ABSTRACT

This report details the activities involved with developing a community online information system and the not-for profit organization that was established to run the system. The Rockford Public Library, as recipient of the LSCA grant, was the catalyst for establishing the system in Rockford. The report includes the mission statement, guiding principles, policy statements, standing committees and the goals and objectives of each committee for the first year of system operation. Included are discussions of funding and adding users and information providers. The report concludes with suggestions for establishing a community online information system. References are included.

ESTABLISHING THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT CORPORATION

In 1837, a young man named John Deere, living on the banks of the Rock River in Northern Illinois, invented a self-scouring steel plough that turned the thick prairie sod into tillable farm land. Deere's invention is said to have helped open the American West. This community network project caused those involved to empathize with the pioneers who used Deere's plow to create a new world on the thick Illinois crust. Starting an community online information system in Rockford, Illinois, was similar to rolling a prairie schooner onto the frontier, anchoring it on the banks of the Rock River and plowing up the prairie.

As with any project, some person or group must do it for the first time. In this case, it was librarians, the library system and the public library who brought in the prairie schooner. Katherine Maciuszko (1990) in her article on community information systems listed the roles that libraries were playing in support of community information systems. The list was a hierarchy based upon involvement: bystander, supporter, user, contributor, host. This LSCA grant adds another level to the roles played by libraries, that of initiator.

The Rockford Public Library directly serves a population of nearly one quarter of a million people and is the largest public library in the Northern Illinois Library System. Joel Rosenfeld, director of the library, was interested in the impact of that technology has on the public library and saw that the role of community information center (McClure, 1987) was going to be more important in the future of libraries. He felt that this role could be explored through the development of a community online information network in Rockford. At the same time, he wanted to foster the development of a community network that would stand on its own as a community organization. Hence, the Rockford Public Library decided to join the not-for-profit corporation being formed as a grass roots effort by a group of students from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The library became a benefactor through in-kind support, grant writing and board membership for the director. In essence, the public library in Rockford has been the catalyst for the development of the community network.

Rockford, the second largest city in Illinois, had no community access to the Internet backbone before this project. Access to the Internet was a long-distance call for virtually every person in the community. The only access was through the University of Illinois School of Medicine, which was available to students only. Today, the Sinnissippi Valley Information Network (SVIN) has 10 dial-in lines with a T-I access to the Internet and more than 600 registered users who all have free E-mail accounts. SVIN has a connection to the Winnebago County Court House with access to county court and property tax records. Dial-in users have access to ILLINET Online, the statewide database of library records that include the Rockford Public Library collection; they also have online access to front page news from the Rockford Register Star, and access to the proceedings of the Rockford City Coun-

*Carol J. Fox, Project Director, Rockford Public Library.

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cil minutes. SVIN has a World Wide Web server with homepages for the Sinnissippi Valley Information Network, Rockford City Hall, the Rockford Register Star, the Rockford Public Library, and the beginning of a Children's Interests Homepage.

In addition, dial-in and WEB users have access to gophers and Web pages from state, national and private online sources in the areas of government, education, business, journalism and weather, with plans for resources in the areas of art, recreation, health, social services, libraries and recreation. In their brief existence, the not-for-profit corporation formed to develop the SVIN has dealt with everything from establishing board policies and procedures and clarifying personnel job descriptions, to establishing and reestablishing their network, preventing illegal entry into their system and funding their vision. All the while, they were trying to keep up with the significant learning curve associated with the development of Mosaic Netscape and the World Wide Web.

The Freenet Movement

The freenet concept began in the mid-'80s when Tom Grundner (n.d.), a member of the Department of Family Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, designed a medical bulletin board he named "St. Silicon's Hospital and Information Dispensary." Grundner modified bulletin board software to establish a call-in service to assist people with medical questions. The idea of using this technology to provide an interactive medium to communicate and provide health information soon expanded into the "town square" metaphor for communication and information throughout the community that has characterized the "freenet" movement.

The word "freenet" is now a trademarked term that is associated with the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN), the not-for-profit organization that Grundner started to act as a national force for the development of freenets. NPTN is organized around the same principles as those of National Public Radio. When Rockford's community group was learning about freenets, they decided to start a not-for-profit organization and named the fledgling corporation the Sinnissippi Valley Freenet Association; however, they never associated with the national group. Since the word "freenet" has been trademarked, they were advised by legal counsel to change the name of the corporation. Today, they are known as the Sinnissippi Valley Information Network, but the nickname, SINNFREE, has stuck and is in the E-mail address (i.e. sinnfree@sinnfree.sinnfree.org) as well as the name of the Web Page (http://sinnfree.org).

How SVIN Began

The project began in 1993 as a course assignment for a group of Rockford area students who took a distance learning course from the graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. The professor for that class, Greg Newby, was setting up a "freenets" in Champaign. This intrigued four class members enough to form a research group and investigate "freenets" as their class projects. When the course ended, they had background on "freenets," enthusiasm and collective expertise enough to continue the project.

The four students were Jan Stilson, a librarian working for a Freeport hospital, Michael Goodwin, a database manager with UNIX background, Ed Gawronski, high school library media specialist with the Harlem School District in Loves Park, Illinois, and the writer who was, at the time, a consultant for the Northern Illinois Library System (NILS). They investigated the "freenets" that were already online, collected data from the two other Illinois freenets, incorporated the new organization as a not-for-profit corporation in Illinois and began the process of looking for funding. Joel Rosenfeld, director of the Rockford Public Library, joined them shortly after they presented a prospectus to him. His interest led to writing the LSCA grant, which has funded the project for the past year. At the same time, the Northern Illinois Library System was submitting a grant to the Illinois State Library. The State Library encouraged NILS to support the creation of the "freenet" so that it could offer Internet access to NILS librarians. The NILS grant money purchased the initial equipment, the operating system and the original line connections through netlllinois, a not-for-profit Internet provider, for the "freenet." The first users on the system were NILS librarians.

