Executive Director's Report May 2000 =========================== June 15, 2000 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Status Report 2. Administration & Funding 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives 4. System Administration 1. Status Report ================ a) Five Key Indicators: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ April May % | April % 2000 2000 Inc/Dec | 1999 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 9,739 9,345 -4.0% | 13,299 -42.3% 2. Donation Revenue: $18,978 $13,452 -29.1% | $17,525 -30.3% 3. Percentage donating: 69.6% 65.7% -5.5% | 82.5% -25.4% 4. Average Donation: $ 38.26 $33.36 -12.8% | $ 26.43 20.8% 5. Average Modem Failure: 11.3% 10.7% -5.3% | b) Top Five Priorities - ED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) System Reliability - 3Com access severs at Carleton installation & testing - Optimize Mitel Extended Access (2) Research alternative Internet Connectivity options (3) Membership Building - Finish up flyer distribution - Develop 'Modem Funding/Get More Members' program (4) Prepare 'Planning & Vision' document for Board (5) Projects - Urban CAP - HRDC - Thin Client - Smart Capital - Picnic c) Top Five Priorities - Sysadmin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Complete installation of new RAS 1500 Remote Access Servers (2) Fine-tuning of Extended Access at Mitel (3) Migrate webserver to UltraSPARC server. Switch to Apache/PHP/Perl. (4) Migrate POP server to an available Sparc10 (5) Continue to resolve O/S migration issues 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While the number of new members was slightly above Budget at 112, the revenue fell short of the forecast at $1,707, primarily because the percentage of donors was just 52.7%, compared with our Budget assumption of 85%. On a year-to-date basis, a similar picture is evident with some 733 new members compared to a Budget of 490 (+50%) donating $9,962 or 20% less than our forecast. (See Appendix "A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of renewals was well above Budget at 501 (+22%) and even though the percentage of donors was less than the forecast at 69%, the revenue associated with renewals was slightly above forecast at $11,745 (+12%). Compared to Registrations, year-to-date Renewal statistics are considerably more promising, both in numbers and in revenue. We report 3,477 (+25%) renewals vs. a forecast of 2,776 and renewal donations totalling $83,722 (+18%) vs. a Budget figure of $ 70,800. (See Appendix "B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership continues to decline: now standing at 9,345, down 29.7% from April last year and a loss of 4% in the month. (See Appendix "C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of menus dropped by 3 to 1,791 this month. The number of IPs with web pages however, increased to 439 this month. There were no new Org accounts and no new Line Sponsors. The number of personal homepages declined by 37 to 794, but continues to represent 8.5% of our current members. (See Appendix "D) e) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions: The number of weekly sessions declined slightly this month to 58,749 (-3%). This decline was primarily a loss of text sessions, which were down 1,113 or 5.4% per week. PPP sessions declined slightly with a loss of 460 or -1.4%. (See Appendix "E") (ii) Unique Users in a one-week period: The number of members (unique users using the system) declined by 5% to 5,869. The reduction was evenly apportioned among both text and PPP users at all sites. The reduction seems to be proportional to the decline in membership with some 62.8% of our members accessing the system this month compared to 63.1% last month. (See Appendix "F") f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The modem testing software was run throughout the period May 19, 16:35 to May 23 12:20, completing 4,310 attempts. Modem availability was high, with all three modem pools reporting a successful connection on the first try more than 65% of the time. The main modem pool came in best at 95% with Mitel not far behind at 75%. The high-speed pool reported 68% with peak periods forcing the ratio down because of popularity. (See Appendix "G") The overall Modem error figure was just 10.7% this month compared to 13% last month and 37.9% in March. The Mitel pool continues to give the poorest results, with some 22.8% of calls failing to negotiate handshake and authentication with the receiving modem. Error rates on the Main pool and the High-Speed pool were nearly the same at 4.9% and 4.5% respectively. 