References: Goals 2003 and Goals 2004

Mission, Service Area, and Staff

RTPnet, operated by a volunteer staff, serves Durham, Orange, and Wake counties in North Carolina.

Awards

In order to recognize and honor others who have made significant contributions to North Carolina communities in the area of information and computer technology, RTPnet is initiating Community Technology Awards. The first awards ceremony will be held as part of RTPnet's 5th Annual Conference in March.

Projects

Tech LinkUp (Goals 2, 4, and 6): RTPnet combined the Community Technology Center (CTC) Clearinghouse project (which was funded by Verizon and developed by Easy Web Inc. in 2002) with strategies for making more effective use of RTPnet's growing number of volunteers. The resulting service, Tech LinkUp, links together technology needs and resources to support nonprofit organizations, not just Community Technology Centers. Tech LinkUp helps connect volunteers, sponsors, and businesses with community organizations, and it helps connect community organizations with one another for mutual support. This new service provides a way for nonprofits to describe their immediate needs for assistance and it allows volunteers, particularly technical support people and trainers, to find opportunities to use their skills to help others.

In 2004 we will expand and refine Tech LinkUp functions, develop partnerships and support, recruit an Americorps*VISTA as coordinator, and promote the service nationally. Since Tech LinkUp searches utilize zip code and range, the service can be used anywhere.

TechCoop: RTPnet worked with Triangle United Way to form TechCoop. Participants include:

ExplorNet Mary E. Wilson Foundation NetCorps RTPnet

Teaming for Technology (T4T) TechAction Triangle United Way UNC-Chapel Hill APPLES and Class of 2004 CCI Laptop donation drive

TechCoop members share the common vision of eradicating the digital divide by sharing existing resources and partnerships to better serve Triangle citizens and agencies, particularly those with limited information technology education and/or limited access to technology infrastructure.

Recycling: One immediate benefit of TechCoop was that RTPnet's computer recycling and reuse efforts were combined with Teaming for Technology (T4T) and TechAction. RTPnet has a web page, Computer Donations and Requests, that gets more than 2,000 hits per month and appears first in Google searches on "Computer Recycling NC." Since the Web page was changed to promote donating equipment to T4T (instead of RTPnet), T4T’s donations have increased by 25% and applications for used computers have doubled. Tech Action provides tech-savvy volunteers to refurbish computers, clean the harddrives, and install licensed copies of Windows. Through TechCoop, another RTPnet goal for 2003, Evaluate Computer Recycling Program, was accomplished.

Volunteers: Volunteers have made major contributions to RTPnet projects. In particular:

• Christina Burbeck designed the initial CTC LinkUp Web site, including the registration forms, and presented the project,Getting Connected through CTC LinkUp, at the RTPnet annual conference. Feedback from the presentation led to the name change to Tech LinkUp.

• Dan Brussee transformed CTC LinkUp from a static database into the dynamic Web application that Tech LinkUp is today.

• Jackie Helvey-Hayes added her artistic skills to Tech LinkUp providing clearer navigation and visual appeal.

• Samuel Calfo is working with Judy Hallman on the Web-Site Templateproject. They plan to have a hands-on session for nonprofits to create Web sites, with e-mail lists, on rtpnet.org. The plan is to download a template (in basic HTML), modify it (teaching the HTML code as we go along), and upload to the nonprofits' Web space on rtpnet.org.

Americorps*VISTA Program: RTPnet has full-time Americorps*VISTA workers through the CTC VISTA Project.

• Chad Custer, sponsored by ISIS: Information Science + Information Studies, Duke University, started August 2003. The goal of Chad's project is to work with Duke University, Rogers Herr Middle School, and RTPnet to continue and expand CLICK, an after-school computer training program for 6th graders .

• Douglas Dumont, sponsored by ISIS: Information Science + Information Studies, Duke University, started June 2002 and completed his year of service June 2003. The goal of Douglas' project was to develop an after school program at Rogers Herr Middle School, in Durham, to be supported by Duke volunteers, and also to create a template for replicating the program in North Carolina and nationwide. The program Douglas developed is called CLICK.

• Ella Holden, jointly sponsored by the Riley Hill Community Technology Center and RTPnet, started April 2002 and will complete her second year of service in April 2004. The goal of Ella's project is to develop a computer repair course for the Riley Hill Community Technology Center and teach the course.

• Martha Ann Moore, sponsored by RTPnet, started February 2001 and will complete three years of service in February 2004. The goal of Martha's project is to promote community participation in the Birchwood Learning Center (BLC) in Durham, by developing, implementing, and publicizing computer education programs for the community that bring members of the community into the Center to learn and to help each other learn.

