Response to Rod Clark; Re: Free Internet Access?

[Doug Tooley]

> 
>    From what I remember from a discussion of this at a General
> Meeting last year, the Library now provides fewer lines to SCN
> than it did before, and it cut back on those services because
> SCN was a lower priority than providing access to its own
> catalog. KCLS and PAN probably have a somewhat similar view. 
> 
> > This is an interpretation of our policy statement, and a narrow one.  If
> > that is the case than we need to make it an organizational goal to raise
> > the necessary funds to provide adequate dial-up access for 10,000 users.
> 
>    Many users do have other access available. It would be
> interesting to know, though, just how many don't have. It might
> well be a lot less than 10,000. Was this information part of one
> of the recent SCN surveys, by any chance? 
> 

Good question - it would certainly be nice to see the results posted here,
as well as meeting minutes, etc.

Regarding the 10,000 users - I am actually quite sure you are correct in
stating that only a percentage have dia-up.  However there are other
factors to consider as well.  If we offer free, high quality text only
service we are going to increase our membership and some of those 10,000
who have other access (through work or through a paid service) will choose
to switch.  In addition there are other costs besides just phone lines -
modems and routers that need to be amortized, as well as an increase in
upstream bandwidth demand that might very well not be acceptable to our
current providers.

>    Well, let's see. Would it be possible to ask each member of
> the ISP Alliance to consider donating the cost of a phone line
> to SCN? That would help considerably, if it's not too much to
> ask as part of the Alliance's activities in connection with SCN.
> 

The alliance was, and is, an ad-hoc organization.  The formal association
is now called the WAIP - and we should definitely place this group and its
members on our list.  Phone line sponsorship might well be profitable to
an ISP, if its not though this would not necessarily be their best sort of
charitable donation.

Donating bandwidth is probably the most 'efficient' donation to make,
again absent a profitable phone line sponsorship situation.


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