On Monday 17 October 2011 16:18:00 Sam Tuke wrote:
I'm having a meeting with Arcspace tomorrow about the possibility of locating a server or two there to host decentralised services for people who want them in Manchester.
I had this meeting today (Vicky was ill yesterday). I suggest that we make this primary subject of our next Fellowship meeting (on the 27th).
Here is the outcome of the meeting:
- Arcspace is very happy to house the Freedombox(es) - Arcspace do not want payment for using their facilities (power, Internet etc.) unless the project starts to make a profit, in which case they would like a percentage as they are struggling to pay the rent - Arcspace currently has a free of charge 80mbit internet connection which the fbox(es) would be using - Arcspace will be getting a 100mbit (guaranteed) fibre optic connection soon, but there may be charges, in which case we may not be able to use it - Sheridan, sysadmin at Arcspace, believes that their existing connection is reliable enough for email hosting - Service outages occur "more than once per year, less than once per month, never for more than 1/2 an hour" - Arcspace is/will be involved with a project installing GNU/Linux machines in the homes of the elderly in Manchester, and this could provide a very good opportunity for 'marketing' the Freedombox services and getting new users - We can set up the Freedombox at Arcspace and start hosting whenever we like - Vicky Sinclair (manager at Arcspace) has contacts with expertise on potential liability issues of hosting these services for the public
So, we need to make some decisions about:
- what services we would provide - what we would charge for them - how many users would be interested in using these services, and how we would reach them - where the money will come from to buy the first Freedombox - how we will restrict / monitor bandwidth use to keep the project viable - how we will monitor general service availability to keep users notified of any downtime - other issues that I haven't thought of...
Feel free to start discussion here on the list :)
Sam.