Date: Sat Jan 22 1994 23:29:12 From: Greg Laudeman To: All Subj: Meeting Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- It was said: Kh> ....., please have someone take notes. I want to be Kh> a part of this. Kh> PL> Rest assured, we'll take notes on everything that happens :-) Have transcribed those tapes yet, Philip? The meeting went off, and went off well. Thanks to all who came, and to those who are interested but were unable to be with us. Here's a general overview: *Introductions: Many interesting stories about who we are and why we were there. See the following message for a list of attendees. *Vision/Mission statement: Led off by Philip, we had an excellent discussion about what we are trying to do. See the following message for my interpretation. *Organization: We decided the best organization form for the present is Teaming. We set up five teams--with facilitators--to address various areas of concern. See the other following message for details. There should be areas specific to each team soon. Everybody wanting to participate in the development of the pubnet, please contact the team leader(s) for the area in which you are interested. --- MacWoof Eval:29Oct93 * Origin: Over under around and through (1:362/122.48@fidonet) Date: Sat Jan 22 1994 23:35:08 From: Greg Laudeman To: All Subj: Teams Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- We decided the best organization form for now is Teams. Each team has one or more facilitators who are responsible for the team's deliverables. [Note: team leaders coordinate their activities and provide others with a delivery date, and stick to it!] We defined five teams: Documentation - distilling our mutual vision into in a form that can be shared with others. Deliverables are: a name, a mission statement, a business plan, and marketing presentations. Greg Laudeman is the team facilitator. Capital - pursuing start-up funds for the system, and developing long-term cash flow. Deliverable are: money and capital goods. Charles Ledbetter is the team facilitator. Recruitment - getting others informed about and interested in the project, particularly community opinion leaders. Deliverables are: opportunities for us to present our vision to persons and groups in the community. Paul Southerland and Jim Couch are the team facilitators. Platform - developing the technical aspects of the system, defining hardware and software to be used to provide connectivity (the protocol stack). Deliverables are standards for system hardware and software: terminals, servers and transmission. Shawn Stodard, Robert Wilson and Dan Lyke are team facilitators. Resources - cultivating a base of persons and organizations willing to commit to providing an information service ("extended whats"). Deliverables are: human capital. Philip is the team facilitator. We probably also need an Education (marketing?) team to develop a curriculum for the use and benfits of the pubnet. Obviously, the teams overlap in places. I think this is reasonable (even desirable?). The teams need to work together, we will be relying on each othersÕ deliverables to make this effort a success. --- MacWoof Eval:29Oct93 * Origin: Over under around and through (1:362/122.48@fidonet) Date: Sat Jan 22 1994 23:37:24 From: Greg Laudeman To: all Subj: Mission statement Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- It is the mission of the our organization to develop an electronic communication system in support of our community. This system is to be inclusive, accessible, comprehensive, practical, and secure. Inclusive: all persons, cultural persepctives, and ideologies are welcome. The foundation of inclusiveness is respect for others, respect can only come through understanding, so our objective must be to promote understanding among the members of our community. Accessible: for our system to be inclusive it must be both physically and technically accessible. Terminals should be conveniently located, services must be easy to use. Comprehensive: the system must support as much variety in form and content as is feasible. Practical: the system must be inexpensive and provide community members with tangible, salient benefits. Secure: the system should be reliable and its content safe from unauthorized duplication, destruction or falsification. Information property rights must be assured. Our system will operate under these basic principles: - Communication is central to the existence and quality of our community. - The robust and equitable exchange of knowledge empowers participants to improve their community and their quality of life. - All voices must be given an opportunity to be heard. - It is the right and responsibility of all community members to control their own -- and only their own -- communications: what information they take in or share with others. - It is incumbent upon all communicators to respect the beliefs, feelings, and sensibilities of all participants in the communication process. It should function to: - optimize social efficiency, effectiveness and equity - be an open "marketplace of ideas," - provide public access to community information - foster communication between all members of our community It is our goal to provide "connectivity" and access, rather than information. We do not seek to duplicate the efforts of electronic bulletin board systems or on-line services. Our organization will simply provide a practical means for the sharing of information. We will provide a platform (a "server"), maintenance and management of the server, a means of connecting to the server, and standard document formats. Information may be provided by any authorized provider. Providers may be either commercial or non-commercial. Commercial services may be charged a fee to subsidize the operation of the system. It is not our goal to be information ÒgatekeepersÓ to our users. But, in order to optimize operation of the system and assure that we are meeting our objectives, some control over content may be exercised. Content will be judged based upon it timeliness, educational value, and pertinence to our community. No content will be censored unless