DAVIS COMMUNITY NETWORK Information Providers Committee MEETING NOTES IPC Regular Monthly Meeting, Wednesday, Jan 2, 2002 City of Davis Computer Lab, 600 A Street Members Present: John Chiles, Anne Hance (Chair) Rajiv Seth , Wendy Yoder Members Absent: Alan Brattesani, Richard Yamagata, 1. The meeting was called to order at 6:30PM by Chair Anne Hance 2. Business: One request was considered: This was Richard Yamagata's request on behalf of the Woodland Business link Organization tabled from the December meeting. Richard Y. requested a free shell account to host a small website. We used the City computers to review the existing website which is hosted by another ISP at http://www.business-link.org  (and will continue to be). The request was approved by consensus using the following words which were to be conveyed to Richard: The IPC discussed the fact that this group is basically a self-serving group of business people (a factual observation not a derogatory one) but since no commercial activity is directly involved with this Web project, and since - a crucial point - there are plans for public service/charitable contributions on behalf of the group we are happy to approve the free shell account. We hope that the group's charitable works will be documented on its website and so long as the group's not-for-profit, public service activity is apparent, and DCN's resources are available, this Longterm Shell account will remain available without charge. 3. Open Discussion: a) We talked about training workshops/classes that would be specifically useful for IPC projects and came up with the following suggestions: HTML Web design Making/manipulating Images for the Web b) We also wondered what training workshops/classes would be generally useful for the community at large and came up with: Themed drop-ins similar to the Monday evening ones but cycled through a series of themes with separate beginner and intermediate dropins Examples: Eudora for beginners drop-in Eudora for intermdiate users drop-in Outlook Express for beginners drop-in etc. Getting started on the Internet drop-in Searching the Internet for beginners drop-in etc. We thought that the format should probably be the same as our original drop-ins with practically no introductory "lesson" except as clearly indicated by the questions collected from the attendees. c) We noted that there are software applications not on the demo machine in the City lab that are necessary for effective help in drop-ins and classes. Needed are: Photoshop elements A simple (free or shareware) HTML editor A WYSIWYG editor like PageMill 3.0 Eudora Pro (Eudora Lite is there and that is good) Outlook Express and ...?... d) We wondered if a question posed to DCN subscribers and others - such as: "What do you need to know about using your computer to access the Internet and E-mail that would make your life easier?" might reveal needs that we have not fully appreciated yet. 4. We adjourned at 7:40 PM NEXT MEETING Wednesday, February 6, 2001