Monthly Meeting Tues 6 th March 2007

Monthly Meeting Tues 6th March 2007

PRESENT

• Pete F
• Rich H
• Mike H
• Everton
• Acesabe
• Lloyd C
• Sean K
• Matt L
• Sam R
• Jim F
• Woodsy

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

• Jules
• Andy L
• Ben G

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING Two small corrections were noted in AOB, as follows:

1. ICT Hub conference - venue is Taunton not Exexter
2. OpenStreetMap mapping weekend is in February to March (Action: Woodsy)

MATTERS ARISING

1. ICT Hub Conference, Taunton: Rich reported that himself, Mike H, Matt L, John P, Bails, Sam and Woodsy would be attending as exhibitors with LTSP suite, VoIP phones, publicity banner and leaflets, plus Linux and OpenCD media to give away. The LTSP suite has been refurbished - new loom - by Rich and Acesabe in advance of this event.

2. Bannerman Rd installs: we've received a couple of inquiries from people with installs that have moved and requesting re-connection. Lloyd pointed out that funding for the project has ended. Of the original installs, 4-6 are in regular use. It was agreed that any future inquiries would received a polite apology as our responsibility has now ended.

3. Feedback - Convergence Fund: Sam reported that a £10,000 bid had been submitted to the Convergence Fund in conjunction with psand, Q-Junction and Microfilms for hardware, etc., for a streaming video project based on the Venn Festival. Trinity Community Arts and an interface with Second Life are also part of the project. A decision is expected in the next couple of weeks.

4. Feedback - Dove St.: Sam reported a further £10,000 bid had been lodged with the Global Fund for fund the installation of LTSP in the Dove St. Action Group community room, wireless access trials for residents (Action: Sam to discuss with John Palfrey) and training. It is proposed to use the same window-mounted antennas as are currently being trialled in Horley Road.

5. UFI feedback:

• Werburghs hall hardware: Jim reported that the choice of hardware (see below) has to be firmed up. The council has already done the necessary electrical works.
• Horley Road: Sam stated 2 installs with window-mounting antennas are working successfully and 1 more install is in the pipeline. He also expressed the hope that this new method would mean a move away from dangerous rooftop work!
• Mina Road Hostel: the connection is flaky due to intervening trees and a solution is needed rather quickly. Sam reported that he has arranged a survey of the Scrapstore building. If an install is possible, this would provide an alternative connection for the hostel and extend coverage to the surrounding area.
• Social impact analysis tools: Sean asked about these. Sam responded that Home Office (?) funding had developed a set of tools that can be used for measurement.
• Thin client choice: As mentioned above, the thin clients need to be chosen for the Werburghs CC project. Various views were expressed. Lloyd would like to see the thin clients running Beryl and be low powered. Rich favours new hardware purchase rather than recycled kit for reasons of reliability. Taking up Lloyd's point Matt indicated that a mini-ITX board with AGP would provide a small footprint and the possibility of excellent graphics. Jim was asked to bear these points in mind when deciding on hardware (Action: Jim).

6. Volunteer training budget: One of the areas for improvement identified during Performance Review was training for existing long-term volunteers and various matters were raised under this item.

Jim has discovered the LPI exam can be sat for £70/person. However, the test would have to be sat in an accredited centre, such as those run by Pitman.

Sam has identified that doing the project management module of the UWE Business Studies degree would be beneficial both to himself and Bristol Wireless. Funding for this would be about £200.

Everton is receiving assistance from Bristol Wireless towards the cost of his adult training qualification.

As regards the level of funding and what would be funded, Sam was asked to examine these matters before the next meeting (Action: Sam).

ACTION POINTS FROM LAST MINUTES

1. Weekly management meetings: Sam reported these were going well and proving to be useful, particularly the imposition of definite deadlines. It was proposed by Sean and seconded by Pete F that Sam be appointed Project Manager: this was approved nem con.
2. Cityspace meeting: Pete F informed the meeting that this had not yet taken place, but was not expected to happen before the announcement of the winning Digital Challenge city on 13th March
3. Recycling project: Some bugs have been encountered in the BW 'distro' development, but work was progressing. Some of the backlog of outstanding machines has been cleared. The recycling room layout has been improved and tidied up. Byteback are making the next delivery on Tuesday; the latest batch are understood to be PIII machines with DVD-ROMs. Byteback are also to collect any duff machines. Encouraging levels of inquiries for recycled computers have already been received. Finally, Sam stated some work was still needed on internal processes, but was proceeding.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

1. April Dorkbot: Mike H announced that April's Dorkbot meeting at Watershed on 24th April would feature a presentation/demonstration of the mobile LTSP suite.
2. Cube talk: Mike H suggested we organise a talk at the Cube in the near future (say May) inviting the public and press to attend. Sean was asked to draft a proposal for voting on the Grindstone (Action: Sean).
3. BMEX Light contract and Cube: the contract sent to the Cube has been examined and returned Pete F with about half a dozen queries needing resolution. The main issue seems to be bandwidth since the Cube expect their traffic to be up to 15 GB/month. Lloyd can monitor usage, shape traffic and prioritise bandwidth for services/users as required. It was agreed to monitor usage and review as necessary. Secondly, the contract's illegal use clause caused some controversy due to its contents; it was agreed to delete examples mentioning streaming. Thirdly, a service order needs to be drawn up and forwarded to the Cube. As regards amendments to the contract, the contract itself needs amending to remove reference to wiki page and replacing with wording to include email notification of changes to contract. Lloyd suggested we implement a contract version numbering system. The disclaimer of warranties clause is all in upper case and needs changing to lower case, whilst its content is not acceptable to the Cube. Legal advice is to be sought as to what would be appropriate/acceptable. The reseller clause (2.11.1 of the contract) should be deleted, as should the email deletion clause (2.11.4). What constitutes 'customer apparatus' needs clarification. In view of the complexity and importance of this whole topic, Pete F suggested that changes which are included are reviewed after legal advice and then published as version 2.
4. Equipment exclusion zones: Rich related that an email had been received from the city council regarding exclusion zones around our equipment. This is a health and safety matter and any response needs to be technically correct and responsible. Is any warning signage required for the kit, for example. The email is to be sent to the Grindstone, whilst Rich is to contact John Palfrey asking him to reply to the original email (Action: Rich).

Date of next meeting: Tuesday, 3rd April 2007 at St Werburghs Community Centre