there is a consensus that it presents a real threat to the well-being of our community. All content will be clearly and truthfully identified. --- MacWoof Eval:29Oct93 * Origin: Over under around and through (1:362/122.48@fidonet) Date: Sat Jan 22 1994 23:45:26 From: Greg Laudeman To: all Subj: A Name Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- Probably the most pressing issue for us is to name our venture. "Pubnet" is taken, as is "Free-Net." I'd like to avoid meaningless acronyms, if at all possible. I think that using the word "net" somehow is acceptable, if not desireable. From a marketing perspective, we really need to have something that is attractive and reassuring, yet suggests something revolutionary (evolutionary?) and powerful. Let's have an on-line brainstorm: Chatt-Net, Neighborhood Net, Net Chattanooga, Community Net, E-Forum, We, Virtual Chattanooga, The Community Link What do you like, any suggestions, anybody? --- MacWoof Eval:29Oct93 * Origin: Over under around and through (1:362/122.48@fidonet) Date: Sun Jan 23 1994 00:19:52 From: Greg Laudeman To: all Subj: Attendees Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- This is a list of the attendees at the meeting. Greg Laudeman [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Phil Harper [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Robert Wilson [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Philip Luckey [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Charles Ledbetter [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Paul Southerland [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Jack and Vicki Leather [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Dan Lyke [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Shawn Stoddard, Enterprising Solutions [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Mike Harrison, Higher Technology Services [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Ron Cramer, Fidonet coor., Net 362 [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] Jim Couch "Sorry, Jim, I couldn't make out your address." [***ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER REMOVED***] --- MacWoof Eval:29Oct93 * Origin: Over under around and through (1:362/122.48@fidonet) Date: Mon Jan 24 1994 22:25:04 From: Greg Laudeman To: all Subj: Overview Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- I'd like to suggest that we call our organization the Chattanooga Community Link, and the system we wish to create, the Link. Here's an overview of what it seems to be all about, and how it might be done. Does this sound like what we're after? How do you see it evolving? What do you think of the name? And, didn't we meet in Lima, in the summer of 1949? No... I'm sorry, that was someone else. Mission The Chattanooga Community Link exsists to provide an electronic communication system for the members of our community. ChattaComLink will be the platform, the basic shared resources, a computer network: a server, connectivity to the server, and standard document formats. All information resources will be provided by community institutions, businesses and individuals. The environment created by our system, to be know as the Link, will be inclusive, accessible, comprehensive, practical, and secure. ¥ Inclusive All persons, cultural persepctives, and ideologies are welcome. The foundation of inclusiveness is respect for others, respect can only come through understanding, so our objective must be to foster understanding among the members of our community. ¥ Accessible For our system to be inclusive it must be both physically and technically accessible. Terminals should be conveniently located, services must be easy to use. ¥ Comprehensive The system should support as much variety in form and content as is feasible. ¥ Practical The system must be inexpensive and provide community members with tangible, salient benefits. ¥ Secure The system should be reliable and its content safe from unauthorized duplication, destruction or falsification. Information property rights must be assured. Description The Chattanooga Community Link is to be a dial-in, remote access network server. The software will be based on the Internet suite of protocols, and may also support other protocols. Users will access the system via personal computer and modem, or via a public terminal. Documents and applications will be cross-platform standards (supported by most makes of personal computers). Any user will be able to share information with others through a variety of applications: file transfer, databases, electronic mail, electronic chat, etc. The software will be easy to use and inexpensive, and will run on the average personal comuputer. A broad range of documents and databases will be stored on ChattaComLink. The information may come in many forms: directories, schedules, product lists, records, minutes of meetings, etc. Institutions such as schools, governmental agencies, civic groups, social services, businesses, religious groups, and social groups will be able to easily put information into the Link. Also, much more dynamic dialogs may take place in the Link via e-mail or on-line chats. Even complex cooperative efforts can be supported with groupware applications. The Chattanooga Community Link will operate under these basic principles: ¥ Communication is vital to the existence and quality of our community. ¥ The robust and equitable exchange of knowledge empowers participants to improve their community, their own quality of life, and that of their neighbors. ¥ All voices must be given an opportunity to be heard. ¥ It is the right and responsibility of all mature community members to control their ownÑand only their ownÑcommunications. ¥ It is incumbent upon all communicators to respect the beliefs, feelings, and sensibilities of others. Benefits The Link are will bring our community together, promote learning and understanding, and foster social and economic vitality. We believe that the Link will function to: ¥ Optimize social efficiency, effectiveness and equity; ¥ Create an open "marketplace of ideas;" ¥ Provide public