1. A New Direction Chebucto Community Net 2006

2. Chebucto Community Net Established June 1994 to help provide access to the Internet for all members of the community. Non-profit registered charity. Originally one of two local providers. The other is now gone. More than 26,000 personal accounts issued. Halifax is listed as the number 2 city in Canada for public Internet usage after Ottawa according to Statistics Canada's latest (2003) figures. The top six Canadian cities all have community nets. The Chebucto website is ranked in the top 38,015 on the Internet according to traffic analysis resource Alexa.

3. Chebucto Community Net Since 1996-1997 peak, total membership numbers have declined. (2006 figures shown are year to date April 2006)

4. Text-only access has been in steady decline. Chebucto Plus access growth slow.

5. Chebucto Plus accounts provided 73.1 % of 2005 revenue. Print advertising in the Chronicle-Herald, The Coast, The Dalhousie Gazette, and the Flying Cow hand-out barely effective. A generous member referral program to help get new members by rewarding present members is only moderately successful. Our environment has changed. Total number of Chebucto Plus accounts now dropping.

6. The Digital Divide is back. More affluent residents have the option of high speed Internet access. Lower income residents have less choice. A growing trend away from hard-wired phones toward mobile access means dial-up access to the Internet can be almost as costly as high speed access. For many, the choice is to simply drop the Internet access completely. Between 15 - 25% of Metro residents have no Internet access at all.

7. Choice #1 With declining member numbers and declining revenue, cut staff and reduce the quality and number of service offerings. "The Death of a Thousand Cuts" Sets up a feedback loop - fewer members, fewer new member referrals. Less staff time, lower quality and quantity of services. No money for advertising. Less research and development of new services, less relevance in ever-changing Internet environment. We estimate that Chebucto Community Net would fail within three years.

8. Choice #2 Use Chebucto's advantages to meet the community's needs. "A New Kind of Community Net" Chebucto has high quality high speed access through our membership in ACORN (Atlantic Canada Organization of Research Networks) including peer networking with most local networks. Chebucto mailboxes will soon have 1 GB of capacity, an increase of 250,000 times over present top size. Protected by virus scanning, anti-spam filters and anti-phishing (scam) filters, and accessible over a secure encrypted connection from anywhere. Studies show over and again that bringing broadband access to a community increases, sometimes dramatically, the amount of economic activity in the community.

9. ( imagine if there was no Chebucto Community Net)

10. The plan: To offer Metro residents a new choice. We have been engaged in pilot projects for two years assessing the capabilities of wireless network access. We believe we can build an independent high speed access for Metro residents using mesh networking technology. Chebucto Community Net will offer free wifi access to the general public to all Halifax-based web sites. Chebucto Plus members can access the entire Internet.

11. Mesh networking node Each node can support dozens of users at the same time. Nodes run unattended. Node range variable depending on conditions but we estimate 3 - 5 nodes would cover an average size low-rise residential block. Nodes can be upgraded with faster/stronger wifi tech as it becomes available.

12. Mesh networking

13. Mesh networking node hosting Details are subject to revision. Node host would pay $150 deposit for the node hardware, sign agreement to keep node on, etc. Chebucto Plus Node Operator internet membership for $50/year. Non-binding node host form available at door.

14. A true community network. For the first time the community would have its own community-operated and community hosted independent non-profit high speed access.

15. The community *is* the network. A true community network.

16. The road ahead.... Finalize node design and software setup. Develop new policies for the new service. Map out node locations and identify cluster areas. Set up first public access point and nodes. Live testing and refinement of node hardware/software. Add new access points and grow the network to cover new neighbourhoods.