The first annual meeting of Show-Me Net was held at 7:00 pm at the Cape Girardeau Public Library on January 13.
More than 36 users and guests attended. Board members present included President Larry Loos, Vice-President Dr. Stan Sides, Secretary Jeff Roth, Elizabeth Ader, and Wayne Bock.
President Loos conducted the meeting. He reported that last month we had a balance of just under $7,000 and 265 users. With about 40 new users added, users now total 302. The balance tonight is $9,834.42. Loos reported that three things seemed to be influencing current membership growth:
Southeast Hospital has accepted our proposal and will be adding 4 modems and web page registration. Loos reported how both hospitals had helped get Show-Me Net started along with students at SEMO in a web page design class.
Current users may add additional e-mail accounts for $25.00 each for their family members.
Loos summarized modem usage logs from November 12, 1996 to date. Information on number of different accounts, total connections, total minutes connected and average connection time was given for both Jackson and Benton.
| Period | Users | Logins | Tot Time | Avg Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11/12 - 11/24 | 107 | 2072 | 56851 | 27.44 |
| 11/25 - 12/8 | 120 | 2259 | 61804 | 27.36 |
| 12/9 - 12/22 | 118 | 2508 | 66847 | 26.65 |
| 12/23 - 1/5 | 132 | 3157 | 90406 | 28.64 |
| 1/6 - 1/12 (1 wk) | 136 | 1964 | 57717 | 29.39 |
| Period | Users | Logins | Tot Time | Avg Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11/12 - 11/24 | 24 | 593 | 23176 | 39.08 |
| 11/25 - 12/8 | 29 | 710 | 28191 | 39.71 |
| 12/9 - 12/22 | 31 | 702 | 33301 | 47.44 |
| 12/23 - 1/5 | 34 | 1031 | 45670 | 44.30 |
| 1/6 - 1/12 (1 wk) | 35 | 544 | 23306 | 42.84 |
| Jackson:Benton ratio during last week |
3.89 | 2.48 |
Notice that while there are nearly four times as many users who use the Jackson modem pool, there is only two and a half times as much connect time. Part of this is due to the fact that the Oran and Scott City Branch Libraries connect for long times when they are open. However, where are several pretty heavy users who connect via Benton. Remember that the last line is for only one week, while the other lines summarize the usage for two weeks. You can see that usage has nearly doubled during the past two months.
The assembly was informed that Benton has five lines and Jackson has 11. On motion by Sides and Second by Bock the board voted unanimously to add three more lines in Jackson and one more in Benton. The Jackson order will be placed immediately. The Benton order must wait until we can install additional phone jacks in the library.
President Loos discussed with the assembled group the matter of session limits. He iterated the present board policy of not limiting time but limiting idle time. Limits on session length will be set to prevent a user from monopolizing a connection at the expense of others. Information on what should constitute fair time usage was solicited from the assembly. New software allows setting limits on three kinds of time:
Prime time and off peak times will be determined by the number of free modems available rather that setting an arbitrary period by the clock. Some users expressed concern that they would prefer to know ahead of time how long they had available. They were releaved to hear that they would still be able to see how much time they had available by consulting a web page.
Following the regular meeting, several users helped us to decide to begin with the following limits:
There was some concern about disconnecting someone during a long file download. Also people expressed the desire to be notified ahead of time before they were disconnected. It is not know how or if these things are possible, but Loos promised to explore them. The system will send an e-mail message explaining the reason they were disconnected.
Loos suggested that the idle timeout will likely be the biggest reason people will be disconnected. Users will have to watch the way the handle e-mail and read web pages or they will find that they are disconnected. However, even for long session times, users can still redial for another period. The timeout will allow others a chance to get a free line though. We will post information on our web server explaining how these limits will all work as we learn about the software available and get it installed.
[It was not mentioned at the meeting, but the software will also limit users to a single connection at a time. This has not been a very big problem, but we did suspect that someone was using another's userid without permission. We immediately changed the password.]
The Missouri Express program funded by the State Legislature was explained to the assembly. Meetings in New Madrid and Perryville were attended by Show-Me Net. The possibility of expanding community information for us was explained. Additional information will be forthcoming on what definition of community is arrived at. In the meantime, volunteers from the membership were recruited to assist with a survey of the technilogical capability of the community.
President Loos announced the operability of an e-mail discussion list or listserv. He explained that options on these included lists with closed or open membership; and moderated or unmoderated postings. He encouraged those assembled to submit requests for any lists they fealty were desirable.
Questions were taken from the assembly. Among the questions and discussions was the matter of e-mail addresses and whether they should be private or not. Loos acknowledged that some users specifically requested privacy while others were open to publication of their addresses. Present policy enforces privacy of all users.
The need for HTML programming for web pages and the ability and need for teaching this technique was discussed by the assembly.
Informal discussion following the meeting indicated the need for further public discussion forums with the membership.
To suggest changes or additions, send e-mail to: HelpDesk@showme.net
Home