PNB Technology Committee Minutes 6/20/2004
(Approved 9/27/04)

A regular meeting of the Pacifica National Board Technology Committee was held via teleconference on Sunday, June 20,
2004, at 4:30 pm PST using the facilities of freeconference.com. Curt Schroell convened the meeting. The minutes of the
previous meeting were not read or approved.

Eight Members present, constituting a quorum: Dave Adelson, Steve Conley, Terry Goodman, Patty Heffley, Mark Hernandez,
Roger Manning, Curt Schroell, Wendy Schroell

Two Members excused: Tracey Lewis, Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Five Members absent: Sarv Randhawa (resigned), Cleveland Spears, Al Delaney, Nile El Wardani, Zarinah Shakir

Guests: Pete Korakis (left & rejoined), Otis Hardy Maclay, William Walker (late, future committee member)

Convener: Curt Schroell

Authority and Notice: This meeting was called at the request of the Chair Pro-Tem (Continuing) Dave Adelson. Notice was
distributed on multiple Internet listservs beginning on July 11, 2004 (APPENDIX A). There was no national website
notice. Notice was posted along with LSB committee meetings on the KPFK website and possibly others (APPENDIX B).
Minutes will eventually be posted at http://pacifica.org/about/board/.

The meeting was web cast live on http://kpftx.org. Meeting audio will be archived online at
http://www.kpftx.org/archive.htm#pnb. Other than invited guests, there was no provision for public participation.

Convener Curt Schroell called the meeting to order at approximately 4:46 pm PST.

There was discussion of the agenda. The Note Taker Pro-Tem (Continuing) and Chair Pro-Tem (Continuing) reported the
results of email polls on member preferences for committee chair and secretary. Based upon the preferences expressed in
the poll and the withdrawal of candidate Adelson, Goodman moved that the Committee accept C. Schroell as Chair. The
motion passed unanimously by roll call vote.

Based upon the preferences expressed in the poll and without objection, the Chair appointed Goodman as Secretary.

Pacifica's webworker Peter Korakis reported the status of various national technology projects and answered the
questions of committee members. The following paragraphs summarize this report.

Volunteers from the PNB Technology Committee have cooperated with members of the Techtalk group from the NFCB and
members of the Pacifica national staff in the planning of next weekend's Grassroots Radio Conference and will be
participating in the event. Committee members willing to help should contact Ursula Ruedenberg or Otis Hardy Maclay.
One of the results of the Techtalk discussions is an online Tech Survey primarily targeted for the participation of
Pacifica sister station and affiliate radio station GMs, but PNB Tech Committee members may participate. Data gathered
may help focus future technology efforts and support funding proposals. The survey is at:
http://pacifica.org/stations/affiliates/survey

The Pacifica Audioport goes live this week. The online mockup at http://pacifica.org/audioport includes a link at the
bottom to the live version. Trademark protection for the logo and name has been applied for.

The Pacifica Audioport is designed to serve as a content distribution mechanism for sister stations and affiliates and a
file storage workplace for national collaborative programming efforts. It will allow free upload for independent
content producers. Downloads will be primarily limited to Audioport subscribers, with a possibility that some selected
offerings will be made available to anyone, as a taste of the system's potential. The software base is open source,
developed with radio4all.net. The system currently uses donated server and bandwidth resources, which should be
adequate for the next three to six months.

The Pacifica website shopping cart went live a month ago and is showing decent activity, with about 20 pledges per
month. A page has been developed for U.S. national elections coverage with some streaming for end users possible. The
"Pacifica Reports from Iraq" series has been very popular, especially in the blogsphere. Segment support is being added
to the text-based online Program Guide, which also uses open source software. RSS headline feeds are planned, and
possibly links to the archived audio at multiple external sites. Work on the online program guide is about 80%
complete, and the latest version may be explored at http://pacifica.org/programguide.

Korakis left the meeting for a period of time after this report.

Goodman reported on the design and intent of the Technology Committee Yahoo! Group's structure. Details are online at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pnbtech/message/3. New invitations will be sent out to committee members who have not yet
joined the main list, and invitations for the workgroup lists will be sent based on the results of the workgroup signup
sheet, posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pnbtech/message/5 and attached as APPENDIX C.

