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This regularly scheduled meeting of the 91st Day Subcommittee
held in the Town of Abingdon Municipal Building was opened by Chairman F. H.
Moore, Jr. There were sixteen members present. These included:
The meeting opened with status reports from the various demonstration sites that were represented at the meeting. These reports are summarized as follows: Charlotte Lewis reported that the Washington County Public Library (WCPL) averaged 30 visits per day and had experienced no reportable technical problems. Jay Cox offered that WCPL had the third most often used site on his system, after (1) the NetAccess home page and (2) the search engines. Ray Millsap stated that the Coomes Recreation Center had logged 1,295 users thus far. Training classes offered at the Coomes Center had been consistently filled. Bill Chaffin reported that Highlands Union Bank had experienced steady interest from the public and that the bank staff were making great usage of the availability of this service. Rachel Fowlkes stated that the U VA Southwest Center had not experienced much E V A traffic, but had seen very good participation at the seminars that they have offered. Jean Luker reported only very modest interest at her sites. Randy Boyd, of BizNet and a consultant for Johnston Memorial Hospital, reported that the hospital had experienced heavy traffic with their public access site and had even experienced one hacking attempt. Al Bradley related that the Municipal Building was not ordinarily a heavily trafficked area as is the Coomes Center, but had averaged around two visitors per day. Dr. Moore then discussed a recent meeting held with Congressman Boucher's Telecommunication Subcommittee in which the rates for ISDN service were discussed. Steve Laek stated that 6/1 was the application date set by Sprint for ISDN service to our area and that 7/1 was the target date set for actually offering service. Jean Luker then spoke for a small study group composed of herself, Ray Millsap Jay Cox and Al Bradley who had met on 4/19 to study the most likely areas for service by E V A. Ms. Luker displayed a map of the Town which had marked on it the known locations of "cells" of computer activity in the central area of Town. The central area of Town as used here is defined as that area from the Town's Municipal Building to the Courthouse area of Town. Ray Millsap added that the PennStuart Law Group alone could almost justify the existence of E V A in this central area with its three separate locations and 80+ unit network of computers. This law group is also very interested in such service. Jay Cox suggested we consider a run of wire down Plumb Alley to serve the central area of Town as an initial test model. These offices could be linked by a hub placed in one office with wires to the other offices. Some discussion of this suggestion followed. Jay stated that his idea here was to concentrate on the pockets of users in the beginning phases and build capital for the next five years towards expansions and improvements. David Taverner suggested that there were two approaches to this problem. One approach involves decentralized pods of service eventually to be linked and then the increased costs of the equipment and facilities necessary to provide the links are postponed to the future. The other approach is to plan and build for the future now, if it is more expensive initially. Dr. Moore asked if Sprint was interested in this venture and Steve Laek replied that Sprint was interested in proposing on it. Charlotte Lewis suggested that we obtain an estimate of cost to put a demonstration line in place and add maintenance costs and other estimates to this and then judge what service cost would result. Burt Bassham then moved, seconded by Jean Luker, that the group focus our efforts on a model system for an area of Town generally bounded by Russell Road, Plumb Alley, Trooper's Alley, and Tanner Street. This motion was approved. David Taverner and Jay Cox were to determine specifications and cost estimates for this model in the area prescribed. Jackie Stevenson requested that the group offer any criticism and suggestions of a constructive nature as to the content of the E V A home page. Jackie introduced Doug and Greg Macklin who had volunteered to assist in upgrading the home page. The group agreed to give this matter serious thought. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:40 PM. Respectfully Submitted,
Albert C. Bradley, Secretary |