Forming the Board

The four grassroots creators of the Rockford network were following the pattern established before them by the NPTN groups, especially by Prairienet in Champaign and the Heartland Community Network in Peoria (Heartland, n.d.). They applied to become a not-for-profit corporation in the state of Illinois, applied for 501 (c)3 status with the federal government, appointed themselves as officers of the corporation and began adapting by-laws and establishing policy for the new group.

The project attracted others in the community. Michelle-Gearhart Minick, a student in the class, Joel Rosenfeld, Sally Etheridge, a librarian who owned her own information service and Joel Solis, an editor for

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the Rockford Register Star, joined as board members shortly after the corporation formed. The group met weekly in a private home, but when Rosenfeld joined the board, the meetings were moved to the Board Room of the Rockford Public Library. The group announced their meetings and invited the public to come. Computer enthusiasts and community agencies interested in the Internet came frequently. The young organization often has as many as a dozen visitors at their initial meetings. More people joined the board. Dr. Victor Commean, a dentist from Freeport took a strong interest as did two young engineers, Shawn Coumbe and Art Hampton, from Woodward Governor, a national corporation headquartered in Rockford. Goodwin left the board to take on the position of System Administrator, paid through the NILS grant. Fox, Goodwin and Rosenfeld were writing the LSCA grant at this time, and the board was continuing to meet weekly to discuss the technical aspects of the project. Fox became president long enough to help with the establishment of the Policy Manual and then resigned to become the project director for the LSCA grant.

The board has continued to develop throughout the grant period. Today, it is a 12-member board consisting of representation from the health community, the local newspaper, several businesses and corporations, the library, a school and Rockford City Hall. The commitment of this board to this project is expressed in their constancy as board members. The board has met every first and third Wednesday of the month since the beginning of the grant and has continued to solve problems related to meeting grant expectations and maintaining the viability of the corporation.

ORGANIZING THE BOARD AND THE NETWORK

The board had a number of tasks before it: to (A) develop the purpose and guiding principles of the organization; (B) conceptualize and establish technically the kind of community network they wanted; (C) establish policies and procedures for operation of the corporation; (D) establish positions and create job descriptions for staff or contractors to carry out the day-to-day activities of the corporation; (E) develop a business plan, funding program and a budget to ensure the financial success of the corporation; and to (F) add users and information providers to the system.

The goal of the LSCA grant was to assist with these tasks, and the project director spent a great deal of her time ensuring that these six activities were addressed and/or completed. It would fall to an executive director or the president of the board to be sure these actions were accomplished without a grant program.

Developing the Purpose and the Guiding Principles

In his article on the development of National Information Infrastructure policy, Richard Schaefer (1994) proposed a set of norms for the development of the Information Superhighway and suggested that "Adhering to the following list of structural, content, and performance criteria would help ensure that the National Information Infrastructure served the ends of public dialog and democratic participation." Schaefer's list is quoted here with paraphrase of the definition of each term.

Participatory Design: Provide mechanisms so that the system can be managed and influenced by citizens without over-emphasis privatization.

Full Interactivity: Provide various avenues and opportunities for personal expression and growth.

Universal Service: Provide a system accessible to all citizens.

Separation of Channels: Provide a separation of commercial and noncommercial communications.

Freedom of Expression: Support freedom from governmental suppression of ideas and information and encourage citizen-to-citizen communication.

Cultural Continuity: Support key institutions, such as public libraries and schools, to facilitate and strengthen their relationship to online information system development.

The SVIN Board has addressed each of these concepts and concerns through the establishment of the organization, its participants, its mission, its guiding principles and its practice.

A. The SVIN mission was established:

The mission of the Sinnissippi Valley Information Network is to create a dynamic information network that enhances community and enriches lives.

The "community" addressed in this mission describes a geographic area that includes Rockford and Northern Illinois. While the board was aware that "community" is not necessarily geographic and that the development of "online community" was important, they were more concerned that the geographic area mentioned have access to an online network to establish broader connections. Community was defined as primarily the people who live and work in Northern Illinois. They hoped to enhance and enrich this broader community through the development of the Sinnissippi Valley Informa-

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tion Network. They believed that if people communicated, gained knowledge and developed relationships through the online service, it was helping a broader community development.

B. The following principles were also adopted:

1. SVIN believes in the free-market of ideas and information.

This statement supports democratic principles and capitalistic philosophy. The free-market of ideas and information supports a belief that individuals have the right to share ideas and information in a free society and that the viability of those ideas and information will be determined by their viability in that society. It implies that capitalistic methods, including sales, commercialism and advertising, can benefit commerce as well as support a non-commercial, democratic network that benefits everyone. It also is construed to support freedom of expression unrestricted by the government, and the right to access government information. The SVIN does not monitor information placed on the system. The board believes individuals who place information on the system are responsible for their own words, and that this exempts SVIN from bearing legal responsibility for the contents it delivers. Legal rulings on this are still untested.

