🚀 go-pugleaf

About 30 people attended the second organizational meeting of the RTP
Free-Net at The William & Ida Friday Continuing Education Center in Chapel
Hill on Tuesday, September 22 at 5:30.  After a round of
self-introductions and a brief history of Public Information Network, Inc.
by its president, Bill Hutchins, each of the committees made a report.

Publicity/administration/training:
Michael North (north@polaris.polaris.com) leads this committee.
Its electronic discussion group is rtfnpub@rad.unc.edu
To join the discussion group, send a message to rtfn-request@rad.unc.edu.
The content of the message is not important as the message will not be
processed automatically -- it will go to North.
The group meets approximately weekly, on Mondays at 5:30 pm in the UNC
Dept of Radiology meeting room (room 514) of the Old Clinic (Infirmary)
Building.  The group has prepared a donation form -- copies were
distributed at the meeting and are currently available from Judy Hallman
(Judy_Hallman@unc.edu).  North showed two versions of the proposed logo
-- the words Triangle FreeNet enclosed in a right triangle or an
equilateral triangle. The group is currently putting together a packet of
information describing the Free-Net project, which will be targeted for
local schools and libraries.

User interface:
Pat Langelier (Pat_Langelier@unc.edu) leads this committee.
The secretary is Michael Grubb (Michael.Grubb@bbs.oit.unc.edu).
(??? What is the electronic discussion group???)
The group meets at Picadilly Cafeteria.  There is a special room there for
meetings and there usually is only one group in that room at a time, so it
is not difficult to locate the group.  This group is currently looking at
the other Free-Nets and their user interfaces.  They will also look at
some DOS systems.  It was suggested that they also look at some of the
local BBS systems.

Database:
Chris Tully (cptully@med.unc.edu) leads this committee.
Tom Hocking (starman@unc.oit.unc.edu) is also one of the leaders.
The electronic discussion group is database@kudzu.concert.net.
To be added to that mailing list, send a message to Jane Smith
(jds@concert.net).
Tully said that the committee needs a statement of direction from the
larger group. There was considerable discussion, centering on indentifying
a small number of areas to focus on.

Hardware/software/networking/facilities
Roy Crabtree leads this committee.  People have not been able to get mail
through to Crabtree's address.  Bill Evans and Paul Jones will address this
problem, and Paul Jones will set up a listserv for this group.
Bill Evans offered use of his home computer systems for development. 
Discussion followed on ways to develop the system, including waiting for
funding, starting on a home system and/or asking for a corporate donation
of a workstation to start on.  The group agreed that a prototype system
would be invaluable in the fundraising effort and that development on Bill
Evan's system should get underway.  The group also agreed that people who
have ideas for acquiring workstations should pursue them.  If more than
one company donates a machine, we would have no problem using multiple
machines.  It was noted that the development system should not be
advertised for general use, but once we have a system ready for the
public, we should give it good visibility in public areas, like the libraries.

Funding/staffing
Kevin Gamble (kgamble@sire.ces.ncsu.edu) leads this committee.
The electronic discussion group is tf-funding@med.unc.edu.
To join this group, send a message to Gerard Robinson (robinson@med.unc.edu).
Jefferson Surles (jrsunc@unc.bitnet) reported on the committee's meeting.
He emphasized the need to develop a prototype to show "sweat equity," then
we can get interest and contributions, and then we can hire the personnel
needed to maintain the service.

Hallman asked that the committees make sure each has an acknowledged
leader to be responsible for scheduling meetings, making sure that someone
takes notes, and posting notes and meeting announcements to
rtpfreenet@unc.edu and to triangle.freenet.  She also asked that each
committee have a backup leader and a stated charter or mission and that
basic information about each group (leaders and members) be posted to
rtpfreenet and the newsgroup.  While discussion of specific issues is best
done in the committee e-mail discussion groups, task definitions and
requests for participants should be sent to the larger e-mail lists. 
Hallman noted that there are a lot of people who have volunteered to help;
task forces could be set up for small, specific tasks.

Hallman apologized for the start-up problems using the listserver.  She
noted that requests had been made for automatic postings between the
listserver and the newsgroup (that messages sent to one would
automatically be sent to the other).  Paul Jones offered to set this up. 
Meanwhile Hallman will watch both places and manually ensure that messages
go to both.

Hallman said that the Friday Center facilities had been offered to help
the Free-Net get started, but other sites are needed for future meetings. 
Bill Hutchins will check into using the Dreyfus Auditorium at the Research
Triangle Institute; Tom Magnuson suggested moving meetings around to the
three university campuses and will check into facilities for doing this. 
The site for the next meetings, October 20 and November 17 at 5:30 p.m.,
will be announced later. Announcements will be made to rtpfreenet@unc.edu
and triangle.freenet.

Submitted by:
Judy Hallman (Judy_Hallman@unc.edu)
Office of Information Technology
UNC-Chapel Hill (919) 962-9107