• Shirlene Rogers, sponsored by a grant from Verizon, started November 2001 and completed service January 2003. The goals of Shirl's project were to assist the president of the CTCNet board of directors (Erroll Reese, Durham, NC) with CTCNet program development and capacity building and to develop, for RTPnet, a database of Triangle area volunteers.

Training

• Riley Hill: VISTA Ella Holden developed a computer repair course for Riley Hill Community Technology Center, in Wendell, in addition to teaching adults introduction to the personal computer, introduction to the Internet, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Word. During the summer, Ella also worked with more than 30 children helping them use computers and the Internet to improve their writing and communication skills.

• Classes: RTPnet's training efforts were considerably reduced in 2003. It is difficult to find volunteers to teach classes (Tech LinkUp should help), and several of the centers we usually teach in are inactive. Airport Gardens has not been an active RTPnet training site this year; Birchwood Learning Center is closed until repairs are made to the building, and the Hargraves Center was remodeled and new computers installed, but RTPnet classes have not been restarted there. While Orange County Public Library was being repaired, classes were moved to a computer lab in Cedar Grove. Twelve sessions were taught there by Judy Hallman.
  • Getting Around on a Computer: Jul. 9, Aug. 21, Oct. 2
  • Exploring the Internet: Jul. 10, Aug. 28, Oct. 9
  • Electronic Mail Using MyWay.com: Jul. 17, Sep. 4, Oct. 16
  • Writing Using a Computer (Word Processing): Jul. 24, Sep. 11, Oct. 23

• Class Handouts and Self-Help Web Site: Judy revised RTPnet's Computers and the Internet Web page to focus on computer self-help, revised the class handouts (they are linked from the first section of Computers and the Internet), and provided an overview of the classes. She also revised the Tech Support page and moved some of the help tips to
• Courses for Nonprofit Organizations: In an effort to help the nonprofit sector be effective in using information technology resources, Director Mike Rulison has initiated a RTPnet project to offer classes that will help participants make their use of computers and the Internet easier and more effective and help them promote their organizations and achieve their goals. Surveying was started in 2003. Courses will be developed and conducted in 2004. One of the first workshops might be developing a Web site using a template.

Online Shop: Judy Hallman set up an online shop at www.cafepress.com. The site has potential for fundraising, but needs more thought.

Conferences

CTCNet Conference: Seven RTPnet people attended the 12th Annual Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet) Conference held in Washington, DC, June 27-29: Directors Bobbie Crockett, Judy Hallman, Bob Sams, and Jerry Winegarden, and VISTAs Douglas Dumont, Ella Holden, and Martha Moore.

Douglas described his project, CLICK, as part of the session CTCs & Local Schools. Douglas also participated in the conference Share Fair, showing how to download CLICK's free lesson plans and teaching modules, as well as tips and hints, for an after school program to teach basic computer skills to 6th graders.

Participation in Other Conferences:

• Directors Judy Hallman, Michael Rulison, and Bob Sams attended Association of Fundraising Professional (AFP), Triangle Chapter, Fundraising 2003: Rising to the Challenge in Raleigh on August 14.

• Hallman attended Alphanumeric Systems' Mind Your Business Technology Symposium in Chapel Hill on November 19.

• Hallman participated in the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture regional "think tank" in Chapel Hill on December 5. The notes are online at http://www.rtpnet.org/hallman/NAMAC_Notes120503.html.

Organizations to which RTPnet Contributes

• Association For Community Networking (AFCN)
• Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet)
• Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (N-TEN)
• TechCoop

Software Improvements

• FormMail: Nancy Shoemaker researched form processing software, recommended FormMail, which converts an HTML form to an e-mail message, and wrote instructions for using it.

• Upgrades:
  • Patches were applied to ssh and sendmail.
  • phpBB was upgraded to version 2.0.6 and two mods were applied: (1) allows a forum moderator to request e-mail notification whenever a post is made to their forum, and (2) allows display of the forums for a single category.
  • Mailman was upgraded to version 2.1.1 and a patch was applied to show names in the subscriber list.
  • php was upgraded to version 4.3.4.
  • Apache was upgraded to version 1.3.29
  • A license was obtained for cPanel.

Hosting Statistics

• Web Server Statistics (Analog)

  Analysed requests from Sun-04-Jan-2004 02:43 to Sun-01-Feb-2004 02:42 (28.00 days).
  General Summary
  
  This report contains overall statistics.
  
