THE PREPARATORY PHASE The development of the National Capital FreeNet is no small undertaking; it requires the coordinated efforts of a dedicated staff and hundreds of volunteers. Four major tasks must be accomplished: - The computer system, software, communication equipment and phone lines must be installed, updated and maintained for 24-hour access; - Hundreds of voluntary information providers working on behalf of community organizations must be registered and trained to develop their public information bases in a standardized format; - Thousands of citizens must be registered and trained to use the NCF and encouraged to contribute opinions, questions or information in NCF public forums, special interest groups, and electronic mail; - Funding must be secured to develop and to sustain the NCF as a free-access community information service. We anticipate it will take three years to accomplish these tasks and to establish the NCF as a self-sustaining, mature community information service. We are thus planning for a three-year demonstration project, divided in two phases. The Preparatory Phase People will use a FreeNet if the information benefits they obtain from it exceed their costs in time and effort. A FreeNet is designed to be as reliable, easy and convenient to use as possible, yet the ultimate success of any FreeNet depends on the usefulness of the information it contains. Accordingly, some critical mass of useful information must be available on the NCF before the bulk of first-time users login so they will have good reasons to return. We thus expect that development of the NCF will occur in two phases. During the preparatory phase, rules of NCF use will be established, and the community organizations will be encouraged to enter information relevant to their activities. In addition, a few enthusiastic volunteers will be asked to plan and to moderate a series of FreeNet public conferences on topics of popular concern (e.g., public education, the environment, city planning, safety and security). Others will be asked to develop sample opinion polls, to begin "ask the experts" columns, to write model comments for the conferences, and to provide any other information that users would find beneficial. Not all activity of the preparatory phase will concern information provision. The organizations and individuals providing information can immediately communicate on the NCF among themselves, and thus can coordinate their information and services.