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC: The extended Access project that we had hoped to initiate last year at RMOC will now proceed as part of the SmartCapital project. Contracts and documentation of this project will likely delay actual project start up until the early fall (see "SmartCapital" next). (ii) Industry Canada - Smart Capital The "SmartCapital" partnership lead by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), covering some 13 projects, valued at approximately $13M, was selected by Industry Canada as the "Smart Community" for the province of Ontario. As a result, the SmartCapital partnership will be the recipient of up to $5M in matching funds over a 3-year time horizon, to establish a Smart Community Demonstration Project in our region. The National Capital FreeNet (NCF) is a partner in the project to carry out three initiatives: WebMail, Thin Client 2nd level and Extended Access II, The complete Smart Capital Proposal is available from the SmartCapital web site at http://www.smartcapital.ca. NCF will submit a draft "Statement of Work" to OCRI to be incorporated as part of the overall Smart Capital Statement of Work that will be submitted to Industry Canada. Jeff Bossert (au025) is Team Leader for this project. (iii) Industry Canada - Urban CAP: OCRI continues to lead an initiative to exploit synergy and shared objectives through the Ottawa CAP Consortium (http://www.ncf.ca/occ) this organization is a network of Urban and Rural CAP site networks to encompass over 200 CAP sites when it reaches capacity in 2001, and will serve an urban population of 750,000 in the new Ottawa megacity area. The National Capital FreeNet will provide services such as email, Thin Client etc. to this group and in this capacity, will enjoy the added exposure and publicity, and has a voice on the steering committee. (iv) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client We have received the first quarterly advance from HRDC and work on the project is underway. Discussions with Microsoft continue, now with several new Microsoft players to bring up to speed. A meeting is scheduled for June 16, 2000 for this purpose. Microsoft is progressing carefully on this, as they predict that ASP (Application Service Provider) activities are becoming increasingly important and accordingly wish to provide their support to NCF in harmony with emerging Microsoft ASP policy. Jeff Bossert (au025) is Team Leader on this project and has circulated to the Board under separate cover, a documentation package related to this project. (v) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Web-mail We await development funding for preparation of a detailed business plan. b) Bandwidth Costs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have investigated the services provided by MaxLink Communications Inc. (http://www.maxlink.com). MaxLink's services are delivered over a LMCS (Local Multipoint Communications System) network. LMCS is a fixed wireless broadband network (in the 28 GHz spectrum), capable of delivering 4 Meg synchronous Internet connections for $495 monthly. Unfortunately, MaxLink is not yet prepared to offer their service to a "reseller" and they consider NCF to fall under this category. The 4 Megs they envision are the sort of bursts expected from a corporate client, not a service like ours where many users will keep bandwidth consumption at a steady plateau. Maxlink currently has a transmitter located at Booth Street at Carling (directly across Dow's lake from Carleton. They currently have one customer situated on campus and are negotiating with Carleton University for the installation of some internal fibre connections, Providing bandwidth to FreeNet may be possible in future as additional elements are installed on campus and MaxLink will review the matter again in several months. Carleton continues to investigate ways of making their own use of their Internet connection more efficient. They have purchased as large proxy server to be used to cache frequently accessed files and expect to have it running by the fall school term. c) New Access Servers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The System Administrator continues with the installation process of our new 3Com RAS1500 access servers. Several major configuration hurdles have held the process up, including his developing a system that supports both text and PPP connections. 