Executive Director's Report September 1999 =========================== October 17, 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We continue to lag behind Budget with registrations reported at 291. This is however, a slight improvement on last month's 223. The average registration donation was slightly higher than predicted at $42.11, but the percentage of donors dropped to a low of 32.6%, the worst this year. The result was a variance of -$1,691 or -42% for the month, Donations from new registrants on a year-to-date basis, is under budget by $7,993 or -27% on revenue from new registrants. 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. 400 $ 4,000 Nov. 400 $ 4,000 Dec. 400 $ 4,000 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'99 1,946 3,000 -35% 930 47.8% $22,007 $30,000 -27% $23.55 $11.31 Avg'99 216 333 -35% 103 47.8% $ 2,445 $ 3,333 -27% $23.55 $11.31 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Similarly, we continue to lag behind Budget in renewals at 305, although like registrations, this is an improvement on last month's 268. The average donation was excellent at $26.63, but only 64.6% of renewing members donated, the lowest amount this year. The result was a variance of $990 or -18% for the month, On a year-to-date basis, revenue from renewals is under budget by $35,208, continuing at -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. 309 $ 6,300 Nov. 314 $ 6,400 Dec. 387 $ 7,900 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 5,594 7,882 -29% 4,716 84% $125,592 $155,300 -22% $26.63 $22.45 AVG'98 622 876 -29% 524 84% $ 13,955 $ 17,867 -22% $26.63 $22.45 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 ~~~ ~~~~~~~ 121 $ 3,695 $30.54 d) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Using the approach taken for several preceding months, calculated by deducting the number of archived accounts in the month from the previous month's figure, then adding new registrants and unarchived accounts, the number of members would have been reported as 12,072. This month however, the number reported at 11,112, is based on a figure determined manually by the Sysadmin. The reduction of 10.7% therefore, represents a reduction of 2.9% together with an adjustment of 7.8%. |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 * The number of members has been adjusted from 12,072 to 11,072 to reflect the true number of members in the member database, as determined manually by the Sysadmin. e) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apart from organizations coming on board through the VolNet program, three new organizations joined our IP list: B. Grant, Tara Players and Beta Sigma Phi. We continue to clean up the IP list, and report a reduction of 16 organizations to 260, largely through elimination of dead accounts. There is a significant increase (51.5%) in the number of IPs with webpages as VolNet organizations begin to install their pages. The current number of IPs with webpages is 156. 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% f) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions: The total number of weekly sessions dropped by 5% to 66,710. PPP users accounted for 60% of these sessions with text users falling to 40%. 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% (ii) Unique users in a one week period: Similarly, the number of unique users fell by 2% to a total 0f 6,907. Of these, PPP users accounted for 54% with text users representing 46% of the total. 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% f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The modem monitoring software was used to make 2,667 attempts 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 20 25% 70% 20 75% 25% 20 30% 5% 00:00 60 25% 70% 60 78% 21% 60 26% 5% 01:00 60 33% 66% 60 96% 3% 60 63% 1% 02:00 2 0% 100% 0 0% 0% 1 0% 0% 07:00 60 38% 61% 60 95% 5% 60 93% 5% 08:00 50 50% 48% 49 91% 8% 49 69% 4% 09:00 31 54% 45% 31 93% 6% 31 41% 3% 10:00 20 30% 70% 20 90% 10% 20 50% 0% 11:00 20 55% 45% 20 90% 10% 20 50% 0% 12:00 20 50% 50% 20 100% 0% 20 60% 5% 13:00 26 46% 53% 26 92% 7% 26 76% 0% 14:00 40 35% 65% 40 97% 2% 40 60% 0% 15:00 40 42% 57% 40 92% 7% 40 47% 2% 16:00 42 33% 66% 42 90% 9% 41 41% 4% 17:00 60 38% 61% 60 91% 8% 60 25% 0% 18:00 60 36% 63% 60 90% 10% 60 60% 0% 19:00 60 25% 73% 60 91% 8% 60 30% 3% 20:00 60 28% 71% 60 78% 21% 60 25% 3% 21:00 60 8% 90% 60 73% 23% 60 18% 5% 22:00 60 8% 91% 60 83% 16% 60 8% 5% 23:00 60 11% 85% 60 83% 16% 60 15% 3% ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 911 32% 67% 908 84% 10% 908 42% 3% The following table, illustrates the frequency of actual error messages produced by the modem tracking software. The Extended Access lines (271-9768) result in successful connections on only 31.2% of attempts, largely due to system failure. (NoServiceMenu 57.2%). The Main Modem pool connected successfully 88.4% of the time. The High Speed Pool was successful only 42.6%, but this is largely because of the pool's popularity, with busy signals reported on 54.5% on these attempts. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Busy 8 0.9% 2 0.2% 484 54.5% 494 18.5% DialTimeout 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 1 0.1% 1 0.0% ModemInitTimeout 15 1.7% 9 1.0% 13 1.5% 37 1.4% NoCarrier 71 8.0% 40 4.5% 4 0.5% 115 4.3% NoDialTone 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% NoLoginPrompt 0 0.0% 4 0.5% 0 0.0% 4 0.1% NoServiceMenu 510 57.2% 44 5.0% 1 0.1% 555 20.8% OtherFailure 9 1.0% 4 0.5% 7 0.8% 20 0.7% Success 278 31.2% 785 88.4% 378 42.6% 1,441 54.0% ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 891 100.0% 888 100.0% 888 100.0% 2,667 100.0% 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC RMOC, as part of their Y2K readiness planning, has temporarily stalled 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 next month. (iii) Industry Canada - VolNet: The delivery phase of the VolNet program continues. It appears that we