DCN INFORMATION PROVIDER COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES

[These are draft notes until approved at the subsequent IPC meeting.]

DATE: 7/2/97
TIME: 6:15 - 7:30 pm
LOCATION: City Lab

ATTENDEES: John Batchelder (visiting), Jason Coffer, Anne Hance, Paul
           Healey, Jim Herzog (proposing mini-project), Steve McMahon,
           Johannes Troost (proposing mini-project), John Movius, Christian
           Sandvig.

NOTETAKER: Paul Healey


A. Approval of Agenda.
	
   Introductions were made and the agenda was approved.

B. Project Proposals

   1. YoloLINK Mini-Project, proposed by Steve McMahon on behalf of the
      Yolo County Library.

      Resources requested (compressed from Steve's 7/1/97 email message):

        1) Programming assistance from the web team;

        2) web space in the DCN area until they get an account of their
           own via Yolo County;

        3) training from Steve on how to use the translation program;

        4) occasional update by Steve from their disk until 2 & 3 happen;

        5) URL Aliasing via symbolic link when they do move to their own account.

      Steve pointed out that this project can be seen as partial fulfillment of
      the MOU with the County.  Most of the programming work is complete.

      The proposal was approved.

   2. Neighborhood Group Mini-Project, proposed by Johannes Troost and Jim
      Herzog.

      The proposal was for a neighborhood website for the purpose of neighborhood
      communication on local matters.  The proposers see South Davis as under-
      represented on City Council Committees and see the website a a vehicle for
      better organization.  They also see the project as a possible first for
      Davis and of potential interest to sociology researchers.  Steve McMahon
      pointed to Blacksburg Electronic Village as a source of information and 
      examples relating to neighborhood organization.  Christian Sandvig noted
      a potential use in neighborhood crime watch.

      Resources requested:  One shell account, to be shared, and one mailing
      list. The proposers believe it will be necessary to password-protect
      some pages containing personal information.

      The project was approved, with a briefing anticipated in six months.

      Note:  Following approval in the presence of the applicants, it was pointed
      out that in the past it has been the IPC convention to make the decision in
      private after the applicants have left.  A consensus was reached on
      restoring that convention.  [Also note that when the applicants stated that
      almost no one in their neighborhood was a DCN subscriber, John Movius
      handed them DCN brochures.  Now that's being prepared!] 

C. Housekeeping

   1. Approve Notes of Previous Meetings.

      Notes of the 6/4/97 meeting were approved with the modification that
      it had been decided that the volunteer volunteer coordinator would maintain
      the volunteer list -- presumably voluntarily.

   2. Content Review

      Paul Healey proposed restoring the 94/95 Yolo County Grand Jury Report
      to DCN's pages, and, after discussion, it was decided that he would
      take on the project of mounting the subsequent reports as well.  Paul
      noted that the County administration had no plans to place them online
      itself.  It was decided that DCN would host the reports, which
      are public information, on its own server, contingent on being able to
      obtain them in their original electronic form.

D. Reports

   1. DCN Board Meeting.

      Nothing reported.

   2. Web Team

      Nothing reported.

   3. Projects -- Informal updates

      a. Yolo Basin Foundation
			
         Paul Healey noted that all hardware and PC software resources,
         previously agreed upon, with the exception of one computer, have
         been acquired independently by the project team.  Paul will
         follow up on obtaining the computer.

      b. Hattie Weber Museum -- (Communicated to the committee by John
         Movius, who is working with team leader John Chiles, helping with the
         images and HTML files)  The project is on schedule, with 10-12 web
         pages completed.

   4. Content Policy Ad hoc Subcommittee

      Christian Sandvig reported that the question of "commercialism" in 
      DCN's content has been added to the list of topics.  The subcommittee
      continues its first phase of informal discussion.

E. Business

   1. Draft Statement Regarding the Role(s) of the IPC.

      Since the IPC deals with more than web content, it was agreed to
      change "Building DCN Web content" to "Building DCN Information
      content".  Other editorial revisions were minor.

   2. Draft Statement Describing the Formality of IPC Membership.

      Tabled due to lack of time.

   3. Draft Statement Describing the Formality of IPC Decision Making.

      Tabled due to lack of time.

   4. Review of Existing Grant Projects as Sponsored Projects.

      Tabled in Vicki's absence.

F. Other Business or Comments

   Anne Hance distributed a complete list of mini-projects and sponsored
   projects, and requests the liaisons and anyone else with additions or
   corrections to provide input to her by email.