus raising income levels without adding stress to the infrastructure. 5) Plan to increase membership and thereby increase member donation revenue by: promoting NCF in the community, approaching agencies such as schools, libraries, service groups, etc. where partnerships can be created to enroll their entire membership, stimulating existing members to recruit their associates and peers. Growth should be managed and steady. Quality of service must not be compromised through growth. 6) Systematically and thoroughly, promote NCF to organizations, businesses and NGOs with a view to enlarging the organizational donor base. Business is an integral part of the community and therefore when consideration is given to "community involvement" in our Mission Statement, business must be included. Our strategy will be to ensure that this involvement be reciprocal with Business sharing the financial load. Expenses: 1) Analyze and wherever possible streamline NCF operations to minimize costs. System administration overhead to be considered when decisions to add or delete member services are considered. C. Services In order to differentiate NCF from Internet Service Providers, NCF must provide meaningful content to the community. The services which are offered to members must continue to be useful, and sufficiently modern to have the utility required. Our continuing relevance as a community resource, will be a mirror of our ability to continue to provide a wanted service. Our plan will provide the following: 1) Implement and promote both internally and publicly, a search tool which provides rapid and efficient access to NCF hosted information. 2) Continue to encourage people/organizations to make their content available to the community, in the form of personal homepages, web pages menus, etc. Promote Web-based content tools.. 3) Implement a webpage hit-counter, and/or other usage feedback facilities. 4) Promote PPP access: Develop tools, training materials and support systems. Consider (after extended access project is implemented) eliminating the "sampler" class of lines and have all our lines PPP accessible with Web access only restricted to known objectionable sites (as we do with spam). 5) Develop Public Download area to include most wanted browsers, e-mail clients and news readers, Internet utilities etc. (public domain or otherwise freely distributable software). Look for other methods of distribution of software in diskette form, perhaps libraries, schools, large retailers etc. 6) Study existing membership to target services and interests accurately. 7) Provide enhanced access. Look to partnership arrangements such as the currently proposed 'extended access project" arrangement. 8) Review resource/usage constraints: promote less resource hogging PPP approach. Review system load and usage data and when increased PPP usage together with extended access projects allow it, look to adjusting scheduling of free-time window and/or time allocations. 9) Review services to organizations and interest groups: Coordinate a "members-helping-members" type of arrangement for volunteers, from within the organizational group, for the development of tools templates etc. i) Implement and promote tools of particular interest to these groups including SIGs and Newsgroups, to facilitate discussion in public electronic space. ii) Implement and promote tools of value to community organizations to facilitate discussion in private electronic space including e-mail training, listserve hosting (with web access and archive if needed), newsletter delivery etc. iii) Develop templates and resources to create webpages for organizations. Explore web development partnerships with schools, universities etc. 10) Review standard services. Where appropriate, install and promote improved or more powerful tools such as: Pine Mail Reader and TIN Newsreader, etc. 11) Become web-centric (whereas now we are Freeport-centric). Encourage the routine use of PPP rather than telnet or text). Develop services such as registration via web pages, and start organizing our own information in pages 12) Encourage francophone content and participation. 13) Look for and install new and innovative services, serving the entire Internet with local focus. Find ways to promote connections, whether in the form of classified advertising or some web-based forum. Consider partnerships and/or licensing arrangements with other organizations, who may already have software and systems in place. 14) In keeping with current trends, NCF should add browser-based functions, e.g., chat, newsgroups, and e-mail that you can access via your browser (in contrast to using an IRC client, a newsgroup reader, or an email program). In many cases, this method is perceived as simpler for the beginning user to navigate and easier for the site-provider to provide a good experience for the user. D. Volunteer Coordination/Recognition 1) Develop and retain key volunteers by providing them with opportunities to contribute and to learn about the many facets of the NCF, learn about Internet technology, Web design etc. 2) Develop a program to acknowledge and reward member achievement for outreach and membership and usage building. 3) Encourage francophone content and participation. 4) Encourage participation for challenged groups and minorities. 5) Encourage participation and acknowledge forward progress related to women's issues. E. Monitoring and Measuring Results: Monitoring Membership In order to effectively track current trends, measure the success (or lack) of various programs and ultimately, to measure, management's effectiveness in maintaining the critical mass required for membership levels, certain key indicators will be monmitored. 1) Number of members and member usage: Membership levels depend on a variety of factors, but noteworthy are: public awareness, quality of service, interest in content, competing access arrangements, member satisfaction, etc. Current membership stands at approximately 18,000 members. This represents a ratio of 107:1 We know from experience that our present equipment and telephone lines (169 lines) will support considerably greater usage, up to approximately 27,000 members members (160:1), before excessive busy signals dilute the level of service. Further, our busiest period is evening, and we are about to add 32 evening lines, providing capacity for approximately 5,000 additional members, for a total of 32,000. The following key membership indicators will be monitored: Current Optimum Goal ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ 1) Number of members: 18,000 27,000 Not exceeding 32,000 2) Increase/Decrease: +500 Per month to achieve maximum level in 24 months. 3) Member/phone line ratio: 118:1 150:1 Not exceeding 160:1 4) Weekly sessions: +/-75,000 100,000 } Measures current 5) Unique weekly log-ons +/-10,300 12,000 } activity (interest } level in the system. 6) Percentage of PPP vs. } To maximize PPP dial-up connections } thereby minimizing } system load and provide } an indicator of current } interest. (b) Monitoring Revenue Sources: NCF relies on membership donations, for on-going sustainability. In addition to the budget reporting and review process which will continue, certain statistics will be monitored to track current trends and measure the success (or lack) of various revenue generating strategies. The following key revenue source indicators will be monitored: Current Optimum Goal ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ 1) Number of new members: 900 } Achieve a net } increase of 500 2) Number of members archived 400 } per month, or } 6,000 in a year, } net of archiving } non-renewing ) members. To be } adjusted to } reflect 1998 Budget 3) Percentage of new members 40% 40% } These goals are donating: } to be adjusted } to the 1998 4) Percentage of renewing 68% 66% } Budget, in order to members donating: } monitor specific } trends. 5) Average Donation: $20 $25 } towards financial } sustainability 6) Number of organizational and } Monitor growth. corporate accounts }