access to community information; ¥ Foster communication between all members of our community. Such a system will benefit our community in numerous ways. It will support eduction, facilitate the democratic process, promote commerce, contribute to crime prevention, and generally improve our quality of life. Costs The infrastructure for ChattaComLink is largely a non-consideration. Because of the declining cost of computing power and communications devices, the server and networking devices should be relatively inexpensive. Chattanooga Community Link already has the technical expertise necessary to implement and support the system. Most of the costs for the Link will be caused by marketing and education. Additional expenses may also be generated by software development, and the reoccurring cost of maintaining and operating the system. It would be possible to start-up and operate the ChattaComLink on very little capital, but in order to make the platform become a rich environment, to create the Link, Chattanooga Community Link will need to sufficiently capitalize our operations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Estimates of optimal capitalization of the Chattanooga Community Link Expense Category Amount Facilities Start-up $75,000 Workstation/server Network bridge/communications server Modems Education/Marketing Start-up $50,000 On-going $50,000 annually Software development Intermittent $20,000 annually Maintenance/Operations On-going $30,000 annually Total $125,000 startup $100,000 annually $225,000 first year ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Revenue Chattanooga Community Link may generate revenue in several ways. As a not-for-profit organization, we should be eligible for a variety of public and private grants or donations. Commercial information providers will be charged a fee, which will subsidize the system, and non-commercial providers may be charged a nominal maintenance fee. Special membership fees may also be solicited, and revenue may be also be generated through value-added, premium services and products. Short term objectives In the short term, Chattanooga Community Link must define itself more thoroughly, raise initial capital, develop a request for proposals for ChattaComLink, and begin recruiting more members, particularly local opinion leaders. --- MacWoof Eval:29Oct93 * Origin: Over under around and through (1:362/122.48@fidonet) Date: Thu Jan 27 1994 01:31:34 From: Philip Luckey To: All Subj: Transcript, part i Attr: PUBNET ------------------------------- Ok, so far I'm at least one-third the way through the audio tape. This is what I have to date. The remainder will be posted as completed. I followed the actual words and speech patterns as nearly as I could (ever-remembering that neat chapter by Stew Brand in which he included *all* the noises in a conversation, the ahs, ums, nods, etc.) and added punctuation here and there. Let me know if you're sure I've misidentified you as a speaker; I'm guessing at identities when the voices sound similar. Btw, a list of attendees was posted earlier, if you need a clue to who is who. And for the curious, this was the first general meeting for establishing a community network in Chattanooga, held on Thursday, January 20, 1994, at Higher Technology, Inc., in Hixson. - - - GREG: [this is the point at which the tape began recording]...quality homebrew and microbrewery beer. I got a message on America Online last fall from this guy that said, y'know, "I saw your postings on the Beer newsgroup and I live in Kentucky and I'm coming down towards Atlanta" (because I posted some things about places to drink beer in Atlanta) and he said "I'm coming to Chattanooga and I'm looking for a place to drink good beer" and I said, well, I actually live in Chattanooga and we have a new microbrewery here in Chattanooga and if you come down give me a call and we'll get together and go visit it. We never got together, but he came to Chattanooga and he visited the microbrewery and I got a message back from him later that said "Man, I really loved the microbrewery; it was really great." And I think this shows the two sides of this venture: One side is just people getting together and talking, and I think it's particularly important in a community sense, that this guy, like Larry and Shawn are here in the same room in the same city [referring to an earlier exchange in which Larry Burton related that, after conversing with Shawn Stoddard for over a year via email, they finally met each other in person] and I think it's particularly important for a community situation to assure that our community works well, that we have good schools, good security, good politicians, that our tax money either at least gets spent wisely, if not getting rid of some of it in the first place. And the other side of it is that I think there are some very important social functions that can be promoted by this, and one is commerce, and the other side is politics and just general affinity. I think we have kind of two little bit different visions here, and so I'd like to get different views on this. And what I want to do is just take the next 15 minutes and get everybody just throwing out ideas about vision. I think we have two nice visions here; one is Philip, who comes from public broadcasting, who has ideas about what it should offer for the public side, and I'm going to get Mike to talk a little bit about the commercial side of it and what he sees as a vision for commercial-type services. PHILIP: Ok, and also, to kind of help in keeping track of this, I've got a little tape thing going, but don't anybody be afraid -- it's just on tape. And also I just wanted to tell you, there are some drinks and snacks here; if you want one just wave at me and I'll throw you one. SHAWN: Is this going to be a WAV file later tonight? ROBERT: You going to send it back to us? PHILIP: It'll be about 3 or 4 gigabytes, yeah, I don't know about that. From this we can maybe transcribe as much of this as we can make out from the tape recorder, and then so people that aren't here, they can have a record. Also, I think as we define the