Chebucto Suite - The Software

Table of Contents

Overview

Technical Features

User Features

Information Providers

Staff

Overview of the Chebucto Suite (CSuite) Software

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Functional Objective - Chebucto Suite (CSuite) is a group of software applications / tools that together:

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Potential Application(s) of CSuite - The CSuite software offers a cost effective, reliable, and feature rich environment for:

  1. Groups that wish to establish a ‘stand alone' community network *

  2. Groups who wish to partner with other communities to establish autonomous community networks *

    Sharing Hardware and/or a common Internet connection to establish 'Virtual' Community Networks.

  3. School boards, or other organizations who wish to develop a network within the organization *

* With or without an Internet connection.

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Component Groups - CSuite includes:

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Hardware / Operating System Requirements - The CSuite software is native to the Unix operating system and can be used on a variety of equipment ranging from ‘desktop' IBM type PC's (using Linux) to mini-computers/mainframes. CCN currently maintains both a Sun and Linux installation.

Technical Features

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'Logon' Connectivity - The Chebucto Community Net currently supports:

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Guest Connections - The Chebucto Community Net currently supports:

CSuite will soon include functionality to provide additional services for 'authenticated' guests, who are registered members of associated community networks.

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Modest Bandwidth Requirements - CSuite uses the Lynx (World Wide Web) Browser. All dial-up access to CSuite utilizes this software. The Lynx Browser does not normally retrieve and display graphic images. This reduces the ‘bandwidth' requirement for any given number of simultaneous users and offers a noticeable increase in access speed through any given connection to the Internet.

It should be remembered that the only restriction CSuite places on the interface is with respect to dial-up which currently support only a text browser. Visitors from remote parts of the Internet or users of the Public Access Terminals can use a graphical WWW interface.

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Entry Level Equipment Requirements - Using CSuite, a community can establish a community network utilizing similar computer equipment similar to that used in many homes, and small businesses. The ready availability of this equipment offers a community organization additional opportunities with respect to sponsorship and donations.

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Expansion Potential - The CSuite software can (if necessary) be migrated from a personal computer to a larger computer if required to support growth of the user base. (Continuing hardware advances should make this unnecessary in most instances.) It can also be distributed across multiple machines to allow increased growth while retaining capital investment.

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Remote Support - For small communities, the availability of remote technical support and maintenance allows a community network to be established that offers much lower technical requirements than would normally be expected. This support also allows system performance, trend analysis, and estimates of future requirements to be developed in light of the experience of other similar sites. This can be used to predict upgrade requirements and if necessary develop local strategies to allow upgrade to be scheduled in coordination with local fundraising, or solicitation of equipment donations.

User Features - (broadly defined)

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Overview - The nature of Community Networks suggests that a wide range of activities, including those of paid and volunteer staff, and CSuite features that support the activity of community groups, should be considered ‘user' activities. Each of these features and activities can be viewed as supporting the development and sustainability of community networks, schools, or other organizations that will rely on volunteers and the ability of users to ‘do for themselves'.

Features for Information Providers (IP's)

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Publishing Control - CSuite includes a significant number of security features that extend control over the creation (and revision) of information directly to the individual or organization. This is accomplished using menus and forms and does not require the user to be familiar with the Unix shell. Few commercial Internet Service Providers utilize systems that are designed or configured to allow both individuals and groups to publish documents directly. In most cases this will limit the number of editors with who can access an organizations information or may even restrict an organization to submitting documents to a system administrator who will then ‘publish' the document.

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More than a Home Page - While most organizations create what is generally referred to as a ‘Home Page', CSuite allows community groups an opportunity to create an extensive information base that may include: archives (newsletters, background documents), data bases (continuing education programs, recreation facilities, public transportation schedules), and mailing lists (public/private) for communication within the organization and with the community (local and Internet) at large.

CSuite also supports a growing list of features including: automatic updating (daily) of bulk or batched information , custom survey, and activity reports.

Features that Benefit Staff

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Volunteers

Community Networks depend heavily on volunteer effort to sustain development. CSuite includes, several data bases (user / IP), support and training systems, and software features such as searchable mail archives that leverage the efforts of volunteers and have a positive impact on sustainability (user satisfaction, fundraising).

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Other Staff

CSuite includes a group of administration tools that automate: account activation, membership renewal reminders, financial accounting, monitoring system usage, and significant number of system level diagnostics and warning systems that automatically reset modems or page technical staff if problems are detected.

The availability of remote support noted above offers significant benefit to local technical staff, by increasing the hours during which equipment is ‘monitored' and thus reducing this component of the local technical volunteers' responsibilities.

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Revised June 12, 1996