3Com is providing technical support to assist him. d) Flyer Blitz ~~~~~~~~~~~ Although the volunteer turn out was disappointing, we delivered some 6,000 NCF flyers on Saturday June 3rd, to homes in an area approximately bounded by Parkdale Avenue on the west, Elgin on the East, Carling Avenue on the south and the Ottawa River on the north. Several zones within this target area are yet to be completed and Fiona Hammond (ed491), the Team Leader is looking for volunteers to do so. A map showing the completed and to-be-done areas is available at http://www.ncf.ca/execdir/brochure/Map_Done.jpg e) Bookkeeper ~~~~~~~~~~ The search for a replacement bookkeeper continues. Meanwhile, Rudy Wytenburg (ar909), our former accountant continues to handle the job while a search for a replacement proceeds. Rudy has reviewed the work done for the period January 2000 to the present and expects to have financial statements available for the June 20 Board meeting. Jean Wilmot (aa145) has been leading the search for a replacement, but so far, we have not found someone suitable. f) Picnic ~~~~~~ The 2000 annual NCF picnic has been scheduled for Saturday, July 29. This year's picnic will be held at Brewer Park at Bronson and the Rideau River where there is lots of free parking and good access to buses. Scott McBride (en064) is Team Leader assisted by a team which continues to grow, but is presently comprised of Beth Rose (ax570), Patrick Campbell (az579), Scott Davies (eh382) and Marissa Bovey (bh590). 4. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 3Com Remote Access System 1500 servers have all arrived and are currently being configured with the assistance of 3Com Technical Support. The servers will be moved into testing using the 520-9013 High Speed lines once key configuration issues have been resolved. Once operational these servers will provide 33.6 connectivity on the 520-9013, 520-7835, and 47 lines from 520-1130/35. b) Community Portal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan Green (bd304) continues development of a portal system. The software will be designed in Perl5 and will be modular; initially supporting a CGI interface. The software will additionally support Apache/mod_perl for enhanced performance on large sites. Full specifications will be released with the software once it is functional. c) Extended Access - Mitel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Mitel system is operating 95.8% of optimal performance. Further action to increase stability and performance of the Cisco AS5200 to even better performance levels is underway. A meeting with a Mitels's internal Telecommunications Consultant (in-house Cisco expert) is tentatively scheduled for the week of June 19 at Mitel to discuss various available alternatives. d) Migrate POP ~~~~~~~~~~~ The former freenet3 will be configured as a Solaris 8 based drop-in replacement using the existing QPOP server (on freenet7). This machine should have enough horsepower to run additional services such as IMAP which may be required for future WebMail initiatives. e) Apache Webserver ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apache 1.3.12 with PHP4 has been compiled and is running on the UltraSPARC. The server is currently serving up the freenet website over NFS in addition to hosting a handful of PHP4 programs in test mode. Migration of the webroot and search engine as well as the configuration of software redirects and virtual servers currently being server by the production webserver (Netscape Enterprise 2.1) will complete the requirements necessary for migration. The server may also be extended through the addition of mod_perl and mod_ssl Apache modules to provide higher performance Perl CGI as well as secure server features. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appendix A Registration Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. No. % Of Avg. Avg. New Budget Regist Memb $ Budget Regist Donat'n Memb. (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donat'n All New ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'99 2,521 4,200 -40% 1,198 47.5% $28,153 $42,000 -33% $23.50 $11.17 Avg'99 210 350 -40% 100 47.5% $ 2,346 $ 3,500 -33% $23.50 $11.17 2000 Jan. 162 98 65% 73 45.1% $ 1,743 $ 2,500 -30% $23.88 $10.76 Feb. 191 98 95% 64 33.5% $ 2,021 $ 2,500 -19% $31.58 $10.58 Mar. 153 98 56% 92 60.1% $ 2,871 $ 2,500 15% $31.21 $18.78 Apr. 115 98 17% 66 57.4% $ 1,620 $ 2,500 -35% $24.55 $14.09 May. 112 98 13% 59 52.7% $ 1,707 $ 2,500 -32% $28.93 $15.24 Jun. 98 $ 2,500 Jul. 98 $ 2,500 Aug. 98 $ 2,500 Sep. 98 $ 2,500 Oct. 98 $ 2,500 Nov. 98 $ 2,500 Dec. 98 $ 2,500 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'00 733 490 50% 354 48.3% $ 8,962 $12,500 -20% $28.14 $13.59 Avg'00 147 98 50% 71 48.3% $ 1,992 $ 2,500 -20% $28.14 $13.59 Appendix B Renewal Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. % Of Avg. Renwl No. Budget Renwl Renwl $ Budget Renwl Donate Renwl (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donatn All Ren ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'99 6,587 8,892 -26% 5,554 84% $149,521 $181,400 -18% $26.92 $22.70 AVG'99 549 741 -26% 463 84% $ 12,460 $ 15,117 -18% $26.92 $22.70 Jan. 741 580 28% 441 60% $ 13,453 $ 14,800 -9% $30.51 $18.16 Feb. 899 549 64% 520 58% $ 19,069 $ 14,000 36% $36.67 $21.21 Mar. 738 647 14% 667 90% $ 22,097 $ 16,500 34% $33.13 $29.94 Apr. 598 588 2% 430 72% $ 17,358* $ 15,000 16% $40.37 $29.03 May. 501 412 22% 344 69% $ 11,745 $ 10,500 12% $34.14 $23.44 Jun. 208 $ 5,300 Jul. 157 $ 4,000 Aug. 129 $ 3,300 Sep. 78 $ 2,000 Oct. 106 $ 2,700 Nov. 208 $ 5,300 Dec. 482 $ 12,300 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'00 3,477 2,776 25% 2,402 69% $ 83,722 $ 70,800 18% $34.86 $24.08 AVG'00 695 555 25% 480 69% $ 16,744 $ 14,160 18% $34.86 $24.08 * The April report incorrectly stated the donation amount as $15,738. This typographical error has been corrected here, together with the calculated amounts using the incorrect number. Appendix C Membership Activity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |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 ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ |~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1999 | | Dec. 10,325 -2.6% |213 48| 114 400 405 387 22 411 | | 2000 | | Jan. 10,005 -3.1% |213 47| 162 98 741 580 13 323 Feb. 9,992 -0.1% |213 47| 191 98 899 549 1 217 Mar. 9,924 -0.7% |213 47| 153 98 738 647 24 195 Apr. 9,739 -1.9% |213 46| 115 98 598 588 19 329 May. 9,345 -4.0% |213 44| 112 98 501 412 10 506 Appendix D Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | Menus Menus Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ 1999 | | | Dec. 2 65| 0 8 | -20 223 223 32.7% | 841 8.1% | | | 2000 | | | Jan. 0 65| 0 8 | -5 218 268 20.2% | 848 8.5% Feb. 5 70| 0 8 | 5 223 273 1.9% | 850 8.5% Mar. 3 73| 0 8 | 1 219 274 0.4% | 845 8.5% Apr. 2 78| 0 8 | 1 1,794 414 0.0% | 831 8.5% May 0 78| 0 8 | -3 1,791 439 0.6% | 794 8.5% Appendix E Modem Usage Data - Weekly Sessions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Sessions Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ 1999 Dec. 32,146 68% 8,380 18% 40,526 86% 6,485 14% 47,011 -38% 2000 Jan. 38,628 53% 8,750 12% 47,378 65% 25,501 35% 72,879 55% Feb. 60,580 66% 7,695 8% 68,275 74% 23,985 26% 92,260 27% Mar. 36,545 54% 8,257 12% 44,802 67% 22,365 33% 67,167 -27% Apr. 31,935 53% 7,688 13% 39,623 66% 20,702 34% 60,325 -10% May. 31,475 54% 7,685 13% 39,160 67% 19,589 33% 58,749 -3% Appendix F Modem Usage Data - Unique Users ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Users Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ 1999 Dec. 3,719 41% 1,086 12% 4,805 53% 4,293 47% 9,098 -28% 2000 Jan. 3,736 39% 1,103 12% 4,839 51% 4,705 49% 9,544 5% Feb. 3,059 45% 1,050 16% 4,109 61% 2,648 39% 6,757 -29% Mar. 2,834 44% 1,040 16% 3,874 60% 2,581 40% 6,455 65% Apr. 2,719 44% 1,014 16% 3,733 61% 2,417 39% 6,150 -5% May. 2,572 44% 1,008 17% 3,580 61% 2,289 39% 5,869 -5% Appendix G Modem Availability & Test Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 05/05 15:56 to 05/08 10:46 - 3,113 attempts 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 80 85% 15% 80 92% 7% 80 61% 3% 01:00 80 92% 7% 80 97% 2% 80 87% 5% 02:00 3 66% 33% 1 100% 0% 0 0% 0% 07:00 80 88% 11% 80 92% 7% 80 86% 11% 08:00 80 82% 17% 80 96% 3% 80 85% 2% 09:00 80 78% 21% 80 96% 3% 80 67% 3% 10:00 80 68% 30% 80 93% 6% 80 71% 5% 11:00 80 62% 37% 80 98% 1% 80 52% 5% 12:00 67 68% 31% 67 98% 1% 67 65% 2% 13:00 60 68% 28% 60 95% 5% 60 66% 8% 14:00 60 76% 23% 60 98% 1% 60 70% 3% 15:00 60 65% 33% 60 95% 5% 60 80% 3% 16:00 69 66% 31% 68 95% 4% 68 76% 4% 17:00 80 63% 35% 80 95% 5% 80 71% 5% 18:00 80 85% 15% 80 96% 3% 80 86% 3% 19:00 80 88% 11% 80 95% 5% 80 93% 5% 20:00 80 90% 10% 80 88% 11% 80 83% 1% 21:00 80 71% 28% 80 96% 3% 80 55% 5% 22:00 80 75% 25% 80 92% 7% 80 61% 3% 23:00 80 73% 26% 80 93% 6% 80 52% 2% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,439 75% 23% 1,436 95% 4% 1,435 68% 14% Appendix H Modem Error Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DialTimeout - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% ModemInitTimeout 8 0.6% 3 0.2% 3 0.2% 14 0.3% NoCarrier 171 11.9% 27 1.9% 5 0.3% 203 4.7% NoDialTone - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% NoLoginPrompt - 0.0% 19 1.3% 1 0.1% 20 0.5% NoServiceMenu 144 10.0% 18 1.3% 51 3.6% 213 4.9% OtherFailure 5 0.3% 4 0.3% 4 0.3% 13 0.3% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TOTAL ERROR 328 22.8% 71 4.9% 64 4.5% 463 10.7% Busy 6 0.4% - 0.0% 333 23.2% 339 7.9% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 334 23.2% 71 4.9% 397 27.7% 802 18.6% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUCCESS 1,105 76.8% 1,365 95.1% 1,038 72.3% 3,508 81.4% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,439 100.0% 1,436 100.0% 1,435 100.0% 4,310 100.0% -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524