Executive Director's Report October, 1999 =========================== November 14, 1999 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Administration & Funding 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives 3. System Administration 1. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Both the number and donation level from new registrants was about half of our forecast for October, and only 48% of the 201 new members donated. This resulted in a total of $2,047 or under Budget by $1,953.00 (-49%). On a year-to-date basis, we stand at $24,054 for registration donations, under budget by $$9,946 (-29%). No. No. % Of Avg. Regist New Budget Regist Memb $ Budget Regist Donat'n Memb. (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donat'n All New ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'98 3,488 7,224 -52% 1,499 43.0% $35,668 $46,225 -23% $23.79 $10.23 Avg'98 291 602 -52% 125 43.0% $ 2,972 $ 3,852 -23% $23.79 $10.23 Jan. 205 300 -32% 133 64.9% $ 3,297 $ 3,000 -10% $24.79 $16.08 Feb 230 300 -23% 127 55.2% $ 2,704 $ 3,000 -10% $23.62 $13.04 Mar. 213* 300 -29% 114 53.5% $ 2,875 $ 3,000 -4% $26.32 $14.08 Apr. 203 300 -32% 95 46.8% $ 2,437 $ 3,000 -19% $31.58 $14.78 May 141 300 -53% 91 64.5% $ 2,002 $ 3,000 -33% $32.97 $21.28 Jun. 151 300 -50% 67 44.4% $ 1,391 $ 3,000 -54% $44.78 $19.87 Jul. 289 400 -28% 111 38.4% $ 2,518 $ 4,000 -37% $36.04 $13.84 Aug. 223 400 -44% 97 43.5% $ 2,474 $ 4,000 -38% $41.24 $17.94 Sep. 291 400 -27% 95 32.6% $ 2,309 $ 4,000 -42% $42.11 $13.75 Oct. 201 400 -50% 103 51.2% $ 2,047 $ 4,000 -49% $38.83 $19.09 Nov. 400 $ 4,000 Dec. 400 $ 4,000 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'99 2,147 3,000 -37% 1,033 48.1% $24,054 $34,000 -29% $23.29 $11.20 Avg'99 215 340 -37% 103 48.1% $ 2,405 $ 3,400 -29% $23.29 $11.20 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of members renewing, was slightly higher than our forecast at 320 (+4%), but less than two thirds of these renewing members donated. The average donation was low at $23.40, resulting in a figure for the month of only $4,843 or under Budget by $1,457 (-23%). On a year-to-date basis, we are under budget a total of $36,665 or -22%. No. % Of Avg. Renwl No. Budget Renwl Renwl $ Budget Renwl Donate Renwl (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donatn All Ren ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'98 9,697 10,012 -3% 6,465 66.7% $156,819 $228,388 -31% $24.26 $16.17 AVG'98 808 834 -3% 539 66.7% $ 13,068 $ 19,032 -31% $24.26 $16.17 Jan. 906 1,020 3% 880 97.1% $ 20,844 $ 20,800 0% $23.69 $23.01 Feb. 826 1,279 -35% 781 94.6% $ 23,316 $ 26,100 -11% $29.85 $28.23 Mar. 1,151 1,162 -1% 818 71.1% $ 23,422 $ 23,700 -1% $28.63 $20.35 Apr. 717 1,235 -42% 576 80.3% $ 15,586 $ 25,200 -38% $27.06 $21.74 May 663 1,176 -44% 572 86.3% $ 15,522 $ 24,000 -35% $27.14 $23.41 Jun. 410 873 -53% 400 97.6% $ 10,051 $ 17,800 -44% $25.13 $24.51 Jul. 348 510 -32% 268 77.0% $ 7,350 $ 10,400 -29% $27.43 $21.12 Aug. 268 358 -25% 224 83.6% $ 4,991 $ 7,300 -32% $22.28 $18.62 Sep. 305 270 13% 197 64.6% $ 4,510 $ 5,500 -18% $22.89 $14.79 Oct. 320 309 4% 207 64.7% $ 4,843 $ 6,300 -23% $23.40 $15.13 Nov. 314 $ 6,400 Dec. 387 $ 7,900 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 5,914 8,191 -28% 4,923 83% $130,435 $167,100 -22% $26.50 $22.06 AVG'98 591 819 -28% 492 83% $ 13,044 $ 16,710 -22% $26.50 $22.06 c) Unassigned Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Donations not associated with registration or renewals: Period Donors Donation Average ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1998 Total 1,103 $34,033 $30.85 1999 Jan. 41 $ 1,268 $30.93 Feb. 33 $ 1,057 $32.03 Mar. 07 $ 186 $26.57 Apr. 19 $ 431 $22.68 May. 2 $ 49 $24.50 Jun. 11 $ 389 $35.35 July. 4 $ 186 $35.36 Aug. 4 $ 129 $32.25 Sep. 0 $ 0 Oct. 0 $ 0 ~~~ ~~~~~~~ 121 $ 3,695 $30.54 d) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our current membership stands at 10,669, a decline of 4% since last month. While renewals were ahead of Budget, new registrations were sluggish and the combination didn't keep pace with archivals. |Member | Current |To line| Actual |Ratio |Number Forecast Number Forecast Number Number # of % inc. | |Of New No. of Members No. of Members Members Members -dec. |Lns :1 |Members New Memb Renewed Renewed Un-arch Archvd ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ |~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ Jan. 16,691 -1.5% |213 76| 205 300 906 1,020 0 0 Feb. 13,461 4.7% |213 80| 230 300 826 1,279 1 4,739 