Executive Director's Report February, 2000 =========================== March 20, 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 Top Key Indicators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ January February % | February % 2000 2000 Inc/Dec | 1999 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 10,005 9,992 -0.1% | 13,461 -34.7% 2. Donation Revenue: $15,196 $21,090 +38.8% | $26,020 -23.4% 3. Percentage donating: 56.9% 53.6% -5.9% | 86.0% -60.5% 4. Average Donation: $29.56 $36.11 22.2% | $28.66 20.6% 5. Average Modem Failure: 34.0% 27.9% -17.8% | 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of new member registrations exceeded our forecast this month, but fell short of our projection in revenue. Of the 210 new members registering, only 64 (33.5%) donated. The average donation was about what we expected at $31.58, resulting in total registration revenue for the month at $2,021 (-19%). (See Appendix "A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At 899, the number of renewals also exceeded (+64%) our forecast this month but in this case, the revenue associated with renewals was also well over the projected amount at $19,069 (+36%). (See Appendix "B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The decline in membership slowed considerably this month with a net loss of just 13 members or -0.1% to 9,992. (See Appendix "C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We saw an increase in both organisational webpages this month: from 268 to 272; and in personal home pages: from 848 to 850. We did well with organisational accounts this month with payments recorded from 5 organisations: FBCK, TVartanova, LTCO, VCOC, Ottawa Aikikai. f) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions: This report marks the first time since December 1999 that the system usage tools have been used to report session and user statistics. The software that logs these statistics was not Y2K compliant and was disabled until a fix could be implemented. A 7-day history of usage, updated daily is once again available at "go usage, select 9." There appears to have been a substantial jump in the number of PPP sessions per week at 60,580, but this would seem to be an anomaly, occurring only during the week studied. This week for example, we have recorded 36,060 PPP sessions. PPP sessions accounted for 74% of the usage with text sessions representing only 27%. (See Appendix "E") (ii) Unique users in a one week period: The number of unique users per week however, was considerably lower than last month at 6,757 (-29%) and of these, 61% were PPP users and 39% were text users. The number of PPP users remained approximately the same with the reduction largely attributable to a smaller number of text users. (See Appendix "F") f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3,178 test logins were made, recording a modem as "available" when it answered and delivered a login prompt. In other words, "available" meant "available first try." The 520-1135 pool operated at an average 87% available. 520-9013 was considerably busier, registering as available 42% of the time. 271-9768 was the most difficult to connect to with an average availability of 29%. (See Appendix "G") Modem error messages (reported by the test software) were studied and although the average error percentage across all modem pools declined from 34.0% to 27.9%, the 271-9768 pool continued to be problematic at 68.1% total error percentage. The 520-1135 pool fared better with a 13.3% error rate. Although the high-speed pool (520-9013) was the most difficult to connect to, this is largely attributable to popularity and "busyness" with an average error percentage of only 2%. 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC This project is currently inactive. We hope to re-activate it soon, and are currently seeking a technology partner to assist us with our remote access server needs for this location. (ii) Industry Canada - Urban CAP: Activity continues with the city-wide steering committee. Support and participation has been offered by the municipalities of Gloucester, Nepean, Ottawa and the Regional Municipality (on behalf of the Mega-city transition team), public libraries, TAPP (The Antipoverty Project), Millennium Learning Centres, Boys and Girls Club, Children's Aid Society and several small organisations. NCF, as part of its contract with Industry Canada is co-ordinating the development of a city-wide strategy and frame of reference for the soon-to-be formed steering committee. (iii) Industry Canada - VolNet: The delivery phase of the VolNet program is nearly complete. At the end of the project, we will have connected some 244 Volunteer sector agencies. (See also Appendix "I") On-site training was delivered to 46 organisations during the month of February, bringing the total of Internet installation/training visits to 208. National Capital FreeNet trainer/installers visit the organizations to install and configure the software for Internet connection and show groups