Executive Director's Report August 1999 =========================== September 19, 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 in registrations at 223, although the average donation is slightly higher than predicted, resulting in a variance of $1,526 or -38% for the month, On a year-to-date basis, we are under budget by $6,302 or -24% 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. 400 $ 4,000 Oct. 400 $ 4,000 Nov. 400 $ 4,000 Dec. 400 $ 4,000 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'99 1,655 2,600 -36% 835 50.5% $19,698 $26,000 -24% $23.59 $11.90 Avg'99 207 325 -36% 104 50.5% $ 2,462 $ 3,250 -24% $23.59 $11.90 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Similarly, we continue to lag behind Budget in renewals at 268, although the average donation is slightly higher than predicted, resulting in a variance of $2,309 or -38% for the month, On a year-to-date basis, we are under budget by $34,218 or -22% on revenue from new renewals. 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. 270 $ 5,500 Oct. 309 $ 6,300 Nov. 314 $ 6,400 Dec. 387 $ 7,900 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 5,289 7,612 -31% 4,519 85% $121,082 $155,300 -22% $26.79 $22.89 AVG'98 661 952 -31% 565 85% $ 15,135 $ 19,413 -22% $26.79 $22.89 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 ~~~ ~~~~~~~ 121 $ 3,695 $30.54 d) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consistent with several preceding months, the number of members (12,438) has been calculated by deducting the number of archived accounts in the month from the previous month's figure, then adding new registrants and unarchived accounts. This method has been employed temporarily, until the automated method, relied upon in 1998 can be fixed. The Sysadmin has provided an interim figure of 11,609 accounts as a snapshot, but not necessarily directly at month-end. The spread however, is judged to be larger than the discrepancy arising from a shift of a few days, and The Board may wish to think in terms of the smaller number. |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 e) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After a bit of cleaning up, the list of IPs now lists some 276 organizations, a drop of 18 since last month, largely through elimination of dormant IPs. We added one new Organizational Account this month: "Take Back The Night", bringing our total to 57. 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% f) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions: The total number of weekly sessions dropped by 6% to 69,896. PPP users accounted for 57% of these sessions with text users falling to 43%. 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% (ii) Unique users in a one week period: Similarly, the number of unique users fell by 2% to a total 0f 7,021. Of these, PPP users accounted for 53% with text users representing 47% 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% f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The modem monitoring software was used to make 3,628 attempts with the following results: 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 4 25% 75% 0 0% 0% 0 0% 0% 07:00 80 27% 72% 80 96% 3% 80 93% 3% 08:00 80 25% 75% 80 92% 7% 80 76% 3% 09:00 63 23% 76% 63 77% 22% 62 54% 8% 10:00 60 21% 78% 60 73% 26% 60 36% 16% 11:00 60 23% 76% 60 78% 21% 60 50% 15% 12:00 60 11% 86% 60 68% 31% 60 36% 23% 13:00 60 8% 91% 60 51% 48% 60 25% 33% 14:00 60 6% 93% 60 51% 48% 60 55% 35% 15:00 60 13% 86% 60 63% 36% 60 48% 33% 16:00 65 16% 83% 65 56% 43% 65 35% 32% 17:00 81 12% 87% 80 62% 37% 80 47% 27% 18:00 80 20% 78% 80 67% 32% 80 53% 26% 19:00 80 11% 88% 80 62% 37% 80 53% 28% 20:00 80 17% 82% 80 58% 40% 80 30% 27% 21:00 80 12% 87% 80 58% 38% 80 25% 28% 22:00 80 6% 93% 80 46% 42% 80 15% 26% 23:00 80 2% 97% 80 47% 51% 80 17% 27% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,213 15% 84% 1,208 61% 31% 1,207 42% 22% The following table, illustrates the frequency of actual error messages produced by the modem tracking software. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Busy 2 0.2% 13 1.1% 389 32.2% 404 11.1% DialTimeout 0 0.0% 1 0.1% 3 0.2% 4 0.1% ModemInitTimeout 3 0.2% 0 0.0% 10 0.8% 13 0.4% NoCarrier 219 18.1% 99 8.2% 4 0.3% 322 8.9% NoDialTone 229 18.9% 233 19.3% 232 19.2% 694 19.1% NoLoginPrompt 0 0.0% 32 2.6% 25 2.1% 57 1.6% NoServiceMenu 569 46.9% 32 2.6% 0 0.0% 601 16.6% OtherFailure 5 0.4% 6 0.5% 6 0.5% 17 0.5% Success 186 15.3% 792 65.6% 538 44.6% 1,516 41.8% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,213 100.0% 1,208 100.0% 1,207 100.0% 3,628 100.0% 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC RMOC has provided Bell Canada with a telephone number on their PBX. We await Bell Canada's programming of their DMS switch to transfer calls to this number during operative hours and to a fast busy during non-operative hours. (ii) Industry Canada - Urban CAP Ottawa steering committee: We expect Industry Canada to announce changes to the CAP program to enable Urban applications. We have learned however that the approach to be taken, may rely less on community driven models than originally anticipated, Discussions among the various agencies interested in pursuing an Urban CAP project for Ottawa will continue to discuss alternatives. (iii) Industry Canada - VolNet: The delivery phase of the VolNet program is well underway. Yvan Loranger [bq434] joined NCF as Internet Support Coordinator on September 7, 1999. Mr. Loranger, who's background includes teaching computers at Algonquin College and related PC support activities, will head up our team of "installers". The installers will perform a first visit to each of the recipient agencies, installing Internet software, setting up and confirming the connection to NCF and providing the first stage in their training. (iv) Email For Students Ottawa 2000 has endorsed our project as a "Millennium" project. This endorsement may be particularly important as we attempt to attract other partners to the initiative. Our first meeting with the Ottawa-Carleton School Board was very encouraging and although many detail need to be ironed out, it now seems likely that we will obtain buy-in from the Board. Our proposal for development funding to HRDC Office Of Learning Technology to support this initiative is now under discussion by OLT staff. While it seems likely that OLT will provide the funding, they have asked us to flesh out some of the non-technical areas of the plan, particularly the proposed student involvement and some of the shortcomings, pitfalls and concerns involved with alternative branded email schemes already available. (v) Industry Canada - Smart Communities The Ottawa "Smart Capital" bid was one of 24 proposals from communities in the Province of Ontario competing for one grant. A copy of the Letter of Intent and other information about Ottawa's bid is available on OCRI's website at http://www.ocri.ca/infrast/ocn/ocn.htm. (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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NCF received considerable exposure this month through its involvement in the Harvest Ride. Monitor Magazine featured well positioned full page ads and Gordon Pearson's FreeBytes column focused on the activity. The Ottawa Sun donated their inside back cover page for a full colour ad for the Ride on three separate days. Radio Station "The Bear" featured many spots throughout the week preceding the event, as well as a live remote from the event itself. John Calvert, CfSC's Vice President and I were interviewed live on the Bear and John was also interviewed on CFRA. The Kanata Kourier Standard ran stories about the event on three occasions and Nepean Today ran a nice post-event story with photographs. c) Throop Photographic Harvest Ride In addition to the publicity noted above, this year, the ride enjoyed considerably larger participation. Final financial details are not all in, but in brief, some 175 participants came out this year, contributing well over $7,000. d) Flyer Program phase II We are obtaining prices for reproduction and distribution of our Brochure in various quantities. While pricing will have some bearing on which opportunity we follow up on. The following 3 options are to be considered: i) Locate two plastic brochure racks in each public library, adjacent to their Internet terminals. In as much as the cost for this option will be approximately $250 or less, the step will be carried out regardless of the disposition of options ii and iii. ii) Produce 50,000 copies of the flyer. Arrange for systematic distribution by NCF Volunteers. Based on success levels, consider repeating the process until all neighborhoods in the Capital Region have received a flyer. iii) Produce and arrange for commercial distribution of 50,000 flyers, targeted by postal walk. As in ii above, consider repeating this step until all postal walks in the region have been covered. 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 - Extended Access II (RMOC) - Urban CAP - VolNet - Email for Students (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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Carleton modem pool maintains a predictable, imperfect quality of service. Replacement modems are often as weary as the tired modems they retire. Terminal servers consitently fail to keep up with the load during peak hours. Current modem maintenance techniques will only just achieve that - maintain the current level of service. However, said level of service has been gradually eroding for several years now and has gotten to unacceptable levels. More capable terminal servers and fresher modems are quite simply required. 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 will free up digital lines for NCF use will also eliminate at least one existing analog dial-up pool which Mitel provides for its employees. 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. We will then gradually migrate each existing SunOS client machine to the Y2K-compliant Solaris platform. c) Enterprise Server Troubles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Despite valiant efforts and strenuous research on part of our Sysadmin, certain third-party components that will play an important role in future initiatives such as webmail will not integrate well with our current architecture (ie. NES 3.6 under Solaris7). I don't expect these problems to be resolved until Enterprise Server 4.0 is released. Therefore, lacking this unreleased software, we may well require an Apache server for 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