  (Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending 01-Feb-2004 09:25).
  Successful requests: 1,880,556 (454,115)
  Average successful requests per day: 67,164 (64,873)
  Successful requests for pages: 552,570 (123,813)
  Average successful requests for pages per day: 19,735 (17,687)
  Failed requests: 120,307 (31,083)
  Redirected requests: 22,757 (5,480)
  Distinct files requested: 152,970 (54,359)
  Distinct hosts served: 79,106 (22,174)
  Corrupt logfile lines: 85
  Data transferred: 18.362 gigabytes (4.364 gigabytes)
  Average data transferred per day: 671.549 megabytes (638.511 megabytes) 
  

• E-mail Lists: RTPnet hosts 108 Mailman lists and has 46 Majordomo lists remaining.

• phpBB Forums: RTPnet hosts 35 phpBB forums (one hidden) in 15 categories (one hidden).

• Members: RTPnet Membership increased by 2. Membership entering 2003 was 151; lost 23; gained 22 nonprofits and 3 individuals, roughly a 15% turnover. Membership entering 2004 was 153.

  22 New Nonprofit Members:

  • alliance, North Carolina Alliance for Health
  • bdpa-rdu, Black Data Processing Associates, Triangle Chapter
  • bluespri, Blue Springs - Hoke County Community Development Corporation
  • cary-sca, Sister Cities Association of Cary, Inc.
  • chmf, Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship
  • dfma, Durham FM Association
  • dgsl, Durham Girls Soccer League
  • dukepark, Duke Park Neighborhood Association
  • f-citync, Future City Competition, NC
  • freedom, Freedom House Recovery Center
  • glcral, Grace Lutheran Church, Raleigh
  • greenway, Triangle Greenways Council
  • housing, Episcopal Housing Ministry, Inc.
  • ldcw, Life Decisions Coalition of Wake County
  • mewf, Mary E. Wilson Foundation
  • mhc-nc, Mental Health Coalition - NC (replaced nccmhpc)
  • ncvma, North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association
  • ralkapsi, Kappa Charitable Trust Foundation, Inc.
  • stambros, Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh
  • swampsrc, Southern Wake Aero Modeling Pilots Society (SWAMPS)
  • trtc, Triangle Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
  • t4t, Teaming for Technology

  The following 23 organizations canceled membership:

  • chccc, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community Chorus
  • ctc, Cardinal Track Club
  • encsjhc, Job Hunt Collaboration (JHC), Eastern NC Section, IEEE
  • hemlock, Friends of Hemlock Bluffs
  • hobie97, Hobie Cat Fleet 97
  • horne, Horne Memorial Methodist Men, Clayton
  • jobseek, The Job Seekers Group
  • lcms99, Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry 16th Annual Symposium
  • lumbee02, Lumbee Regional Development Association
  • nccc, North Carolina Consumers Council, Inc.
  • nccmhpc, North Carolina Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers Inc.
  • mosaicnc, Mosaic Outdoor Mountain Club of NC
  • pbt, Project Bog Turtle
  • pfc-itsc, Partnership for Children - Information Technology Service Center, Cumberland County
  • psfchc, Public School Foundation Chapel Hill Carrboro
  • s-estes, South Estes Family Resource Center,
  • tpa, Trinity Park Neighborhood Association
  • trinity, Trinity Court Family Resource Center
  • trip, Transportation Reform Is Possible
  • ttnt, The Triangle Network of Theatres
  • wakegop, Wake County Republican Party
  • wf2003, World Flight 2003
  • wlp, World Library Partnership

Financial Report Summary

Total Income:           20,273.52
Total Expense:          18,117.99
Net Income:              2,155.53

Asset Balance on 12/31/02       13,650.97
+ net income                     2,155.53
Asset Balance on 12/31/03       15,806.50

Staff (Volunteers)

• Judy Hallman <hallman@rtpnet.org> or <hallman@email.unc.edu>
  Executive Director
  
• Charles Hall <Charles.Hall@sas.com> or <chall@rtpnet.org>
  Lead System Administrator
  
• Amnon Nissan <amnon@deltaforce.net> and Deltaforce Technologies
  Internet access and on-site services
  
• Roger Austin <rda@rti.org>
  Maintenance and support for Majordomo e-mail lists
  
• Others
  Directors, Advisors, Members, and other Volunteers provide suggestions and improvements

Board of Directors

Meetings were held March 20 and October 16 (a scheduled meeting for October 2 did not have a quorum).

Accomplishments:

• Adopted a new logo, designed by Jackie Helvey-Hayes.
• Bylaws were converted into electronic form and revised.
• Policies were reviewed and revised.
• Bill Hutchins was presented with Certificate of Appreciation for more than 12 years of service.
• Funds were found to pay Martha Moore's expenses to Washington DC for the award ceremony.
• Started plans to create and offer community technology awards.
• Started working with other nonprofit assistance providers through TechCoop.
• Developed a new pricing model with tiered packages of differing product offerings.

Members:

Board of Advisors