Executive Director's Report December, 1997 =========================== January 20, 1998 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Funding and Public Relations Update 2. NCF Administration 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives 1. Funding Update ================= a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New member registrations continues to lag behind behind forecast. While the average donation increased slightly to $21.90 in December, the overall average donation from new registrants is $20.82 (representing a $6.90 overall per new member for the 3,364 members who have opened an account since May). Number Number %Of $ Amount Average New New Memb New Memb Registration Registration Members Donations Donating Donations Donation ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ May. 367 191 52.0% $3,229.00 $16.91 Jun. 654 102 15.6% $1,940.00 $19.02 Jul. 651 218 33.5% $3,942.00 $18.08 Aug. 484 193 39.9% $3,503.00 $18.15 Sep. 467 179 38.3% $3,328.00 $18.59 Oct. 314 158 50.3% $2,754.00 $17.43 Nov. 234 114 48.7% $2,396.00 $21.02 Dec. 193 97 50.3% $2,124.00 $21.90 Average (1252 donations) $20.82 Overall Average (all new members) $ 6.90 c) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The revenue from renewals is closer to the forecast in numbers, and while exceeding the budgeted average donation, is under the target needed in 1998. The 1997 Budget assumed a $25 average donation and we hit this mark in December ($25.54). This will require careful review in January however, as we need to increase this average to $35 in the coming year. Number Number %Of $ Amount Average Of Renewal Renewals Renewal Renewal Renewals Donations Donating Donations Donation ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ May. 1,831 1,266 69.1% $25,887.70 $20.45 Jun. 654 418 63.9% $ 8,486.51 $20.30 Jul. 605 299 49.4% $ 5,502.00 $18.40 Aug. 448 268 59.8% $ 4,895.77 $18.27 Sep. 320 204 63.8% $ 3,920.40 $19.22 Oct. 248 122 49.2% $ 2,283.47 $18.72 Nov. 266 142 53.4% $ 3,425.00 $24.12 Dec. 728 466 64.0% $11,902.00 $25.54 Average (3,135 donations): $20.82 Overall Average (all renewals) $13.00 c) Membership Activity in December: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership declined slightly in December. While renewal activity was brisk, despite the mail strike, only 193 new members joined. |Member | Current |To line| Actual |Ratio |Number Forecast Number Number Number # of % inc.| |Of New No. of Members Members Members Members -dec. |Lns :1 |Members Members Renewed Un-arch Archvd. ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~| ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ May. 62,877 n/a|169 372| 372 1,831 0 0 Jun. 43,170 -31.3%|169 255| 654 654 18 20,361 Jul. 28,280 -34.5%|169 167| 651 605 103 7,919 Aug. 27,980 - 1.1%|169 166| 484 448 68 7,739 Sep. 22,996 -17.8%|169 136| 467 320 100 6,145 Oct. 21,527 - 6.4%|169 127| 314 248 76 1,870 Nov. 21,361 -0.8%|169 126| 234 529 266 61 501 Dec. 21,125 -1.1%|169 125| 193 413 728 42 421 e) Member Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Member usage seems to be holding reasonably steady, with average PPP usage statistics increasing slightly. As with last month's report, the information on PPP usage reported in this table is also available (until the end of the month) in graphical form at http://gw.ncf.carleton.ca:8000/mrtg/modem/freeze.html Beginning next month, we should also be able to report on the "number of busy signals". Jim Elder has written some software which dials NCF, counts the unsuccessful attempts and immediately disconnects when a connection is made. Testing is currently underway. No. Of No. Of | Max Avg no Max % Avg.% | Avg. Weekly Unique | PPP PPP PPP PPP | No. Sessions Users | Users Users Usage Usage | Busy ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~ Jun. | | Jul. | | Aug. | | Sep. | 9.3% 0.7% | Oct. 80,169 | 3.3% 2.0% | Nov. 74,359 10,150 | 39 12 20.7% 6.4% | Dec. 74,816 9,655 | 39 14 20.7% 7.4% | f) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There were no new organizational accounts in December. New Frontier Consulting added support for NCF by becoming a line sponsor. This month, we have a more accurate fix on the number of IPs, and we see a slight increase in the number with homepages. * The number of IPs is based on an auto-generated list available at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/auto-gen/menu-index/ALL.html New Total | New Total | IP Incr. | Member % Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Home -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Pages Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~~ ~~~~ Apr. | 1 1 | 2 | May. 4 4 | 1 2 | 4 | Jun. 0 4 | 1 3 | 2 | Jul. 1 5 | 1 4 | 2 | Aug. 1 6 | 0 4 | 2 | Sep. 2 8 | 0 4 | 1 | Oct. 3 11 | 0 4 | 1 | Nov. 3 14 | 0 4 | +/-300 55 | 1,224 17.5% Dec. 0 14 | 1 5 | 397* 57 3.6% | 1,205 