Maine Telecommunications Education Access Fund
Advisory Board

Meeting Minutes for August 14, 2002

 

Members Present:             Phil Lindley, Joanne Steneck, Bill Black, Gary Nichols, Greg Scott, Barry Crommett, Gerry Dube (by phone),

 

Members Absent:            Scott Thibeau, Barry McCrum, Reginald Palmer

 

1. Approval of Minutes from June 26, 2002, meeting.

 

2. Status of Connections.  Barry Crommett reported that standard 56 kbps connections decreased to 481.  T-1 connections are up to 435 and ATM is the same at 66 (including shared sites).  He also reported that Verizon had installed a third DS-3 to UNET in Orono.  Barry provided a draft of “MSLN Policies and Support for ATM Connections” to be discussed at a later Board meeting.
    
3. Status of Internet Service and Filtering.  Gerry Dube (by phone) reported that the testing of the N2H2 (current filtering vendor) product continues and it meets the requirements of CIPA.  Gerry said that it works pretty well, is reliable and reasonably accurate.  N2H2 resolves conflicts within 24 hours and has been responsive to problems that come up during the testing.  UNET is testing a “beta” of N2H2’s local control piece which allows schools to select categories of filtering, has subgrouping by IP address and an email feature to request unblocking (recipient needs to be adjusted).  A multiple year contract would not be a good idea, since there will likely be technological changes, as well as changes to CIPA requirements.  Gerry said that the price to the MTEAF would continue to be no higher than $150,000 per year.  Testing should be completed in two weeks.
   
   Gerry also discussed the need for guidelines concerning increased bandwidth for sites with T-1 connections.  Either a general rule could be developed, much like for the increase from 56kbps to T-1, or the request for increase could be handled on a case-by-case basis.  Increasing bandwidth for sites will have a cost impact and would affect the “blended rate” now being charged by UNET.  Sites would have equipment needs and could be asked to contribute monetarily for the increase to moderate the impact on the MTEAF.  Gerry suggested that UNET monitor some likely sites.
    
4. Federal E-Rate Status.  Edna Comstock reported that she could increase the request for T-1 connection funds for upcoming applications to allow for the possibility of second T-1s.  The Year 4 (now known as 2001, in hot pink) appeal has been acknowledged and the reimbursement forms for Verizon have been filed.  The Year 5 application (2002, blue) has been filed which includes 471s and 479s.  Edna has updated the Technology Plan for the consortium and started the process for Year 6 (2003, color?).

 

5. Leaning Technology Initiative.  Joanne Steneck said that student laptops are being delivered this week.  Teachers have already received their machines as well as training.

 

6. Other

 

·        Gary Nichols distributed a funding report for the Fogler Library Digital Library project which described the many databases available on the Maine Infonet website (http://libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/).

 

·        Next MSLN Advisory Board Meeting – September 25, 2002, 9:30AM, PUC Conf. Room C.