2. SVIN will create a not-for-profit corporation.

The SVIN Board believes that the not-for-profit corporation has several advantages. The corporation is a legal entity required to follow specific laws and abide by its purpose, which, in the case of SVIN, is to provide an information network that would benefit the community and to include a strong educational component. It has the ability to raise money through charitable and entrepreneurial means, and it is focused on the services that it provides to the community rather than the profit it will make. It is saved from extraordinary government regulation and can be provided a tax-exempt status. People who serve on not-for-profit boards do so usually as a community service, supporting the mission of the organization.

3. The network is dedicated to technical excellence.

The organization revolves around the system and the network. Regardless of how well an organization does its off line work, if the system is not performing adequately, perceptual and real problems will arise. The three criteria established for the judgment of excellence were reliability, useability and security. This principle allows the board to consistently remind itself of the need to stay current and to upgrade service in a constantly changing environment.

4. The organization is striving for universal access to information networks.

SVIN hopes to ensure that government and community information will be provided to the largest number of people possible. Universal access has been interpreted to mean that all people in the regional community should have both intellectual and physical access to the system. Therefore, they asked for computers through the LSCA grant to place in six middle schools in the area, piggy backed upon the state ALLY grants that provided computers and modems to school and pubic libraries by providing Internet accounts to local librarians, and conducted "train the trainer" sessions for area librarians, teachers and administrators. SVIN also has created a dual network that is available for dial-in and direct connect access. Accounts and e-mail access to the Internet are free, as is access to the information on the local Web pages that connect to state and national governmental sites. The network itself is based upon web software, which allows the SVIN system to provide the same organizing structure in both graphical and non-graphical format. The future of this network will provide to more users including those in rural areas, the elderly, persons with disabilities and the poor with access. It also will include the larger component for training and make a consistent effort to connect local agencies, organizations and institutions to the network to encourage sharing of local information.

5. SVIN is committed to the concept of the public good.

This ensures that the board will encourage users and information providers who are working toward the betterment of the regional community to become a part on the network. The issues of conflict of interest, censorship, privacy, intellectual access, copyright and wrongful conduct are no less troublesome in the virtual world than the real

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world. They demand thoughtful consideration by those charged with the development of the system. The overriding consideration for the board will remain the commonwealth.

Based upon the mission and principles, the board created standing committees: Technology Committee, Finance Committee, Policy and By-laws Committee, Executive Committee, Publicity Committee, and the Membership and Program Committee. Each of these committees was defined and established a set of goals and objectives for this year. The board also created three ad-hoc committees this year: the Grand Opening and "Ribbon Tying Ceremony" Committee, First Access Volunteers Committee and the Training Committee.

Establishing Policies and Procedures

The creation of the policy manual came early in the grant process. Michelle Gearhart Minick and Carol Fox took existing manuals from other freenets and not-for-profits organizations and created the current policy manual. These policies along with the by-laws created a sense of order for the board and gave them a starting point for running the organization.

Before the end of the project, the project director met with legal counsel to assure that they had the appropriate documents, that they had followed legal procedures and that they were maintaining appropriate records for the organization. During this time the organization's name was changed, a Corporate Notebook was developed, and the first contracts with information providers and corporate users were signed.

The creation of the job descriptions came as the result of necessity as the board realized its needs for more staff and for definition of the job responsibilities of each contractor.

The Policy Committee

The goal of the Policy Committee was to organize the day-to-day operation of SVIN and determine staff requirements to support the operation of the organization. The project director was charged with creating the documents with the assistance of the Policy Committee.

The objectives were to:

A. Establish a Policy Manual containing the following sections:

1. Governance

2. Management

3. Personnel

4. User Policy

5. Sponsorship

6. Information Providers

7. Volunteers

B. Create positions and establish job descriptions:

1. Executive Director

2. Internet Provider

3. System Administrator

4. Data Manager

5. Financial Manager and Office Assistant

6. Sales and Marketing Director

7. Training Coordinator and Provider

C. Ensure the creation of the business operation:

1. Locate an office and/or equipment center

2. Create a budget

3. Develop a funding plan

4. Set up standard office practices and procedures

a. Establish registration procedures and forms
b. Establish telephone procedures and forms
c. Establish account management
d. Establish a financial accounting system

Early in the grant process, the Rockford Public Library Board voted to allow the SVIN Board to maintain their equipment and house an office in one of their classrooms next to the library auditorium. This area has a separate entrance, is secure and is centrally located in the community. The Northern Illinois Library system was giving away office furniture in their upgrade to modular office units. With these two sources of in-kind service, an office was created for SinnFree. The office is small, but able to house two staff people and entertain small training sessions for as many as eight people. This arrangement has worked well for the project director and the system administrator. The office is a central location for the equipment and for business records, but little time is spent there by staff who have home offices and other equipment sites. This fits into current practice of hiring most services to be done for the organization through contracts.

The board is steadily moving toward establishing standard business practices. At the close of the grant, a decision was made to purchase a financial management program. These "books" are being set up by the finance manager and the data manager. The treasurer has managed the financial records for the organization

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during the grant period, but as more money begins to flow through the organization account, a faster and more integrated accounting process will be necessary. General safeguards for the money will continue but the staff will have access to financial records for upkeep and maintenance.

The project director, acting as the executive director, set up the procedures and created the documents for the account creation process, telephone answering procedures, account management process and the contractual agreements and client manuals.

