PNB Technology Committee Minutes 6/20/2004 (Approved 9/27/04) A regular meeting of the Pacifica National Board Technology Committee was held via teleconference on Sunday, June 20, 2004, at 4:30 pm PST using the facilities of freeconference.com. Curt Schroell convened the meeting. The minutes of the previous meeting were not read or approved. Eight Members present, constituting a quorum: Dave Adelson, Steve Conley, Terry Goodman, Patty Heffley, Mark Hernandez, Roger Manning, Curt Schroell, Wendy Schroell Two Members excused: Tracey Lewis, Tiokasin Ghosthorse Five Members absent: Sarv Randhawa (resigned), Cleveland Spears, Al Delaney, Nile El Wardani, Zarinah Shakir Guests: Pete Korakis (left & rejoined), Otis Hardy Maclay, William Walker (late, future committee member) Convener: Curt Schroell Authority and Notice: This meeting was called at the request of the Chair Pro-Tem (Continuing) Dave Adelson. Notice was distributed on multiple Internet listservs beginning on July 11, 2004 (APPENDIX A). There was no national website notice. Notice was posted along with LSB committee meetings on the KPFK website and possibly others (APPENDIX B). Minutes will eventually be posted at http://pacifica.org/about/board/. The meeting was web cast live on http://kpftx.org. Meeting audio will be archived online at http://www.kpftx.org/archive.htm#pnb. Other than invited guests, there was no provision for public participation. Convener Curt Schroell called the meeting to order at approximately 4:46 pm PST. There was discussion of the agenda. The Note Taker Pro-Tem (Continuing) and Chair Pro-Tem (Continuing) reported the results of email polls on member preferences for committee chair and secretary. Based upon the preferences expressed in the poll and the withdrawal of candidate Adelson, Goodman moved that the Committee accept C. Schroell as Chair. The motion passed unanimously by roll call vote. Based upon the preferences expressed in the poll and without objection, the Chair appointed Goodman as Secretary. Pacifica's webworker Peter Korakis reported the status of various national technology projects and answered the questions of committee members. The following paragraphs summarize this report. Volunteers from the PNB Technology Committee have cooperated with members of the Techtalk group from the NFCB and members of the Pacifica national staff in the planning of next weekend's Grassroots Radio Conference and will be participating in the event. Committee members willing to help should contact Ursula Ruedenberg or Otis Hardy Maclay. One of the results of the Techtalk discussions is an online Tech Survey primarily targeted for the participation of Pacifica sister station and affiliate radio station GMs, but PNB Tech Committee members may participate. Data gathered may help focus future technology efforts and support funding proposals. The survey is at: http://pacifica.org/stations/affiliates/survey The Pacifica Audioport goes live this week. The online mockup at http://pacifica.org/audioport includes a link at the bottom to the live version. Trademark protection for the logo and name has been applied for. The Pacifica Audioport is designed to serve as a content distribution mechanism for sister stations and affiliates and a file storage workplace for national collaborative programming efforts. It will allow free upload for independent content producers. Downloads will be primarily limited to Audioport subscribers, with a possibility that some selected offerings will be made available to anyone, as a taste of the system's potential. The software base is open source, developed with radio4all.net. The system currently uses donated server and bandwidth resources, which should be adequate for the next three to six months. The Pacifica website shopping cart went live a month ago and is showing decent activity, with about 20 pledges per month. A page has been developed for U.S. national elections coverage with some streaming for end users possible. The "Pacifica Reports from Iraq" series has been very popular, especially in the blogsphere. Segment support is being added to the text-based online Program Guide, which also uses open source software. RSS headline feeds are planned, and possibly links to the archived audio at multiple external sites. Work on the online program guide is about 80% complete, and the latest version may be explored at http://pacifica.org/programguide. Korakis left the meeting for a period of time after this report. Goodman reported on the design and intent of the Technology Committee Yahoo! Group's structure. Details are online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pnbtech/message/3. New invitations will be sent out to committee members who have not yet joined the