Mar. 14,517 7.8% |213 80| 213 300 1,151 1,162 4 252 Apr. 14,115 -2.8% |213 67| 203 300 717 1,235 2 607 May 13,299 -5.8% |213 62| 141 300 663 1,176 7 964 Jun. 13,071 -1.7% |213 61| 151 300 410 873 4 887 Jul. 12,497 -4-4% |213 59| 289 400 348 510 0 863 Aug. 12,438 -0.5 |213 58| 223 400 268 358 0 282 Sep. 11,072 -10.7% |213 52| 291 400 305 270 31 688 Oct. 10,669* -4.0% |213 50| 201 400 320 309 8 652 *calculated, based on changes to last month's figure. e) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We received Organization donations from the Pastel Society, the Oxford Society, PSAC, the Children's Parliament and Malico continues monthly payments. The number of IPs with homepages appears to have decreased by 14.7% but the change reflects an adjustment in our counting approach. Presently, Web directories have been created for some 251 IPs, (the figure counted last month). Of these, 118 are still under construction, (mostly new VolNet organizations) with pages published for 133* organizations. The number of personal home pages remained static this month at 839. Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ Jan. 1 41| 0 8 | 1 300 92 7.0% |1,051 9.9% Feb. 5 46| 0 8 | 5 305 94 2.2% |1,094 8.1% Mar. 2 48| 0 8 | -5 300 99 5.3% |1,078 7.4% Apr. 4 52| 0 8 | -2 298 101 2.0% |1,051 7.4% May 2 54| 0 8 | -6 292 99 -2.0% |1,007 7.6% June 2 56| 0 8 | 1 293 105 6.1% | 974 7.5% July 0 56| 0 8 | 1 294 105 0% | 916 7.3% Aug. 1 57| 0 8 | -18 276 103 -1.9% | 867 7.0% Sep. 3 60| 0 8 | -16 260 156 51.5% | 838 7.5% Oct. 3 63| 0 8 | -11 249 133*-14.7% | 839 7.9% f) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions: The total number of PPP sessions decreased by 11% to 59,327. Included in this figure is an increase in the number of sessions on the Mitel lines to 7,175. We suspect however that this high number may reflect premature disconnects causing short sessions. 2,908 sessions or just over 9% of the total sessions on our Mitel lines were 1 minute or less. PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Sessions Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Jan 7,656 14% 52,953 Feb 7,068 17% 42,381 -20% Mar 29,635 44% 8,125 12% 37,769 55% 30,320 45% 68,080 61% Apr 25,350 38% 8,885 13% 34,235 51% 33,017 49% 67,252 -1% May 30,565 42% 8,444 12% 39,009 54% 33,757 46% 72,766 8% Jun 35,280 47% 7,455 10% 42,735 57% 32,705 43% 75,440 4% Jul 37,590 50% 5,833 8% 43,423 58% 31,084 42% 74,507 -1% Aug 35,305 51% 4,738 7% 40,043 57% 29,853 43% 69,896 -6% Sep 35,410 53% 4,842 7% 40,252 60% 26,458 40% 66,710 -5% Oct 29,410 50% 7,175 12% 36,585 62% 22,742 38% 59,327 -11% (ii) Unique users in a one week period: Oddly, despite a decrease in the number of sessions, the number of unique users increased by 6% to a total of 7,289 68% of our current membership, a figure which is typically just under 60%. The number of text users dropped slightly while the number of PPP users increased by 391 users or 10.5%. PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Sessions Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Jan 1,178 16% 7,187 Feb 1,127 17% 6,508 -9% Mar 2,510 30% 1,095 13% 3,605 43% 4,711 57% 8,316 28% Apr 2,419 31% 1,163 15% 3,582 46% 4,243 54% 7,825 -6% May 2,599 33% 1,168 15% 3,767 48% 4,130 52% 7,897 1% Jun 2,600 35% 1,103 15% 3,703 49% 3,789 51% 7,492 -5% Jul 3,522 49% 986 14% 4,508 63% 2,676 37% 7,184 -4% Aug 2,765 39% 933 13% 3,698 53% 3,323 47% 7,021 -2% Sep 2,787 40% 938 14% 3,725 54% 3,182 46% 6,907 -2% Oct 3,090 42% 1,026 14% 4,116 56% 3,173 44% 7,289 6% f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The modem monitoring software was used to make 5,777 attempts, over 5 separate sampling sessions, with the following results. The Main Modem Pool (520-1135) and the High Speed Pool (520-9013) were largely reliable. The Extended Access Pool (271-9768) continues to operate unreliably (see comments later in this report). 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 121 29% 70% 120 83% 16% 120 38% 0% 01:00 120 44% 55% 120 95% 4% 120 75% 2% 02:00 3 100% 0% 1 100% 0% 1 100% 0% 07:00 139 36% 63% 139 82% 17% 138 83% 14% 08:00 121 34% 65% 120 98% 1% 120 85% 0% 09:00 107 33% 66% 107 90% 9% 107 71% 0% 10:00 40 35% 65% 36 88% 11% 36 69% 5% 11:00 1 0% 100% 0 0% 0% 0 0% 0% 12:00 13 53% 46% 12 100% 0% 12 58% 8% 13:00 20 30% 70% 20 95% 5% 20 65% 10% 14:00 36 44% 55% 36 94% 5% 36 63% 8% 15:00 59 45% 52% 59 98% 1% 58 48% 3% 16:00 86 30% 68% 84 89% 10% 84 57% 0% 17:00 129 34% 65% 129 85% 14% 129 69% 0% 18:00 141 39% 60% 140 89% 10% 140 54% 2% 19:00 160 22% 77% 160 85% 13% 160 37% 4% 20:00 160 18% 81% 160 68% 21% 160 26% 5% 21:00 160 25% 71% 160 64% 14% 160 28% 0% 22:00 160 13% 82% 160 66% 15% 160 16% 3% 23:00 159 23% 75% 160 85% 15% 160 22% 1% ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,935 34% 64% 1,923 83% 9% 1,921 53% 3% The following table, illustrates the frequency of actual error messages produced by the modem tracking software. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Busy 14 1.0% 80 4.0% 906 47.0% 1,000 17.0% DialTimeout - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% 0 0.0% ModemInitTimeout 5 0.0% 8 0.0% 11 1.0% 24 0.0% NoCarrier 165 9.0% 130 7.0% 35 2.0% 330 6.0% NoDialTone 2 0.0% - 0.0% 1 0.0% 3 0.0% NoLoginPrompt - 0.0% 8 0.0% 3 0.0% 11 0.0% NoServiceMenu 1,152 60.0% 90 5.0% - 0.0% 1,242 22.0% OtherFailure 12 1.0% 6 0.0% 13 1.0% 31 1.0% Success 583 30.0% 1,601 83.0% 952 50.0% 3,136 54.0% ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,933 100.0% 1,923 100.0% 1,921 100.0% 5,777 100.0% 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC RMOC, as part of their Y2K readiness planning, continues to postpone this project as they wish to operate under a "clean software" environment from now until early next year. The project will be reactivated in March, 2000. (ii) Industry Canada - Urban CAP Ottawa steering committee: Discussions continue as we await Industry Canada's formal announcement of the Urban CAP project, expected this month. (iii) Industry Canada - VolNet: The delivery phase of the VolNet program continues. The following table illustrates progress to date: Number of applications approved to date: 234 Number of applications on hold: 14 Target number of organizations 250 Number of new computers delivered: 48 Number of new computer orders outstanding: 68 Number of recycled computers delivered 0 Number of recycled computers outstanding 8 Number of organizations visited: 48 Number of connection visits pending 14 Number of NCF registrations 153 (iv) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology) Webmail We await approval of our proposal for development funding to HRDC Office of Learning Technology to support the Webmail initiative. We have been told that the project is generally favourable to OLT staff, and will learn shortly whether or not funding will be available. (vi) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): We have learned that the approval committee has recommended that our proposal proceed, based on the draft proposal. HRDC staff are currently reviewing the file to flesh out and/or answer certain questions and /or comments raised by the committee. It is expected that HRDC staff will recommend our proposal to the Minister before the end of November, with a view to final approval before the end of the calendar year. b) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An article abut VolNet appeared on page 16 of the November 1999 edition of Silicon Valley North. Though the article did not mention NCF, it did however mention our partner, the Volunteer Centre of Ottawa Carleton noting that our program is acting as delivery agent for Ottawa's volunteer sector Gordon Pearson's column in the October edition of Monitor magazine provided a summary of the Harvest, thanked our Harvest Ride volunteers and corporate sponsors. Pearson's article can be read at: http://www.ncf.ca/ip/freenet/announce/monitor/1999-10 or in text-mode at "go freebytes" c) Flyer Program ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Work is now complete on our French language brochure thanks to Robert Rattey [ac866] who provided the French language copy. Miranda Gray [ak717] is distributing the new flyer in both languages to all local libraries. The flyers will be displayed in plastic stand up racks, located ideally near the FreeNet or Internet terminals. VolNet on-site trainers are distributing flyers to VolNet recipient agencies as well, to promote NCF membership among their employees and constituents. d) Auction ~~~~~~~ The annual NCF Auction will be launched on November 17, 1999. Thanks go to Michael Mason, [an956] who has once again volunteered to be NCF's auctioneer. You might be hearing from Mike soon as part of his job, he will be seeking out unique donations for auction, especially in the "Dream Items" or "Other Junk" categories. What about it; do you have something unique that we could auction off? Do you know a celebrity who might donate something? This year, the auction will be in a web format and some items will be listed