A. The creation of accounts for users required procedures and forms. The project director worked with the system administrator to create a process that is working fairly smoothly for us. While SVIN started with an online registration process, they discovered that people did not complete the forms, made errors or had difficulty maneuvering the online database. They also found that the online records were not secure. In addition, time was a factor in the account creation. They required users to send paper registration forms and copies of some identification, preferably a driver's license. This meant matching this against the online record. Instead, the project director and data manager placed the registration form online, and asked people to "print screen" the document and sent it to SVIN with identification. They now add the new user to an offline database, file the forms numerically as they come in, create a batched list of new users for the online system and send letters to users as their new accounts are created. If there are errors or changes to be made in accounts, the project director has designed forms to accommodate these changes. She also created tutorials for E-Mail and for use of the county courthouse system.

B. As a part of the policy manual, the board also has developed user guidelines for the system, information providers guidelines for placing information on the system and a commercial use policy for businesses. It also is establishing procedures for those who abuse the guidelines of the system.

Creating Jobs and Job Descriptions

The original staff positions through the grant were project director and system administrator. The SVIN Board appointed the project director as acting executive director so that she would have an official relationship with the board. The creation of job descriptions for the executive director and system administrator were established midway through the project. At the initial stages, the project director was charged with community development and the system administrator with system development. In January, when no useable network was in place, new approaches to the job descriptions of both parties were necessary. The first system administrator left the position and was replaced by a second one in early May.

The evolution of this process occurred as the board and the project director recognized the need for the division of work to be done within the organization. While a not-for-profit board is always considered a "working board," it was apparent that they could not do the day-to-day activities and that more full-time help for the executive director and the system administrator were needed. Following is a brief description of the various jobs as SVIN has organized them. At the present, these jobs are being filled by contract services, board members and volunteers. The board has not hired an employee.

The executive director is charged with overseeing the general operation of the organization and the staff, planning for the future, developing administrative policies and procedures, preparing an annual budget, working with area leaders, developing programs and seeking out grants.

The system administrator is charged with establishing and maintaining the operating system and applications on the system, including the telecommunication connections. This is a contract for service.

The data manager is charged with the care of user accounts, menus, documents, files and directories, and the creation, placement and, in some cases, maintenance of homepages on the system. These tasks are currently being managed by a volunteer.

The finance manager and general office assistant was originally charged with answering the telephone, creating accounts on the database and handling mailings. However, the position now includes the maintenance of financial records. The account creation process has been given to the data manager. This is a contract for service.

The sales and marketing director was hired on commission to sell the services established in the Business Plan. This person works on commission and will be in charge of the sales and marketing of homepages, R-Pages and custom services to businesses. This is a contract service.

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Establishing the Network

The board as a whole continued to struggle with its conception and the system it was developing. To conceptualize and establish technically the kind of community network they wanted took a great deal of time and effort. The board meetings were used to inform the community about the community network idea, and to assist the board itself in understanding the community network concept. The technical discussion about the network was detailed and quite often long, and concepts about what was being created took several forms. They already had purchased a 586 machine and were running a UNIX operating system with grant funds from the Northern Illinois Library System. By doing so, they had committed to the Internet. Still, there was confusion about what was being developed.

The Technology Committee

The goal of the Technology Committee was to establish an online community information system that did three things: (1) provide free accounts on the systems that would give SVIN users the ability to have E-Mail and retrieve and save online files; (2) provide avenues for discussion through such applications as IRC and Usenet, local forums; LIST SERVS and E-Mail; and (3) provide a connection to the Internet, which would give SVIN users worldwide E-Mail and access to commands, such as telnet, ftp, gopher and http to allow exploration beyond the local systems. In addition, the system was to be reliable, highly useable and secure.

The objectives were to:

A. Conceptualize the system wanted:

1. Call in experts to assist in concept development.

2. Search the Internet for data on community systems.

3. Discuss understandings of the system at board meetings.

4. Purchase documentation from other freenets.

B. Develop a highly reliable system:

1. Hire an executive director to oversee staff and service providers.

2. Contract with a reputable, qualified and capable Internet provider.

3. Hire a reputable, qualified and capable system administrator.

4. Find volunteers to provide content and account management.

5, Approve job descriptions for each of the above positions.

C. Guarantee a highly useable system:

1. Select software for the community information system that has the following characteristics

a. Offers compatibility with the existing computer and Unix operating system.

b. Provides an integrated and highly useable E-Mail package.

c. Offers telnet, ftp and gopher.

d. Provides avenues for forums and discussions both locally and world wide with applications such as LISTSERV, USENET, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

e. Provides avenues for information providers to place content on the system through accounts that are secure, tamper-proof and restricted to and for IP use.

f. Offers a menu structure that can be tailored to meet the needs of the community network.

g. Does not require proprietary software for access.

h. Provides for dial-in access to the network via standard phone lines.

2. Establish a menu structure that is concise and easily understood.

3. Maintain records of system use.

4. Provide avenues for survey of user needs. D. Establish as secure a system as possible:

1. Establish a registration process that requires identification and verifiability of users.

2. Maintain a separate database of user records.

3. Inform users of their password responsibilities.

4. Institute procedures to give users system access based upon their clearance level and to secure that users are restricted from other accesses.

5. Establish policies and procedures for password protection.

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In spite of the requirement, there were still conceptual problems for the group as they went about finding the right technical solutions to match their vision. Three focuses for service began to emerge. While all are important aspects of a community network in the long run, during this initial stage, the SVIN Board found themselves trying to select one focus from the following concepts.