mission, the different goals, I think we can put this up on the wall, and as we detail what we think of, and what y'all come up with, we can just have it up on the wall in front of us PAUL: Classic brainstorming. [assorted voices as tape is found (the sticky kind, not the medium), and a large white roll of paper is eventually attached to the wall.] PHILIP: Also, I'll take advantage of this lull to further document this process with images, of course. DAN: Smile for the FBI. [clicks and whirrs and groans as Philip wanders around taking pictures with his disposable Kodak camera] VOICE: Should we pause? PHILIP: No, what the hey, this'll be fun to transcribe. Because I don't want those FBI guys to say, hmm, there's a missing part on the tape... [continued muffled movement and snippets of voices wandering freely; this continues for a few minutes] GREG: Ok, let's get back on track here; I knew I shouldn't have called on Philip. Philip, tell us about your vision. PHILIP: It's actually like 20/40, without the glasses; ok, ok. My idea is, in terms of community communication, which I love saying over and over again, is a community that shares information with each other. And basically, some of the characteristics that I've kind of defined it as, include (and I've got a list of them here, because I always get them mixed up; should make up a nice acronym): access to community information, and that can include electronic mail, that can include free resources, that can include commercial services as well. Ok, access to community information including mail, and free and commercial resources. And basically the model that I'm looking at is to have like a multiple layer service, like the top layer would be a public access layer, which would be free to anyone accessing it, and that would contain free information, like say minutes of the city council meeting, card catalog for the library, and such things like that, or the menu for the Red Bank High School cafeteria for this week. You'll know whether you have to pack a lunch that day. And also, in layers beneath that, you'd have specialized areas, like for the faculty of Chattanooga State, or for the members of a certain business, with corresponding security privileges for those areas. And perhaps in layers beneath that, you'd have places for third parties, such as commercial concerns, or pay-per-usage kind of services, that you could drop in economic development or what have you. So basically it's kind of a tiered level, with public access at the top and as the most used portion, and then with other levels beneath that. And basically providing a public infrastructure: I'd like to see the organizations of the community work together as partners to coordinate and develop this common infrastructure -- "information superhighway" -- which they can all use and share without having to reinvent the wheel every time, say, the county public schools want to connect to each other, or every time the public library wants to be online, or TVA wants to get involved. Instead of having to reinvent the rules every time, I'd like to see us develop a model that's inclusive; in other words it involves the various segments of our community, no matter if it's commercial or nonprofit or just individuals. A model that's accessible; in other words provides universal access to the free areas, with no limitations and no restrictions. DAN: Not only that, it should be technically accessible, too. PHILIP: Exactly, exactly. ROBERT: Not only THAT, but we should have public access terminals. PHILIP: The true meaning of accessible ... my definition of accessible is: if you can get to the information. If it has a good user interface, if it has a good physical location, if it has the technical restrictions are lifted so you can actually access stuff, so that- VOICE: Ease of use, those kind of issues, too? ROBERT: Yes. PHILIP: Oh, exactly, because if you can't actually get to the information you want to, then it's not accessible. So "accessible" is actually a big thing; it deals with being able to log on and having access, on several different semantic levels. Ok, so then there's accessibility. It's comprehensive; in other words, it kind of reaches far and wide into the community and it gives you information about lots of different areas. I'm differentiating that from being inclusive by saying that comprehensive in terms of, if we build this structure, in the future we might be able to build video on top of that, right, video access, and might be multimedia access on top of that. In the far future, so- VOICE: Transparently raise this service as a part of that, right? VOICE: Where are you going to get the bandwidth? PHILIP: Well, that's- VOICE: Doesn't matter; that's a technical problem. PHILIP: At this stage I'm talking about- VOICE: Ideas, first. PHILIP: These are just the characteristics; I could see us developing like a certain narrow definition of how the community will communicate, but then once we outgrow that -- like if we go from radio to TV, and that kind of a shift. For instance, today's television is being broadcast in the same bandwidth, the same spectrum they developed in 1939 for black and white color TV. So that's all broadcast television is within those constraints. So back in '39 they were either real smart or we've been kind of crippled and we're kind of squeezed for space. So that's kind of a neat little parallel. Some other quick little characteristics are that it's practical; it's not just pie in the sky, but it's something that's useful, it's a concrete service in a realistic setting. And from the example of the two dozen or more other communities in the country that have developed similar services, you can see that it's the type of thing that's in use now, it's the thing that a lot of funding and granting sources are going toward, and a lot, of course, of the government hoopla you hear. So a lot of people are kind of moving in the same direction. Umm, a service that's secure, in terms of being stable and also in terms of being safe. [[[ end of part i ]]] --- MacWoof Eval:02Dec92 * Origin: Well, there is that. (1:362/122.25@fidonet)