how to use it. During the month of February, approximately 50 organizations attended all-day training sessions at the Bronson Centre. (iv) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client We have adjusted the official start date for this project to April 1, 2000. A detailed cash-flow projection has been prepared and submitted to HRDC and we await payment of our requested advance for the first quarter (April 1 through June 30). (v) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Web-mail We have been informed that our proposal has now passed through staff scrutiny and the approved Letter of Intent and request for development funding has been passed on for approval. HRDC officials report delays however, arising from Departmental changes to their administrative and auditing procedures. At this time, payments are being made only to "old files" such as our Thin Client project, but new projects have been placed temporarily on hold. b) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The March addition of Monitor magazine carried an excellent synopsis of FreeNet's 7th Birthday celebration. Monitor also increased the size of our ad generously donated) to a full page featuring the AGM and encouraging new members to join. c) Survey ~~~~~~ NCF's survey is now complete. The results of the survey (including a detailed multi-page summary, an Excel spreadsheet for downloading, a list of the open-form comments) have been posted to: http://www.ncf.ca/ncf/survey/ d) New Access Servers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3Com Canada Inc. together with Keating Technologies Inc. have agreed to donate slightly more than half the cost of Access Servers and modems to a enable our upgrading half of our main modem pool to state-of-the art equipment. As part of this plan, we have ordered three 3Com RAS 1500 Remote Access Servers, six RAS expansion modules and eighteen quad-modem cards which in total, allows us to eliminate 72 modems and the three Annex 3 terminal servers. We expect to take delivery of this new equipment early in April and install it shortly thereafter. The Technical Team will meet on Monday, March 27 to plan the installation strategy (see also item a) of the System Administration Report below. e) Flyer Blitz ~~~~~~~~~~~ The Public Relations team lead by Fiona Hammond [ed491] is working on a plan to distribute flyers to approximately 10,000 homes in our area, The plan calls for volunteers to do a one-day blitz ending with a pizza 'n pop party on conclusion. The date and time will be announced as project details are worked out. f) AGM ~~~ New web-based voting software is now complete, subject to final testing and minor fine-tuning to the user interface. Thanks go to Mark Mielke [al278] for developing the software. All candidates will have an opportunity to participate in an email message to all members. In addition, the voting software itself allows information about candidate platforms to be hot-linked to their name on the AGM ballot. f) Top Five Priorities - ED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Acquire and install new modems/access severs at Carleton (2) Complete installation of Cisco AS5200 Access Server at Mitel (3) AGM (4) Projects - Webmail - Urban CAP - VolNet - Thin Client (5) Continued focus on remaining System bugs. 3. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The current plan to resolve and improve many of our modem reliability issues is to invest in a more modern access server solution (see above). Negotiations with 3COM Canada Inc. and Keating Technologies Inc. have resulted in our recent order of three "loaded" 3COM RAS 1500 units. Each unit provides capacity for 24 analog ports with integrated v.34 33.6kbps modems. This new equipment will allow us to update 72 ports in our existing modem pool. The new modems, coupled with 30 of our existing 28.8 modems will produce a high-speed modem pool comprised of 102 ports, or approximately 60% of our lines. b) Y2K ~~~ Issues related to the Solaris migration, initiated as a result of Y2K, continue to be addressed. Sysadmin attention however, is no longer monopolized by this one category of system stability. c) AGM2000 ~~~~~~~ A Sparc5 system has been installed in the racks for service as the AGM2000 machine. The AGM for the first time will be run in a web environment. The system is now accessible from either Netscape or Lynx. Mark Mielke (al278) has finished the new web-based software that we will use to run the AGM this year. It is now open for testing and you are encouraged to try it at: "http://agm.ncf.carleton.ca/cgi-bin/vote/test2" and send the Sysadmin any comments and/or suggestions for tweaks or bug fixes. d) Community Portal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan Green (bd304) continues experimental development of a portal system that will integrate with any webserver. e) Mitel ~~~~~ Cisco technical support staff are working with the Sysadmin to resolve implementation and configuration problems to get the AS5200 remote access server