A. The Bulletin Board System Concept and the Focus on "Discussion"

The online bulletin board systems house a number of accounts, allow users to "chat " with each other in threaded discussions and private messages, provide access to "common files" and give voice to a multiple number of local "forums" based upon common interests. These systems were old technology by the time SVIN began their search for the right software to support their ideas. BBS software companies were upgrading their packages to include Internet gateways, but not all of them had packages adaptable to UNIX. They found UNIX-based BBS software and this would have been a satisfactory approach, but several other agencies, including the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce and the Rockford Register Star, had established or wanted to establish community bulletin board systems that would focus on community discussion. The focus was moving toward community information online, Internet resources available to the community, integrated E-mail and access to gopher, telnet and file transfer protocol. At the time of the search, the World Wide Web was heralded as the next generation in Internet applications. They wanted a system that provided all the features of a BBS, the Web and UNIX Internet commands. While they investigated a number of bulletin board software packages, they eventually rejected all of them because none provided everything they wanted.

B. The Star Network Concept and the Focus on "High Bandwidth Connections"

To help clarify their understanding of what they were creating, they invited some Ameritech representatives to a SVIN meeting to present the board with their concept of a community network. The Ameritech people had a considerably more sophisticated view, which included high bandwidth lines connecting the major institutions in the community, i.e. school administration office, community college, city hall, county court house, library and library system. In this scenario, each of the networks in those institutions would be connected to the SVIN network, which would in turn be connected to the Internet. This picture included dial-in lines into the SVIN computer and a system designed specifically for the Rockford community with routers, hubs, csu-dsus and T-l connections.

While this vision is an important one, because it provides a number of users with high bandwidth connections, neither grant nor community funding sources were sufficient. Few of the institutions were ready for this kind of connectivity or understood its implications. No one had yet grappled with the policy issues for employees and students related to establishing Internet connections. In addition, not all the institutions were running networked systems.

To support this concept, even though the community was not quite ready for it, the project director in association with Rock Valley College wrote a Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (1995) grant to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The grant would connect several institutions and provide educational programming for rural and economically depressed areas in Northern Illinois.

C. The World Wide Web Concept and the Focus on "Interactive Information and Communication"

In the meantime, Mosaic and Netscape were sweeping the Internet, and the World Wide Web was becoming a powerful new choice for displaying text documents and graphics. These new browsing software were providing the ability to browse the Net in increasingly versatile ways. Included in this new wave of activity was a nongraphical web browser (LYNX) that could both act like a menu and search the Internet. Several members of the board immediately saw the value of this technology and encouraged the board and the project director to consider using LYNX as the menuing structure. They envisioned the ability to create a network that included executable tasks, a "menuing" structure that could connect to any facet of the Internet, a seamless interweave of local, state, and national information, and a system that could bridge the gap between high-bandwidth connections and low bandwidth connections by creating similar organizational structures for the telnet and the web servers. This third scenario was selected, and the project director and other board members relied upon the Board experts to

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guide them through the "learning curve" as they navigated the process of learning to create hypertext markup language (HTML) documents (Aronson, 1994), to configure the LYNX program to act as a menu, and to eventually create text and graphical Web pages for the SVIN Web server. This scenario provided instant access to documents and Web sites around the world, and gave SVIN the ability to connect to local and statewide databases including Winnebago County property tax and court records. The focus on local community information online with access to information sources worldwide through the Internet and communication channels available through integrated E-mail and LISTSERVS made the World Wide Web and the LYNX browser a good beginning choice for the system. The board felt they had designed a system that provided them with all of the features of a BBS, the Web and UNIX Internet commands. They knew, however, that pieces such as local forums were still important to consider.

At the end of the grant period, the system administrator also put up a web server, and the data manager mounted homepages for SinnFree, the Rockford Public Library, the City of Rockford, the Rockford Register Star and the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.

The new system has the ability to run Usenet and IRC, but this has not been activated. Discussions are supported by offering LISTSERV information. However, the goal to provide further "discussion" capability is rising higher on SVTN's priority list.

Funding the System

High on the list of problems to solve for most community information systems is funding. Like all not-for-profit organizations, SVIN sought to solve this problem in creative and inventive ways. From the beginning they saw the traditional money-raising activities of most not-for-profit organizations as difficult as best. This grassroots board was not privy to the "movers and shakers" in the community and did not feel comfortable walking into corporate headquarters asking for money. Nor were they particularly interested in the "tee-shirt and candy-bar" approach to funding the system. The project director and the Finance Committee members created several budgets, business plans and concepts for fund raising before a list of services was approved in June. Because the system was not being supported by any institution of higher learning and, therefore, was not restricted by the policies of the National Science Foundation, CICnet or any university, an entrepreneurial spirit began to seep into board thinking as they worked on this problem. The decision was to sell access and services.

Finance Committee

The goal of the Finance Committee was to ensure the continued viability of the corporation after the grant period.

The objectives were to:

A. Create a funding plan that would sustain the network.

B. Develop a budget.

The final decision was that the corporation would offer (1) a membership for higher access to the Internet, including telnet and ftp to both businesses and individuals, (2) Web reflectors for homepages at various prices and sizes to businesses, other agencies and corporations (3) training programs on the Internet and SVIN, and (4) a portion of their Internet line and/or a computer on the SVIN network to institutions that wished to connect through the SVIN system.

The homepage sales were broken into several categories and a new part of the system was born. From the time that the new system administrator joined the group, the idea of a "Rockford Virtual Mall" was under consideration. Once the decision to sell advertising was made, a new Web site was established (rockford.org) that would house the listing of businesses and organizations that wanted short and spectacular Web page connections. These sites would be located in the R-Pages section of the system and would be separate from but accessible to and through the community section of the system, SinnFree.