Adelson reported on KPFK's acquisition of various components for a ku band satellite uplink. Hernandez asked if the
transmitter license was transferred. Adelson will investigate and report. Discussion of potential uses and
cost/benefit analysis was referred to the Techtalk and PNB Tech Distribution workgroups.

At 5:52 pm, William Walker joined the call, but had to drop in and out while working.

Goodman gave an overview of the Memsys member database software and various complaints about it, indicating that the
problems might be in use rather than in design, and that the issue should be studied. There was general discussion of
the topic, during which Heffley reported that Bill Merkowski at WBAI had already prepared a relevant report, which she
would upload to the Committee's file storage area in the Yahoo! Group.

Without objection, the Committee authorized Goodman to work with the KPFK Subscriptions Manager, Bill Merkowski, and
volunteers with relevant expertise in an initial study of the Memsys software at KPFK, with particular emphasis on its
adaptability to the requirements of the Foundation Bylaws. Goodman will report progress and make such recommendations
as circumstances require, documenting any special procedures that should be recommended for uniform network-wide
implementation.

Hernandez agreed to send to the Chair contact information for various satellite radio broadcasters.

Adelson, C. Schroell, W. Schroell, and Maclay indicated that they would be attending the GRC event. There will be some
streaming of the conference on kpftx and post-event archiving of additional conference recordings.

Korakis rejoined the call for a general discussion of the GRC event and the Techtalk spirit of allowing the affiliates
to identify their needs and serving those needs, as opposed to coming in with plans to sell or to impose. Emphasis was
on collaboration and partnering in service to the wider community.

Adelson read the preamble on a conference brochure to give context to the upcoming event. Korakis described the work of
the Techtalk group, and how it divided areas of concentration into the categories of IT, Documentation & Training, and
Radio, based upon the skills of the members. The area of Documentation & Training is seen as especially important in
growing the independent media movement. Raw notes from the Techtalk work at the NFCB Tech Retreat are online at
http://pacifica.org/techport/.

Committee Members may contact the Chair for instructions on joining the Techtalk list.

The next telephonic meeting of the PNB Technology Committee will be on Sunday, July 11, 2004, beginning at 4:30 pm PST.


The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm PST.

Terry L. Goodman
Secretary, PNB Technology Committee

-----
APPENDIX A - Meeting Notice

From: Roger Manning, PNB Secretary
To: Pacifica Nation Board, GM's, LSB Secretaries, & Others
Subject: NOTICE: PNB Technology Committee Meeting - Sun. 6-20-04
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 13:28:21 -0400

PUBLIC NOTICE:

Pacifica National Board Technology Committee Meeting
Sunday June 20th
4:30 pm Pacific, 5:30pm Mountain, 6:30pm Central, 7:30pm Eastern

The meeting will be web cast and archived at http://kpftx.org

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Roger Manning
PNB Secretary
212-219-1873


http://wbai.org
http://wbai.net
rogermanning@yahoo.com
http://web.wt.net/~rogerm

-----
APPENDIX B - Meeting Notice, KPFK

Pacifica National Board Technology Committee Meeting
Sunday June 20th
4:30 pm Pacific, 5:30pm Mountain, 6:30pm Central, 7:30pm Eastern
The meeting will be web cast and archived at http://kpftx.org

Ref:
http://www.kpfk.org/lsb/announcements.html (6/17/04)

-----
APPENDIX C - Workgroup Sign-up Sheet
On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 06:32:30 -0700, Terry Goodman wrote:

Here are the results to date (alpha sort by first name):

TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE WORKGROUP SIGN-UP SHEET

PNB TECH BROADCASTING WORKGROUP
(Technical issues related to broadcasting)

Mark Hernandez
Terry Goodman

PNB TECH DISTRIBUTION WORKGROUP
(Technical issues related to content distribution from producers)

David Adelson
Mark Hernandez

PNB TECH DELIVERY WORKGROUP
(Technical issues related to content delivery to listeners)

David Adelson
Mark Hernandez
Nile El Wardani
Steve Conley
Tracey Lewis
Wendy Schroell

PNB TECH IT WORKGROUP
(Technical issues related to Foundation infrastructure and
information technology)

Mark Hernandez
Patty Heffley
Roger Manning
Steve Conley
Terry Goodman