17.5% g) Government Grants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Trillium Foundation: The Trillium Foundation has turned down our proposal for funding. (ii) Regional Municipality OF Ottawa-Carleton We continue to wait for a decision from RMOC. No decision will be made in respect to 1998 grant applications until early in the new year, (likely in March). We will submit a final report providing details about our 1996 grant in January. h) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The December issue of the NCF Newsletter "FreeNews" was sent out to the mailing list and is now on-line (go freenews) and is also available on the Web at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/public-relations/ Work continues on preparations for NCF's 5th Birthday Party. With but a few minor delays, everything is proceeding according to plan. This year's celebration promises to be very exciting and fun for all. Ads have been prepared and sent to Monitor Magazine and Ottawa Computes for their February issue. The focus of this ad is an invitation to all to attend the Birthday Party on February 4th at the RMOC. Invitations have been prepared and will be faxed, e-mailed or mailed (depending on category) to our list of guests in early January. The Public Relations Page has been amended, to include information on this year's Annual General Meeting (AGM98), see: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/public-relations/ NCF's monthly newsletter, FreeNews, has been distributed to our mailing lists (now over 200 recipients) and is viewable on-line at "go freenews" or on the Web at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/freenews/ i) Funding Administrivia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The on-line list of donor files was updated to reflect all December donations. Thank You letters were sent to all donors. 2. NCF Administration ====================== a) Top Five Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Extended Access Implementation of a scheme for evening use of a Key Partner's telephone lines. Waiting for Bell Canada to configure their switch. (2) Events - The NCF 5th Birthday Party - NCF Webpage design contest (3) Web issues Webserver changes - hardware/software upgrades continuing to improve performance, Review continues regarding Carleton's T1 Internet connection. (4) System stability & FreeNet Next Generation Project Hardware/software changes to be made to improve system stability. During scheduled downtimes, hardware data to be collected (internal components)as part of FreeNet NG project. (5) Annual General Election Working with AGM team to get systems, call for motions, menus etc. in place b) Network Upgrades ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) On December 8th, Overflowing was implemented (by Bell Canada) for all lines in the 520-1135 modem pool. When all lines in that pool are busy, calls will now overflow to the 520-1130 modem pool. There was a brief period where users got a "Number not in service" message On December 9th, due to a small mis-configuration, but Bell Service resolved the problem, within the day. Essentially, we now need only one number (520-1135) for access to all 144 lines in the main modem pool. The 10 "Internet Sampler" lines (520-9013) remain unchanged as do the 15 "Express" lines at (520-7835). (2) Sendmail on freenet1 was upgraded to version 8.8.8. early in December and the week after, the sendmail.cf file was updated to 8.8.8, to include new anti-spam hacks (Claus Assman). A new rule was activated which requires incoming mail to contain a valid domain. The effectiveness of this tool will be monitored, but early reports from our Postmaster and Spam desk are favourable. (3) On December 9th, a scheduled downtime was used to perform hardware upgrades (to install memory donated by Hardware Canada Computing and Dantek Computers) Freenet5 got an extra 16MB of memory, Going from 96MB to 112MB. Freenet3 got an extra 16MB of memory, Going from 176MB to 192MB. Freenet4* got an extra 48MB of memory, Going from 160MB to 208MB. Freenet-news got an extra 16MB of memory, Going from 128MB to 144MB. * Freenet4 is the Webserver and the performance increase has been noted. (4) On December 17th, Yannick and John Stewart installed a new hard-disk in the news-server (donated by Hardware Canada Computing). Although we had anticipated the news server to be down only for the morning, the task took all day (transferring all the news to the new disk finished around 17:00). (5) Carleton continues to monitor the usage patterns are on their Internet connection. Carleton plans to install a second T1 (ONET) to provide additional bandwidth. Installation is expected within the next month or two. We continue to explore a Partnership with a local ISP who has offered us bandwith, essentially for the cost of the local loop. A wireless solution