A second avenue for funding was to offer middle-sized institutions dial-in access and a proprietary homepage. The Northern Illinois Library System and the Northern Illinois Health Care Network have both seen this as a way to provide Internet access to their members who are located in sites throughout northern Illinois. An 800 line that rolls over into the system and several more phone lines on SVIN's port server provides subsidized Internet access for remote and rural sites. The ability to create an initial menu that is exclusively for these organizations is a feature that makes this system particularly attractive.

A third approach was to offer Internet access through a dedicated high-bandwidth connection to institutions that would benefit from sharing a T-l line. This is being explored also by the Northern Illinois Library System, the Rockford Public Library and the Northern Illinois Health Care Network. Rock Valley College also is expressing an interest.

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A fourth approach was to offer classes on the Internet to interested computer users. One of the board members volunteered to put together a training program on the Internet and offer it as a three- or four-hour session to interested computer users. This would bring in a small amount of money for the organization.

Adding Users and Information Providers to the System

This part of the process required the work of more than one committee and the project director. It is broken into two sections: (A) informing the community and (B) placing local information online. The committees involved were the Publicity Committee, Ad-Hoc First Access Volunteer Committee, Ad-Hoc Grand Opening Committee, Ad hoc Training Committee and the Membership and Program Committee.

A. Informing the Community

From the outset, publicity for this grant was not a problem. The Register Star's interest and support provided SVIN with an avenue for a number of stories as the grant progressed. The Publicity Committee designed a brochure that had the names of board and staff members on it, and these people changed so rapidly that the brochure was soon outdated. Fortunately, the board did not spend a great deal of money on printing. Instead, they were copied in small quantities at Kinkos as needed.

A logo was designed but it never quite pleased the board. Letterhead was created by scanning the logo into the computer and creating a file for insertion in the word processing program. The project director worked with these methods throughout the grant period. However, a board member who is a graphics designer has created a new logo for us.

Publicity Committee

The goal of the publicity committee was to inform the community of the existence of SinnFree.

The objectives were to:

1. Work with the news media on publicity.

2. Create a brochure.

3. Hold an introductory informational meeting.

4. Hold a Grand Opening.

The last two items were parceled out to ad-hoc committees and the project director.

First Access Volunteers Informational Meeting

The goal of this committee was to plan an open meeting for the public to introduce them to the community network system and the Internet.

The objectives were to:

1. Reserve a room and meeting night.

2. Prepare and send flyers and brochures to the growing list of people and area businesses that would be interested.

3. Plan the presentation.

4. Enlist board members to assist with the meeting.

5. Allow the public to sign up for accounts.

In March, the SVIN Board held the public meeting for First Access Volunteers to introduce the community to the embryonic system. To everyone's amazement more than 150 people crowded into the library's auditorium to hear about the plans. An online demonstration was conducted, and more than 85 people signed up that night for accounts on the system. SVTN also asked for volunteers interested in helping in a number of ways. Logically, most were interested in working on or learning about the system. However, SVIN was already experiencing some problems with its system. This public meeting was the beginning of the end for the first system. Because the system was not protected adequately, it was a fairly simple task to "hack" the system. The board, project manager and the library ended this segment of their learning process by hiring a new system administrator and creating a whole new system.

The Grand Opening an Ribbon Tying Ceremony

The goal of the Grand Opening Committee was to plan a successful grand-opening for the community online information system.

The objectives were to:

1. Raise funds to support the event.

2. Secure City Hall.

3. Order food and balloons.

4. Create invitations and send them to 500 people

5. Place computers that could dial-in to SinnFree at the event.

6. Flan a ceremony and cut the ribbons.

7. Hand out business cards with the dial-in number on them.

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8. Inform the press and the media of the event.

Despite the troubles that the system was now experiencing, the board planned and executed an exciting and elegant kick-off ceremony. One of the board members raised more than $1,000 and planned a marvelous party. It was held in the foyer of City Hall, decorated with masses of brightly colored balloons and festooned with computers displaying SinnFree in every corner. Nearly 100 people came to wish SVIN well. The highlight of the event was "the ribbon-tying ceremony," which was a twist on the ribbon cutting ceremony of most inaugural events. Attendees were given ribbons and at the designated time, they tied their ribbons together to signify community connection. SVIN had a front page photo and story in the paper and television and radio coverage. The mayor stopped to see his homepage created by a board member. By anyone's standard the event was a success. The next day the system went down for repairs and the switch to a new operating system.

Training and Training Committee

The grant required that 10 training sessions be held for the educational and library institutions. During the grant period, four sessions were held for Northern Illinois Library System librarians, four sessions were held for school administrators, teachers and school librarians, one session was held for SVIN Board members and two sessions were held for Rockford Register Star reporters and Information Providers.

These sessions were specific to the needs of the users, but generally included a hands-on session on E-mail and some file maintenance procedures, such as upload and download, edit and delete. A brief exposure to telnet, ftp and the Web commands also were included.

One of the greatest needs in system training is for information on getting connected. The project director wrote instructions that are included in registration and inquiry packets sent to potential users.

In addition to the training that was offered through the grant, the board established an adhoc Training Committee. An SVIN Board member will be doing a series of training sessions, including one for the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce. The SVIN Board expects this to be an important service for the community, while creating a funding source for the system.

