Internet Community Outreach Project

An ox is like a bull, but without an ego.

One of the guiding principles behind the OX project is to make the Internet more accessible. With any form of technology, there is always a danger of creating an underpriviledged class within society who simply don't have access.
Through the Internet Community Outreach Project, we hope to establish public access terminal sites to provide communication and/or internet facilities for people, who, for various reasons, would not normally be able to afford access themselves.

Ideally, the labour involved in setting these sites up would be donated by OX memembers and other interested volunteers.

The main requirements for a site like this to work are:

  • a community of people with a need for Internet access,
  • a stable and secure location,
  • donated or inexpensive hardware, and
  • volunteers to set up and maintain the site.

    How we envision the outreach site working is to have a small number of dumb terminals connect to a more powerful server. This server would then connect to an Internet service provided or alternatively could be completely self contained.

    Currently, we are working with the Dovercourt community centre. They have some donated 386s, which will be networked together, and connected to the Internet. We are currently seeking donations equipment, or money to buy the right equipment. We need

    1. bigger, faster computers
    2. network cards
    3. network hubs
    4. modem
    5. internet connectivity
    6. sponsor for the phone line
    7. printers

    We have loans of much of this equipment, but if we can replace our borrowed equipment with permanent equipment, we can either return the borrowed equipment, or use it at another location. We can not accept equipment directly, as we can issue to receipts. We will liason with a current project to arrange for equipment to be donated.

    If you are interested in this project or have other ideas, you can subscribe to the mailing list online-outreach@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca. To subscribe, send an email to majordomo@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca with the command "subscribe online-outreach" in the body of the message.


    Last updated: $Date: 1997/11/10 14:20:29 $ by MCR