will reach our goal of connection 250 volunteer sector agencies in the Capital Region. The following table illustrates activity: Number of applications approved to date: 219 Number of applications on hold: 18 Target number of organizations 250 Number of new computers delivered: 28 Number of new computer orders outstanding: 38 Number of recycled computers delivered 0 Number of recycled computers outstanding 4 Number of organizations visited: 12 Number of connection visits pending 35 Number of completed NCF registrations 89 (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): Work continues on the business plan for a "Thin Client" project. A draft plan has been circulated to the NCF Board for comment and discussion. After approval and/or amendment by the Board, the next stage would be to present the plan to the Office of Learning Technology. b) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An article by Dave Crowley appeared in the October edition of Ottawa Computes. The article is very favourable to NCF and describes our progression over the last few years. Text of the article can be read at: http://www.ncf.ca/ip/freenet/subs/public-relations/media/Crowley or, in text-mode at "go ncf-media" select 1999. Gordon Pearson's column in the October edition of Monitor magazine provided an excellent wrap-up of the Harvest Ride and provided accolades to our Harvest Ride volunteers and recognition for the event's 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) 1999 Throop Photographic Harvest Ride ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ c) Throop Photographic Harvest Ride ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Harvest Ride did much to raise the profile of NCF, with some 200 participants and extensive media coverage. The Ottawa Sun donated their inside back cover in full cover on four separate days. Radio station 106.9 FM "The Bear" provided dozens of plugs, a live interview with John Calvert (of CfSC) and myself and a live remote from the site. Monitor Magazine, in addition to providing all printing for the event itself, including flyers etc., Monitor ran large colour ads leading up to the even and Gordon Pearson's FreeBytes column talked about the even extensively for the two months leading up to the event. The Kanata Kourier-Standard ran three stories prior to the even and a post event story. Nepean This week ran a post event story, with two large pictures. Financial details of the Ride (subject to confirmation and a couple of loose ends) appear as follows: Revenue Donations & pledges $3,407 Corporate cash sponsors 3,750 ~~~~~~ $7,157 Expenses Insurance $ 163 Consulting 3,326 Site & Miscellaneous 363 ~~~~~~ $3,852 ~~~~~~ Net proceeds $3,305 NCF Share (50% each NCF & CfSC) $1,653 ~~~~~~ d) Flyer Program ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Miranda Gray (ak717) has made arrangements to distribute our new flyer to all local libraries. The flyers will be displayed in plastic stand up racks, located ideally near the FreeNet or Internet terminals. Work is underway on a French version of the brochure. 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) Membership Building - Auto-install software to computer stores. - Email for students (5) Y2K Issues - Monitor and facilitate progress. 3. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Research is underway to find specialized cabling required for the Xyplex terminal access that was donated by Newbridge. Installation of this server will allow us to move 20 modems from the Annex3 servers, thus reducing load on these overburdened access servers, and resulting in improvements to the quality of service. It may well be possible to make our own cables or enlist the services of a company such as Anixter; as we have documentation on the technical makeup of these cables. b) Mitel ~~~~~ Great News!! We have received word that the new ISDN PRI lines have been installed at Mitel. This means we can expect an opportunity soon, to install the Cisco AS5200 access server, which was donated by Cisco Systems to replace our failing AS5100. Once operational, this new server is expected to resolve the several connectivity issues on our Extended Access pool and yield highly reliable service. c) Y2K ~~~ The Sysadmin team will be implementing a Solaris/Y2K environment to function alongside but separate from the SunOS environment. By moving the Solaris/Y2K environment to production, we allow for a much wider user test-base, without compromising the legacy systems. In short, we introduce an environment that allows us to withstand the impact of Y2K while maintaining a fallback position to the old systems. Supplemental to our migration to Solaris 7, we will attempt to patch SunOS or Y2K compliance as time permits; however this will only reduce, not eliminate the impact of Y2K on these machines. d) Netscape Enterprise Server ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New versions of the Suitespot series of servers have been released for Solaris and are being tested. The Sun-Netscape alliance may well work to our advantage. In particular, we have been unable configure this server for PHP, a requirement for "IMP", the Webmail interface which we have chosen. e) Webmail ~~~~~~~ Webmail (using "IMP") has been installed on an Apache server at http://web.ncf.ca:8080/ and is being configured to match NCF needs. In the event that the Enterprise server can not be configured for PHP we will still be able to offer quality Webmail services through use of a redirect to this from the main server. f) Sysadmin Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Resolve problems on Carleton servers/modems and balance server load (2) Introduce Solaris Y2K-ready environment into NCF Production (3) Install AS5200 NAS at Mitel and configure (4) Upgrade Netscape Suitespot servers; enabling Webmail (5) Complete adoption of volnet.org hosting services -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524