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Index of Subjects On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, Christopher Majka wrote: > > I'm in full disagreement. We have more active IP sites now than > > we've had in years. > > I see. Curious then that the IP stats presented at the AGM say: > > Year IP Accts > 1998 185 > 1999 256 > 2000 213 > Since there is no way known to either me or the techs in the office to produce these numbers, and a number of issues surrounding definitions of what is or is not a valid IP, I'd take them with a grain of salt. The only way to track IPs is to go through and manually eyeball every single one, check their records and see when they last did something, is the edit account still functioning, etc. One example of this would be the Dartmouth Regional Library, http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Libraries/DartLibrary/drl.html The site is still on our server, despite there being no DRL since amalgamation. The site was last updated in 1998 (though the page says 1995) and the editor account has not been active since 1999. Halifax Regional Library moved to their own servers earlier this month. Now I would count this as a long-dead IP; the organization has evolved and no longer exists in the original form, the website has not been maintained for years, there has been no editor account in years, and we know that there is webspace in use by them elsewhere. However, they are still listed on Chebucto's pages as a site and will no doubt remain there until someone from HRL notices and tells us to remove it, just like PLENS did with their pages. Since Sept. 1999 I've been tracking IP signups in the office. In 2000 there were 37 IP accounts recorded through the office. To date this year there have been 22. Since we are about a third of the way through the year and already have 60% of last year's total, I am optimistic we are doing better than last year. Similarly with VDNs, which are almost entirely IP-related, 2000 saw 28 VDNs and to date 2001 there have been 17. These numbers are going up, among the few that are around Chebucto I might add. The problem is not with the way things are done now - we have contact with organizations directly and they know we exist and host their pages - but with the old way, where our contact was with the web editor only and there was nothing in the way of a feedback loop between us and the organization. They had no reason to contact us (no renewals, etc.) so when the web guy went, so would the site. Now, new organizations are invoiced, have telephone support from the office, and are aware on a senior level that they are being hosted with us. This is better and the results are speaking for themselves. Our role here is not to perpetuate our own labyrinthal bureaucracy but to facilitate the participation of groups in the electronic public space. Making things easier and clearer for them is the way to do that. Now, this will come before the Board and if you are interested in participating in the discussion, you can be invited to the meeting. BTW I'm now in the middle of some in-office IP tutoring.
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