Training Committee

The goal of the training committee was to create and offer a series of sessions on the Internet and the SVIN system, at a reasonable price, to establish the need for this service and to test its viability as a fund raising source.

The objectives were to:

1. Create the curriculum:

a. Outline

b. Hand-out

2. Establish the dates, times, and locations.

3. Create and send flyer.

4. Conduct sessions.

5. Evaluate results.

As this paper is being written, the training program is still under construction.

B. Placing Local Information Online

The intent of the board from the beginning was to provide a system that would be "Rockford's Window to the World" and provide a "one stop shop" for information from many sources, including local, state and national online sites. The board saw the system as an avenue for information for and about education, home, business, government, social services, children's interests, arts and recreation, libraries and online news such as local headlines and weather. The grant focused on local sites. While the grant requirements were successfully met by providing local information on news, libraries and city and county government, much more needs to be done to support the local information providers.

The committee most closely associated with this activity was the Membership and Program Committee, but the members of that committee were so busy with other activities that it never quite got off the ground. Perhaps this committee is named wrong and it should be called the Information Providers Committee or perhaps it needs to be separated into two committees for membership and information providers. Most of the tasks associated with the Information Providers were completed by the project director based upon grant requirements.

The goal for the project director with regard to Information Providers was to mount local information on the system from at least three institutions in the community.

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The objectives were to:

1. Speak before or meet with at least 10 local organizations and group gatherings interested in the system.

2. Meet with organizations that expressed strong interest in placing local information on the system.

3. Design homepages for at least three organizations ready to mount data.

4. Work on funding sources.

5. Create contracts and information provider agreements.

6. Provide training programs for Information Providers.

A series of questions must be answered: what information will be mounted on the system, who will put it there, where will it be mounted, how will it be secured, what formats will be necessary, how will it be maintained, what costs will be incurred and who will pay. The answers were still working their way to resolution as the grant ended.

Although this part of the grant was the project director's responsibility, so much needed to be established before this area could be thoroughly explored that it was a slow process. The need to use a steel plow to ready the prairie for planting often came to mind. Now that the system is more stable, the flowers (homepages) are beginning to bloom in brilliant color, but getting it ready took far longer and required much more effort than anyone had imagined.

The creation of the network itself was always in such a state of change, that informing others of the processes for mounting information was problematic. Now that SVIN has both a Web site and a telnet site and is using HTML formats to mount information, it is easier to create new accounts, but in the early stages, especially with the system failure, this was difficult at best. As recently as a week before the grant's end, the data manager designed special Information Provider accounts that can be maintained by the Information Providers themselves from remote sites. These accounts are zoned so that Information Providers have access only to their accounts and to no other levels of the system. While this is a step in the right direction, so few people know how to mount information from a remote site or create HTML documents that this is still a problem. More of a problem is funding; even though it would be wonderful to give away homepages, the funding situation has not been settled enough to do so.

While the project director visited many community groups and spoke before a number of organizations, the Information Providers who were willing to work constantly with SVIN by sending representatives as board members were the first successful local Information Providers. The SVIN Board has mounted as demonstration sites the Rockford City Hall Homepage, the Rockford Public Library Homepage and the connection to the Winnebago County Courthouse. City Hall and the library have members of their staffs sitting on the SVIN Board. The Court House connection is a phone line connection to a computer with court records and property tax information. This dial-in-dial out connection provides access to records that would normally require the user to physically go to the court house.

The Rockford Register Star has been a supporter of SVIN since the earliest days of the system. The contract between the Star (a Gannett Company) and SVIN was negotiated by a law firm in Washington D.C. and a local law firm as representatives of the two parties. The issues included discussion of the Prodigy case (3 cases... 1995) and the rights and responsibilities (Lance, 1995) of each party regarding the information posted on the system by the Register Star. When all had agreed, the Register Star began posting the three lead stories from the daily paper with the promise of more stories from other sections of the paper. In addition. E-mail to the city editors, telnet to the Star's BBS and search of previous stories are under construction. The Star paid a fee to SVIN to support this homepage.

The Northern Illinois Library System (NILS) has contracted with SVIN to design and mount a homepage that includes graphics and will be placed on the SinnFree Community Network under Libraries. NILS will pay a fee to mount this homepage. NILS also is designing a local area network that will include the records of the local libraries online. Once complete, they will be looking at connections that will make it possible for online callers to SinnFree to access the local library records.

ILLINET Online, the statewide database of library records, is now available on the SinnFree system. For years, these records have been available through dial-in to other communities in Illi-

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nois. This is the first time these records have been available to Rockford area residents.

The Northern Illinois Health Care Network has contracted with SVIN to mount a homepage. This homepage has already been designed by a graphics vendor. NIHCN will pay a fee to mount this homepage.

Smaller organizations like clubs and associations have contacted SVIN on a number of occasions. While SVIN would like to mount all community information, it must find ways to support this effort financially. SVIN will pursue grant opportunities from other not-for-profit agencies and organizations.

The relationship with the school has been disappointing. Even though SVIN gave five middle schools and one high school computers, modems and phone lines through this grant and provided some in-service for their staffs, the project director does not feel that SVIN has yet built a relationship that will develop into a plan for the future.

Another special case bears mentioning. The local crisis hot line has created a new organization, Info-Line, that will maintain a computer database of regional social service agencies and providers. The database will be used by paid staff and volunteers to assist telephone callers in need of services. The possibility of a connection to this system is worthy of further investigation and may become a part of a grant application.