complete with illustrations. Rather than a fixed ending date for the auction itself, each individual auction item will have its own unique closing date, allowing us to keep the auction interesting. All items sold will be items donated to NCF (or surplus equipment) and all proceeds will go to NCF. NCF members will automatically be registered to bid on auction items, but anyone with a valid email address (for auction password retrieval) will be able to bid. All items will need to paid for and picked up at the NCF office. e) Top Five Priorities - ED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) System reliability - Replace terminal server at Mitel - Continue to monitor and modify modem/annex arrangement at Carleton (2) Projects - Webmail - Urban CAP - VolNet - Thin Client (3) Flyer Program (4) Auction - get interface finished and auction items posted (5) Y2K Issues - Monitor and facilitate progress. 3. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As the modem statistics above suggest, the Carleton modem pool less than perfect quality of service. Replacement modems are often as weary as the tired modems they retire. Terminal servers often are unable to keep up with the load during peak hours. Current modem maintenance and resetting techniques enable us to achieve that maintain the current level of service, but will soon need to be addressed with new equipment. More capable terminal servers and fresher modems are quite simply required and search is on for equipment to be donated or purchased. Few options are available however, as we need to install equipment which is consistent with our analog Bell lines (not the newer digital technology). . Newbridge Networks sell a product called "MainStreetXpress 36100 ACCESS CONCENTRATOR" which can be configured for analog connections and Newbridge has a history of providing timely assistance to NCF. 3com (formerly US Robotics) also manufactures a remote access concentrator, which we are exploring as another alternative. Again, there is a history of corporate assistance with an earlier donation of US Robotics modems from this company through their reseller Keating Technologies. We have been told that we will be given a further donation of USR 33.6 modems from Mitel. The same series of equipment changes that Mitel is making to free up digital lines for NCF use will also eliminate at least one existing analog dial-up pool which Mitel currently provides for its employees. A new Xyplex terminal server previously donated by Newbridge has now been installed in the equipment rack. It will be necessary to modify our network configuration during a downtime to connect this server to the network. Newbridge has provided boot-mirror s/w for the server and G.S. Networks have serial DB25 to RJ45 adapters available, which will allow us to use standard network cables to connect to our modems. We expect to put the server into use in Mid November and will connect it to some of the modems currently overtaxing annex3. b) Y2K ~~~ The Sysadmin team will review the progress on the Freeport-Solaris port (thanks again to Ian! Allen) and evaluate what further measures are required to fully migrate Freeport to Solaris. Recent downtime has enabled us to upgrade our existing Solaris machines to Solaris 7. The goal is to have a single version of Solaris common across the network. We will then gradually migrate each existing SunOS client machine to the Y2K-compliant Solaris platform. c) Netscape Enterprise Web Server ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Sysadmin team has carefully evaluated many of the features and challenges related to the Netscape software. It now appears that it may be necessary to utilize some third-party components for some future initiatives such as WebMail, which did not integrate well with our current architecture (i.e. NES 3.6 under Solaris7) using only Netscape components. The release of Netscape Enterprise Server 4.0 however, may resolve some of these issues. For the time being, we will provide some services from an Apache server, thus adding flexibility and reliability. d) Sysadmin Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Resolve problems on Carleton servers/modems and balance server load (2) Initiate SunOS -> Solaris migration plan in preparation for Y2K (3) Resolve Webserver issues; consider future of Netscape vs. Apache (4) Remove f7 from service; relocate POP services (5) Install AS5200 NAS at Mitel and configure -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524