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Prince George Lessons from the Pioneers |
- Funding - "haves vs. have-nots"
Community networks should provide, at no cost to the user, a "minimum level" of access to Internet information and basic e-mail (for accessing e-conferences, government and political leaders etc.). Some basic level of support and infrastructure should be provided by government for this (e.g. through PLN, possibly public-library based)
- Relationship to ISP's
Community networks will have to stake out different ground from commercial ISP's (obviously by developing good community content)- Issues we are facing right now in PG include
sustainability: funding model which ensures a minimum level of "free" access but which also includes some recognition of the fact that we need ongoing, paid technical support... and software changes: we are considering moving to Chebucto (Web-based server)