operational at Mitel. f) Migrate POP ~~~~~~~~~~~ The current POP server is a Sparc2 running very basic "QPOP" server software. Freenet3, which has been temporarily removed from service, will be reinstated on the network, and used to replace the weaker Sparc2 system. A Solaris 7 system has been configured on freenet7 and the machine will be installed as a drop-in replacement, running the same QPOP software. This should resolve any lingering performance issues on the POP server. g) Xyplex Access Server ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We expect to secure a cabling solution shortly, to permit the use of our Xyplex terminal server, donated earlier by Newbridge Networks. RJ45 to serial cables will need to be custom made. h) Sysadmin Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Resolve issues with Cisco AS5200 at Mitel (2) Install new RAS 1500 Remote Access Servers; Configure and enable additional NAS (Xyplex)at Carleton (3) Migrate POP server to SS10 and Netscape Messenging (4) Migrate webserver to UltraSPARC server. (5) Complete Solaris migration plan, retire SunOS. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 98 $ 2,500 Apr. 98 $ 2,500 May. 98 $ 2,500 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'99 353 196 80% 137 38.8% $ 3,763 $5,000 -25% $27...47 $10.66 Avg'99 177 98 80% 69 38.8% $ 1,882 $2,500 -25% $27.47 $10.66 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'98 6,587 8,892 -26% 5,554 84% $149,521 $181,400 -18% $26.92 $22.70 AVG'98 549 741 -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. 647 $ 16,500 Apr. 588 $ 15,000 May. 412 $ 10,500 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'98 1,640 1,129 45% 961 59% $ 32,522 $ 28,800 13% $33.83 $19.83 AVG'98 820 565 45% 481 59% $ 16,261 $ 14,400 13% $33.84 $19.83 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 Oct. 10,669 -4.0% |213 50| 201 400 320 309 8 652 Nov. 10,600 -0.6% |213 50| 260 400 268 314 268 597 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 Appendix D Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ 1999 Oct. 3 63| 0 8 | -11 249 133*-14.7% | 839 7.9% Nov. 0 63| 0 8 | -6 243 168 26.3% | 852 8.0% 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% 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 Oct. 29,410 50% 7,175 12% 36,585 62% 22,742 38% 59,327 -11% Nov. 37,450 49% 7,319 10% 44,769 59% 31,044 41% 75,813 28% 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% 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 Oct. 3,090 42% 1,026 14% 4,116 56% 3,173 44% 7,289 6% Nov. 7,164 56% 1,026 8% 8,190 64% 4,523 36% 12,713 74% 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% Appendix G Modem Availability & Test Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 03/03 4:47 PM to 03/06 10:43 AM: 3,058 attempts 03/15 16:21 PM to 03/15 18:20 PM 120 attempts ~~~~~ 3,178 attempts 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 0:00 60 33% 66% 60 85% 15% 60 50% 5% 1:00 60 36% 63% 60 95% 5% 60 86% 5% 2:00 0 0% 0% 1 100% 0% 0 0% 0% 7:00 60 45% 55% 60 93% 6% 60 71% 3% 8:00 60 38% 61% 60 96% 3% 60 53% 0% 9:00 60 36% 63% 60 86% 13% 60 26% 1% 10:00 55 32% 65% 55 89% 10% 54 12% 1% 11:00 40 30% 65% 40 77% 22% 40 15% 2% 12:00 40 35% 65% 40 90% 10% 40 30% 2% 13:00 40 30% 67% 40 87% 12% 40 42% 2% 14:00 40 25% 75% 40 87% 12% 40 35% 0% 15:00 40 27% 72% 40 85% 15% 40 40% 5% 16:00 58 31% 65% 57 80% 19% 57 59% 1% 17:00 80 23% 75% 80 92% 7% 80 65% 1% 18:00 67 31% 68% 67 89% 10% 67 59% 2% 19:00 60 30% 68% 60 88% 11% 60 30% 5% 20:00 60 21% 78% 60 81% 18% 60 43% 1% 21:00 60 30% 70% 60 85% 15% 60 48% 3% 22:00 60 26% 73% 60 75% 25% 60 38% 1% 23:00 60 26% 73% 60 76% 23% 60 35% 3% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,060 29% 64% 1,060 87% 13% 1,058 42% 2% Appendix H Modem Error Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ DialTimeout - 0.0% - 0.0% 3 0.3% 3 0.1% ModemInitTimeout 7 0.7% 3 0.3% 8 0.8% 18 0.6% NoCarrier 122 11.5% 44 4.2% - 0.0% 166 5.2% NoDialTone - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% NoLoginPrompt - 0.0% 4 0.4% 1 0.1% 5 0.2% NoServiceMenu 587 55.4% 87 8.2% 1 0.1% 675 21.3% OtherFailure 6 0.6% 3 0.3% 8 0.8% 17 0.5% ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ TOTAL ERROR 722 68.1% 141 13.3% 21 2.0% 884 27.9% Busy 8 0.8% - 0.0% 542 51.6% 550 17.3% ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ALL FAILED CALLS 730 68.9% 141 13.3% 563 53.6% 1,434 45.2% Success 330 31.1% 919 86.7% 488 46.4% 1,737 54.8% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,060 100.0% 1,060 100.0% 1,051 100.0% 3,171 100.0% Appendix I VolNet Progress ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applications Applications received 293 New applications 7 Ineligible/incomplete/transferred 32 Withdrawn 21 Transferred to other Das 3 Accepted 244 Computers New computers 172 Recycled computers 60 Modems 44 Upgrades reimbursed 21 Internet Connections Installed 244 Training On-site training 208 Hands-on Internet workshops (1 day) 50 -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524