ROCKNET MEETING MINUTES
December 12, 2002
The meeting was held in the City Manager's Conference room. The meeting
convened at 7:40 pm.
Present: Bob Ekman, Betsy Robbins, Stan Klein, Art Casanova, Jim Beller,
Mike Cannon
1) The minutes of November 12 could not be accepted as there were not enough
participants from that meeting present. An acceptance vote will be taken
via email.
2) Betsy Robbins reported on the City web site and services. Visitors
were down a bit, but the eRockville and City business pages continue to
be very popular. The Swim Center newsletter is now hosted. Traffic and
Transportation pages are being updated. The City is planning more focus
groups to review their web site.
3) Bob Ekman reported on the RockNet web sites. The current system is now
working following some outages caused by establishing a new ISP (Starpower).
The mail lists were down over a week. RemotelyAnywhere is now installed on
the old current server.
4) The new RockNet web server is still not in production. The ASP search
feature is working. The major effort remaining is with the Lyris mail lists.
5) The floor was opened to ideas for new services in 2003.
a) RockNet could set up a Linux system and help citizens get started using
the Internet without Microsoft products. We could also help the City
Investigate using Linux for their servers.
b) RockNet could establish a computer help facility for citizens. It would
be something like "Geeks on Wheels". We could use high schools students
who need Student Service Learning hours. We could take requests online.
c) RockNet could conduct a seminar on broadband for the home.
d) If we need funding, we could explore advertising on the RockNet server.
e) RockNet could provide personal internet services, such as email accounts
and dialup connections. These services could be based on citizen needs.
f) RockNet could provide a picture share repository for citizens and their
families.
6) Art Casanova initiated a discussion on high speed connections for apartment
complexes. He has been looking for solutions for the Victoria Condominiums.
He had a proposal from Verizon that didn't look much better than everyone
dealing with Verizon directly. It was suggested they look into wireless
distribution of a service within the building. They should also look at using
the additional copper lines in the existing phone lines, and whether they have
any rights to them.
The meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm
Respectfully submitted:
Robert W. Ekman
524 Carr Ave.
Rockville, MD 20850