SUMMARIES AND CONCLUSIONS

The Sinnissippi Valley Information Network is working and growing, and the organization that supports it is active and engaged. In 10 months, this group has brought something to Rockford that was never here before and to find support for its continuance. There are still many issues to face, but there is good reason to believe that the system will survive and thrive.

In addition, Shaefer's norms for the creation of an information superhighway seem in fairly good hands with the Sinnissippi Valley Information Network. The underpinnings for balance and thoughtfulness are in place in this network. The not-for-profit organization composed of individuals from the community are providing avenues for citizen participation on the super highway. The system already has many paths for personal expression with e-mail and LISTSERVS and will have many more when other applications are activated. A goal of the organization is universal access and, generally, when librarians talk about such things they are quite serious about both words. The separation of commercialism from non-commercialism seemed to make as much sense to the entrepreneurs among the board members (Cronin, 1994) as it did to those who were more interested in community information. If their funding project works it will see commercialism in support of the not-for-profit venture, the establishment of the not-for-profit organization supports a separation from government that begins to ensure a lawful process with regard to freedom of expression. The concept of cultural continuity is supported as well by virtue of the library's participation. The evolution of the pubic library from a room full of books to an organizable online structure in support of community, democracy, intellectual freedom and universal access has begun.

Sharing the Benefit of Experience: Eleven Suggestions for Starting a Community Online Information System

1. Ask the tough Questions First

A. Does the mission of the library support this project?

B. What is the library's role in the expansion of community information?

C. What part is the library willing to play in the development of a community network.

D. What support can the library give to the ongoing operation of the network?

E. Is there staff time and expertise to help develop this network?

2. Start a Coalition

A community online information system takes the cooperation, knowledge and skill of a many people. Announce that you will explore the idea with interested citizens and call a meeting to start a study group. Be sure that your group includes people with technical background, including those with experience in UNIX, experience with local area and wide networks, experience with telecommunications and experience with the Internet. No one person may have all of this experience. Also, be sure that your group contains local businessmen who know how to establish a business. Add some Information Providers, some librarians and some educators and you have the makings for an interesting discussion.

3. Ask for Help

Many groups already have done this; go online as much as possible and find their stories. How

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did they do it? Who helped? How much did it cost? A nearby university may have begun this process; hook up with them via e-mail. Telecommunications companies, computer companies, universities, and entrepreneurs can be asked to address your group.

4. Take Time to Study and Plan

The building of a community network requires a shared vision for what you are trying to build. Are you most concerned about participatory democracy, universal access, lifelong learning or some other issue? Building a network is not as easy as it sounds, because you can't really see what you are building. Having a good concept of the kind of community network you want to have and what you want to do is important. As more and more information is published, this will be easier, but everyone starts at the beginning sometime.

5. Attack the Funding Question Early

Looking for grant money is a great way to set up a network, but how will you fund it when the money runs out? Looking for local resources and gathering creative entrepreneurial and classic fund raising techniques and ideas should be a high priority.

6. Involve Community Leaders

Your school superintendent, the mayor, library director and congressmen may not be up on the latest Internet lingo, but they may support your group with ideas and leads. You may just intrigue them enough to get them to join you.

7. Look for Reputable and Qualified Internet Providers and System Administrators

You won't find an old company that your father's father did business with in this environment, so look for people who want to do a good job and who are reliable and consistent. Your group should do some homework, too. Don't be intimidated by technical jargon; when you don't understand, ask for an explanation. Choose people who make sense to you. Use some old-fashioned good sense when looking for technical help.

8. Don't Try to Do Everything at Once

Setting up the organization that will run the system is just as important as setting up the network. In this instance, you can take a hint from Professor Harold Hill and form your band before the instruments arrive. If you have some experts who are good at business organization, it won't take long.

9. Borrow Your Policy and Procedures from Others

Creating an organization without a pattern is time consuming and difficult. Gather as much information as you can from other sources and use it to your advantage.

10. Plan Some Ways to Inform and Teach Your Community

If you intend to use a Web base, its not too soon to start creating HTML documents. Helping your community find out about modems, telecommunications packages, directories, upload and download protocols, E-Mail and UNIX commands for using the Internet can be done through other networks.

11. Start Looking for Local Information Providers

The Internet will not become a commercial jungle if libraries, schools and other information agencies are there to provide a balance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The project director wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary effort on the part of the Sinnissippi Valley Information Network Board of Directors, the Midwest Information Superhighway Access Group, Integrated Network Solutions and the many users, members and volunteers who have given their time, energy and commitment to this project.

Joel Rosenfeld, director of the Rockford Public Library, spent untold hours in thought, discussion and decisionmaking over this project. Vic Commean, president of the SVIN Board, lent his vision and gave his time willingly. Each of the board members has worked steadfastly and contributed many hours to this project.

Chris Icide, Shawn Coumbe, Brian Tackett and DeLon Fox created the community online information system called SinnFree.

Thanks are also due to the Northern Illinois Library System, which has believed in this project from the beginning, and to the Illinois State Library for giving Rockford Public Library the opportunity to develop this network.

Reference List

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Me Clure, Charles R. et. al. 1987. A planning and role setting manual for public libraries. Chicago; ALA.

Grundner, Thomas M. (n.d.) Community computing and the National Public Telecomputing Network. [URL http: / /www.prairienet.org/ omctr/teleport/ info/basic guide.txt]

Heartland Free-Net administrative implementation guide for Community Computer Systems (CCS). (n.d.) Peoria, IL: Heartland Community Network, Inc.

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