=========================================================================== Information Item NCF Services for Information Providers Christopher L. Cope Executive Director execdir@ncf.ca February 20, 2000 =========================================================================== Since inception in 1993, the National Capital FreeNet has offered its services to a wide variety of organizations in the vicinity of Ottawa. In addition to traditional Internet communication services such as email, and news etc, NCF offered space on their menu system and webserver for those organizations that wish to publish information about themselves, their constituents and and/or their services. Currently, NCF hosts some 1,804 menus and approximately 262 organizational webpages. Of this latter group, some 160 organizations have chosen to publish their information on NCF through our participation in Industry Canada's VolNet program. The following list provides details of the services that NCF currently offers to organizations and other Information providers: 1. Basic services ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ email: Organizations are provided with an email account. - Accessible in text-mode via system readers (mr or elm) or using a POP access method and a commercially available software client such as Eudora, Netscape mail etc. - The email account is furnished with a PFA email address(eg. orgname@ncf.ca) - Email sent to that address can be handled through the assigned account, or can be forwarded to up to five persons designated by the organization, to facilitate group receipt of e-mail. Menus: Organizations are provided with a menu on the text system - If requested, a "go" command will be provided. - Organizations wishing to use the menu system will be given access to MMS (Menu Maintenance System) for creating, editing, and transferring files and menus. - Up to three members of an organization can share access to the organization's information area, either by MMS, or direct web publishing tools (such as Netscape Navigator Gold). News: When requested by an organization, a newsgroup will be established in the ncf.hierarchy - to host group discussion among NCF members who have an interest in the organization and/or its activities and purposes. Web: Organizations are provided with a directory on the NCF tree to host information in WEB (HTML) format. - The Internet address (URL) for organizations will be in the form www.ncf.ca/org_name or www.ncf.carleton.ca/org_name - Access to the directory will be enabled using FTP. - Up to three members of an organization can share access to the organization's web page area using assigned log on names and passwords. - FTP access is exclusively to the organization's own directory. Forms: NCF offers a cgi script to process and send the results of an HTML form to a designated email address. - An example of the script in use can be observed at http://www.ncf.ca/ncf/survey/ or another at http://www.ncf.ca/boating/feedback.html 2. Services under development ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Listserve: NCF has installed Majordomo software and is currently testing the ease of operation and system impact. - Currently, NCF hosts lists for Business and Professional Women of Ottawa, Beta Sigma Phi Online Sigma Chapter, Ottawa Carleton Coalition of Seniors' Support Services, Olde Forge Mailing List and two NCF specific lists: NCF Moderated Minutes List and NCF Volunteer Mailing List. - At present, lists require significant amount of technical staff time at time of setup. A tool is to be developed to enable other trusted volunteers and/or staff to create a list without the need of technical staff. - Before offering this service to all organizations, policy will need to be developed and published relative to use, size etc. Web NCF is currently experimenting with software which allows Boards hosting of web style threaded discussion. - An experimental application is in test at http://www.ncf.ca/volnet/volnet.html.en Domain An experiment is underway to determine the complexity and Hosting impact should NCF elect to host virtual domains for organizations. - An interim step has been explored, where web sites can be displayed using the form orgname.ncf.ca. An example of this was tested at http://auction.ncf.ca/ This format can be offered without necessity of any external registration, although at present, the set up process requires significant technical staff time. - We are currently exploring the steps and requirements for full virtual domain hosting and are hosting the domain "volnet.org" for Industry Canada. This domain was previously registered through Network Solutions Inc. in United States, and we have been successful in listing our DNS servers there and arranged for the transfer of the domain volnet.org to us. IN this case, a fee has been paid by Industry Canada to Network Solutions, for the domain registration. - Should we elect to offer virtual domain registration on an ongoing basis, we will need to explore fees, and staff requirements etc. Web Consideration is being given to finding ways to offer Design classes to organizations for web page design. - A 3-hour course including curriculum, hand-outs etc, will be offered to VolNet recipients as part of the Industry Canada program. On completion, of the VolNet course, it is hoped that the courseware will be useful to establish a similar single session course, perhaps as a function of the newly revived Speakers Task Force. -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524