Introduction
First let me acknowledge Ian MacEachern’s role as the previous Executive Director. Although I am writing this report, much of the year was brought to you under his stewardship and we have much to thank him for.
Although I am relatively new to its operations, having started in mid-October, I quickly became aware of the goodwill that exists towards NCF. I believe that in large part this goodwill exists because of the efforts of members to help others and to help make the nation’s capital a better place to live.
In
May, all of the modems were upgraded to 33K, the maximum possible using analog
lines. NCF now supports over 200 33K
modems accessed through two pools, one at Carleton and one at Mitel (an NCF sponsor).
In addition to upgrading the modems, NCF created of a series of programs
to test and monitor the modems that helps detect faults earlier.
An
NCF-designed software system to improve sharing of modems during peak periods
was upgraded to work with the new modem hardware and with remote sites (such as
Mitel), allowing members to have
unrestricted use of modems whenever there are idle modems for others.
In July, web mail was introduced for NCF members. Web Mail provides a significant improvement on the standard email in that it allows members to access their email from any browser, whether at home, at the office, or anywhere there is internet.
Also
in July, NCF introduced Spam Assassin to help members with a scourge of the
internet – unwanted email or Spam.
The
NCF’s 10th anniversary was a great
success. It was a
honour to have a number of the founders of the NCF
present. Dave Sutherland, Jay Weston,
and George Frajkor said a few words about their
involvement and hopes for the future of FreeNet. We were also fortunate to have Mac Harb, Alex Munter and Alex Cullen
on hand as well as representatives from many of our sponsors. Volunteers manned the tables and contributed
to the success of the evening. To cap it
all off, NCF received excellent coverage by CJOH and The NewRO.
Since
February 1993, the National Capital Freenet has
introduced over 75,000 residents to the Internet. Today it hosts hundreds of community organizations,
and acts as one of the region’s ‘online public commons’, helping to facilitate
vibrant community interactions. NCF
continues to be the Internet home to thousands of local residents.
After
ten years, the infrastructure of NCF is getting a little creaky. A greater and greater portion of staff and
volunteer time is being wasted keeping the old system running. Fortunately, we are able to address these
problems with the help of Industry
One of the biggest improvements is behind the scenes. For the first time the NCF will have an SQL
database to tie together its operations and membership. The database is at the heart of many new
services and features (such as the improved registration process) and will
allow for the implementation of many new services.
Maintaining multiple systems is more complex and
less reliable than one built with standard components. Digital lines are more reliable and less
susceptible to noise than analog lines.
Automated systems to monitor the line quality and look for faults are
more effective and less costly than manual systems. In all of these areas, we’ve been making good
progress. We’re expecting 56K digital
lines later this month (these new lines will work with any existing modems but
will be more reliable, and faster for those people
with 56K modems).
As you’ve probably noticed, we recently changed the
NCF web site to better communicate who we are, what we do, and how we are
different. Next we’ll be improving how
members interact with NCF services via NCF’s “start
page”.
Administration & Funding
1. Renewals
In 2002, 4,437 members renewed their FreeNet account. Of these, 88% donated at
time of renewal. This is a significant improvement on 1998 where 66.7% of renewing
members donated. The average renewal donation in 2002 was $33.45; again, a
marked improvement on 1998's average of $16.17.
Donations from renewals totaled $130,632 for the year.
2. Registrations
Some 1,604 new members joined FreeNet throughout the
year, averaging approximately 134 per month. Making a donation is not
mandatory, and over half (53%) of our new registrants donated this year. This
represented an improvement over 2001 where only 41% of our new members donated.
The average donation in 2002 was $25.50. Donations from new registrations
totaled $21,788 for the year.
3. Membership Activity
Our roster of active members closed the year at 6,618, down slightly from 6,774
at the beginning of the year. With the improvements to the modem pool the
membership has since started to rebound and is currently over 6,800.
4. Homepage Data and Information Providers
NCF continues to be an important resource for individuals, not-for-profits and
small businesses. At year-end, 841 or approximately 8.1% of our members had
personal homepages hosted on FreeNet. Our text menu system contained some 1,025
Information Provider menus and approximately 225 organizations located webpages on our servers.
5. Member Usage Data
FreeNet members connected to NCF approximately 3,600,000 times during the year,
averaging about 69,000 sessions per week, a figure that remained fairly stable
throughout the year, although lowest between September and November. Of this
total, the number of text sessions represented approximately 43% of the total
with PPP users representing about 57% of the number of sessions.
The number of unique users averaged 7,953 throughout the year and again,
remained moderately stable with a high of 12,713 in November and a low of 7,187
in January.
In
the first half of 2003, we’re focusing on improving infrastructure and making
our services more reliable. In the
second half of 2003, we’ll be focusing on using that infrastructure to better pursue
NCF’s mission: to operate internet services for the people of
the national capital region, to improve ‘internet literacy’, and to help make
the region a better place.
At
any time, I’d appreciate your comments and suggestions. You can reach me by phone at the NCF office
(520-2600 ext 8024) and by email (execdir@ncf.ca).
John Selwyn
Executive Director