Chapter 1: Organization

Sites:

We in the Technology group must worry about getting and setting up two sites (which may be side by side) in the Metro Toronto Area. The characteristics of the sites will be:

Computer Centre:

This is where our computers and communications links will go.

  • Teprature controlled. We want space that will stay at about 18 celcius regardless as what the the temprature is outside.
    • There must not be a (signifigant) issue in bringing in signifigant numbers (say 500) of phone lines. One site that was briefly considered by the Toronto Free-Net had (because of odd building contruction and union turf battles) a phone line installation service charge of $800 per line!
  • The site must be protected with some sort of security system. The thought of someone being able to easily walk of with key hardware with 10^n alarms going off is unacceptable.
  • This site must be accessable 24 hours/day, 7 days/week on very short notice.
  • Ideally we would like a room with a false floor (to make cable runs easier.
  • As we hope to explore some wireless technologies, questions like acceess to the building roof (for antenna(s)) will have to sorted out in advance.

    • An existing computer centre could be ideal as much of the above would already in place. In addition we could with a bit of luck arrange to have their staff do such as starting the back-up, and changing back-up tapes.

    The situation that drove the Toronto Free-Net to set-up a modem site and a computer site (in different locations) I trust will not happen here. The reason the Toronto Free-Net has two Rogers owned sites (one for modems the other computers) is because Rogers could not offer the 24 hr/day, 7 day/week monitoring at any site inside Metro Toronto. The Toronto Free-Net also wanted a telephone number within Metro Toronto, without paying Bell a premium for setting up a Toronto number outside Toronto. So, they have the 24 hr/day, 7 day/week monitoring, plus a Toronto number, and they are not paying extra money to Bell. On the downside they have limited access to the phone lines late at night, and we have to deal with the fact that the modems and computers are several miles apart (though to date this has not been a real problem). In our case as we are not working on a publicly accessable modem pool, their may be a (modest) cost advantage to setting up just outside of Metro.

    Admin:

    With any organization there comes the need for a mail drop, storage place for paperwork etc.. The Admin space could be right beside the computer space (but does not have to be). If this is not located beside the computer space we will need to arrange for a communications link (which could be quite modest between the two sites.

    Access to this site need only be during business hours Monday - Friday.

    Staff:

    A central point behind this project as opposed to the Toronto Free-Net is to do things cheaper (as we will not be flush with cash...).

    Board of Directors:

    Still to be determined.

    Committees:

    The committees are:

    Problem Resolution Procedures:

    End user problems:

    Still to be determined.

    System problems:

    Still to be determined

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