main list, and invitations for the workgroup lists will be sent based on the results of the workgroup signup sheet, posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pnbtech/message/5 and attached as APPENDIX C. Adelson reported on KPFK's acquisition of various components for a ku band satellite uplink. Hernandez asked if the transmitter license was transferred. Adelson will investigate and report. Discussion of potential uses and cost/benefit analysis was referred to the Techtalk and PNB Tech Distribution workgroups. At 5:52 pm, William Walker joined the call, but had to drop in and out while working. Goodman gave an overview of the Memsys member database software and various complaints about it, indicating that the problems might be in use rather than in design, and that the issue should be studied. There was general discussion of the topic, during which Heffley reported that Bill Merkowski at WBAI had already prepared a relevant report, which she would upload to the Committee's file storage area in the Yahoo! Group. Without objection, the Committee authorized Goodman to work with the KPFK Subscriptions Manager, Bill Merkowski, and volunteers with relevant expertise in an initial study of the Memsys software at KPFK, with particular emphasis on its adaptability to the requirements of the Foundation Bylaws. Goodman will report progress and make such recommendations as circumstances require, documenting any special procedures that should be recommended for uniform network-wide implementation. Hernandez agreed to send to the Chair contact information for various satellite radio broadcasters. Adelson, C. Schroell, W. Schroell, and Maclay indicated that they would be attending the GRC event. There will be some streaming of the conference on kpftx and post-event archiving of additional conference recordings. Korakis rejoined the call for a general discussion of the GRC event and the Techtalk spirit of allowing the affiliates to identify their needs and serving those needs, as opposed to coming in with plans to sell or to impose. Emphasis was on collaboration and partnering in service to the wider community. Adelson read the preamble on a conference brochure to give context to the upcoming event. Korakis described the work of the Techtalk group, and how it divided areas of concentration into the categories of IT, Documentation & Training, and Radio, based upon the skills of the members. The area of Documentation & Training is seen as especially important in growing the independent media movement. Raw notes from the Techtalk work at the NFCB Tech Retreat are online at http://pacifica.org/techport/. Committee Members may contact the Chair for instructions on joining the Techtalk list. The next telephonic meeting of the PNB Technology Committee will be on Sunday, July 11, 2004, beginning at 4:30 pm PST. The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm PST. Terry L. Goodman Secretary, PNB Technology Committee ----- APPENDIX A - Meeting Notice From: Roger Manning, PNB Secretary To: Pacifica Nation Board, GM's, LSB Secretaries, & Others Subject: NOTICE: PNB Technology Committee Meeting - Sun. 6-20-04 Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 13:28:21 -0400 PUBLIC NOTICE: Pacifica National Board Technology Committee Meeting Sunday June 20th 4:30 pm Pacific, 5:30pm Mountain, 6:30pm Central, 7:30pm Eastern The meeting will be web cast and archived at http://kpftx.org ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Roger Manning PNB Secretary 212-219-1873 http://wbai.org http://wbai.net rogermanning@yahoo.com http://web.wt.net/~rogerm ----- APPENDIX B - Meeting Notice, KPFK Pacifica National Board Technology Committee Meeting Sunday June 20th 4:30 pm Pacific, 5:30pm Mountain, 6:30pm Central, 7:30pm Eastern The meeting will be web cast and archived at http://kpftx.org Ref: http://www.kpfk.org/lsb/announcements.html (6/17/04) ----- APPENDIX C - Workgroup Sign-up Sheet On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 06:32:30 -0700, Terry Goodman wrote: Here are the results to date (alpha sort by first name): TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE WORKGROUP SIGN-UP SHEET PNB TECH BROADCASTING WORKGROUP (Technical issues related to broadcasting) Mark Hernandez Terry Goodman PNB TECH DISTRIBUTION WORKGROUP (Technical issues related to content distribution from producers) David Adelson Mark Hernandez PNB TECH DELIVERY WORKGROUP (Technical issues related to content delivery to listeners) David Adelson Mark Hernandez Nile El Wardani Steve Conley Tracey Lewis Wendy Schroell PNB TECH IT WORKGROUP (Technical issues related to Foundation infrastructure and information technology) Mark Hernandez Patty Heffley Roger Manning Steve Conley Terry Goodman