[Imc] Meeting Notes for 12/3/00

[Zachary C.Miller]

Someday I'll actually be in town on a Sunday.

> Danielle: Ask Zach about server.

As always bandwidth is the limiting factor. For now while both UCIMC
and Springfield IMC are very small operations with minimum public
awareness my bandwidth is just fine. 

Here are some broad thoughts that everyone should have in their
consciousness regarding options and rough costs.

When we start having lots of users and/or serving lots of video and
audio media my bandwidth will rapidly run out. Currently I can serve
data to about 4 simultaneous modem users or 1 person from a faster
UIUC connection. 

I think we can go for several months on my machine and Springfield
folks could be on there too without a problem. 

I will be moving into a new house in town sometime around June. That
might be a good time to evaluate what we want to do based on what
space the IMC has acquired, what funds the IMC has, and what the load
on the existing server is. Our options include:

Do nothing, continue to use Zach's connection. $0/month. 

IMC pays to upgrade Zach's connection, about $50-100/month depending
on bandwidth. 

IMC pays for their own high speed connection to their permanent
location. $200-$400/month depending on bandwidth. This would give much
greater autonomy for IMC and would have the double benefit of
providing network access to reporters who want to do research at the
IMC location. But it would require the acquisition of some hardware
and a significant monthly investment. This is probably where we want
to head eventually but we have to get an efficient fundraising
mechanism in place first. $350/mo currently gets us T1 (1.5Mbps)
speeds up and down DSL from rmi.net. This is the best possible option
when/if we can afford it.
http://www.warpwire.net/warp_services.html

IMC pays to colocate a server at a local ISP $200-$300. This is where
IMC owns a server but has it physically located at an ISP. This would
by far give us the highest bandwidth per dollar but it is somewhat
limitting to acquire a server and not be able to also use it as a
workstation as we could if we located at IMC space.

IMC pays for webhosting services at a local ISP $50-$100. This is the
cheapest option but by far the least flexible. The ISP would own and
control its hardware and we would have very limitted access, software
upgrades would be tricky, and certain services (like streaming media)
may be completely unavailable or cost extra at some ISPs. 

Just some thoughts. We really don't have to worry about this probably
for a year or so but we will have to worry about it someday. We also
have to worry about maybe in 3 or 4 years I might not be in
town. Maybe in 1 or 2 years I might have a _much_ less lucrative job
(once I am out of debt I intend to go into professional
activism/organizing/agitating or other non-profit work) and won't be
able to pay even for the kind of bandwidth I have now without
additional help.

> Eric suggests having a long-term strategy for buying a building.

This is actually a really good idea. It sounds crazy but it gives us a
lot of freedom and we may find that mortgage payments aren't so much
more than rent if we do it right. Of course we need space ASAP so I'd
say go with the Connor space now and spend the next year trying to
find a suitable place to buy.

> Sascha: My figures assume $0 fundraising.  

We should definately engage in fundraising because even if our main
revenue is from "subscriber/donors" fundraising will bring more of
those donors in. Fundraising can be as good for PR/outreach as it is
for funds.

-- 
Zachary C. Miller - @= - http://wolfgang.groogroo.com/
IMSA 1995 - UIUC 2000 - Just Another Leftist Muppet
 Social Justice, Community, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Feminism,
 Sustainability, Responsibility, Diversity, Democracy, Ecology
Take it easy...but take it. - http://www.greens.org