seems to be the best approach and we are currently determining roof availability etc. for antennas. (6) Yannick has installed a system monitoring tool called "Big Brother". This tool provides a graphical update on major system components and in addition to the entire screen turning red on trouble, the specific problem device is identified with its own flashing red button. The tool can be seen at: http://www-services.ncf.carleton.ca/bb/bb.html In combination with the modem usage information available at: http://gw.ncf.carleton.ca:8000/mrtg/modem/modem-all.html considerable system information is available. c) FreeNet Next Generation Project ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sun Microsystems has expressed a willingness to help NCF through an in-kind hardware donations. Marc Bellefeuille, visited our site on December 22nd to review our systems and determine the most effective approach. Bellefeuille will submit his recommendations to senior Sun management and after their review, we expect to learn the details of their donation. Sun is interested in show-casing their mail software (based on Sendmail), and may wish to combine hardware and software in the package. Yannick will attend the first of two Oracle training sessions in January. He will attend a second session as scheduling permits. 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Extended Access ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Configuration of the equipment located at the Mitel site is essentially complete, as is the development of the radius program to facilitate remote log-in. The new router has been installed at Mitel and iStar, (Mitel's Internet supplier) has provided IP addresses. Bell Canada must now configure their switch and provide us with "Time of day routing" and a number for their switch (serving Mitel) for our members to dial. Calls will be directed to "fast busy": Monday to Friday between 06:00 and 18:00 and directed to the line Mitel has given us on their switch, the rest of the time. b) NCF Website Design Contest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The contest has closed and all entries can be viewed at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/contest/ Judging is underway and the panel: Mark Bell, Jim Carroll, Mark Schneider, Fred Ennis, and Paul Theriault will complete their work by the end of January. Unveiling of the winning entry and presentation prizes will be held at the Fifth NCF Birthday Party Wednesday, February 4, 1998, at the RMOC Regional office at 111 Lisgar. c) FreeMail - Trademark ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have heard nothing further from FreeMail Inc., a company headquartered on Missoula, Montana, who asked us to discontinue our use of "FreeMail" The registration which they have relied upon in their initial request was a U.S. registration only. d) Progress with Auto-install Diskettes for PPP Connectivity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two (prototype) copies of a CD-ROM version of our auto-install web browsers have been prepared (by Richard Bethell cj434). When Windows 95 users put the CD in their drive, they will see an Autorun splash screen with the NCF logo pop up. They can choose from one of 5 options (Communicator, the IE config tool, the NCF IE3, Colin McFayden's (aa734) DUN tool, and a generic IE4.) Clicking on install installs the item chosen. Mac users will see two folders - Netscape for Mac, and Internet Explorer for Mac. Internet Explorer will install Open Transport and IE and configure it, Netscape comes with Postcard instructions for setting it and FreePPP up. Windows 3.1 users don't get an automated menu, but they do get both IE and Communicator with dialing stacks. The next step is to reproduce the CD (the final copies should wait until the configuration of the Extended Access Program is finished and tested, in case changes are needed to the configuration settings in the browsers contained on the CD. e) Web Chat ~~~~~~~~ Magma Communications will donate their "Chat Server" software to NCF for us to host a Web-based chat area. Natalie Munroe (xx966) is co-ordinating a team to create the site, Richard Bethell (cj434) will help Natalie get this project going with Peter Boddy (bx955 - HTML whiz), Brad Hudson (cd502 - other stuff) and Katherine Allen (dk255 - artist and writer). f) Exporting Newsgroups The mechanism by which people were exporting ncf.* newsgroups, without permission was discovered and changes have been made to prevent similar harvesting in future. The parties involved with this harvesting have been notified that we wish the practice stopped and it is our understanding that they will comply with our request. Deja News has agreed to remove ncf.* posts from their archive, but wished us to confirm that the news leak had been patched. -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524