2004-05-21 Technology Minutes

PNB Technology Committee Minutes 5/21/2004

An organizational meeting of the Pacifica National Board Technology Committee was held via teleconference on Friday, May 21, 2004, at 10:00 am PST, 1pm EST, using the facilities of freeconference.com. The meeting was convened by PNB Director Dave Adelson. This being the first meeting of the Committee, there were no minutes to approve.

Eleven Members present, constituting a quorum: Dave Adelson, Steve Conley, Terry Goodman, Patty Heffley, Mark Hernandez (left early), Tracey Lewis, Roger Manning, Sarv Randhawa (left early), Curt Schroell, Wendy Schroell, Cleveland Spears (arrived late).

Four Members absent: Al Delaney, Nile El Wardani, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Zarinah Shakir.

Guests: Cidrac Franklin, Otis Hardy Maclay, Ursula Ruedenberg (briefly).

Convener: Dave Adelson.

Authority and Notice: This meeting was called at the request of the PNB Chair on May 10, 2004 (see APPENDIX A). Notice was distributed on May 17, 2004 (see APPENDIX B). A draft agenda was distributed to committee members (see APPENDIX C).

The meeting was webcast live on http://kpftx.org/. Meeting audio is currently archived online at http://www.kpftx.org/archive.htm#pnb040521tech. Times indicated in brackets may be useful as an index to the audio files pnb040521a.mp3, pnb040521b.mp3, and pnb040521a.mp3. Other than invited guests, there was no provision for public participation.

The meeting was called to order by covener Dave Adelson at approximately 10:18 am PST. Without objection, Patty Heffley was appointed Notetaker and Steve Conley was appointed Timekeeper.

There was discussion of the proposed agenda. Items were resequenced for the convenience of Members planning to leave early and the revised agenda was adopted by unanimous consent.

The Members present introduced themselves with brief statements of backgrounds and qualifications.

Maclay gave a brief report concerning the NFCB Tech Committee. [10:51]

There was discussion of technical issues related to the digital conversion of FM broadcasting. Hernandez referred Members to the links http://www.ibiquity.com/ and http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/digital and agreed to write something up for inclusion in the Committee Report. Later in the meeting, C. Scroell offered to make available an edited version of a radio program about digital conversion. It can be found at http://acksisofevil.org/digitalconversion.html.

Manning announced plans to have a place on http://www.pacifica.org/about/board/index.html. C. Schroell agreed to make Tech Committee Minutes available with the meeting audio at http://www.kpftx.org/archive.htm#pnb040521tech.

There was discussion of technical issues related to content distribution among broadcasters [11:19]. Maclay agreed to write something up for inclusion in the Committee Report.

There was discussion of technical issues related to distribution of content to listeners. In the discussion of WiFi LANs, mention was made of Tim Pozar's website http://www.lns.com/.

Adelson moved to postpone to the next meeting discussion of technical issues related to network infrastructure. [11:39] This was approved without objection.

C. Schroell referred Members to http://www.radio4all.net/ as an example of effective content distribution and suggested that Pacifica assist the A-Infos Radio Project financially to increase bandwidth and storage space for Pacifica programs.

Motion by Lewis (as amended): [11:48]

Resolved:
That the PNB Technology Committee requests that Pacifica Executive Director Dan Coughlin arrange for a written report on who is doing what for Pacifica's web streaming and archiving projects and what their technical approach is.

Further Resolved:
That the PNB Technology Committee requests that this status report include the costs so far and projected.

Motion passed without objection.

Ruedenberg joined the meeting and reported on content distribution methods in use by Pacifica affiliates. This included a brief report on the status of the Audioport Project, which was approved by the iPNB as the MP3 Warehouse Server. Work on the Audioport is pretty much complete, awaiting final attorney review of user agreements. Details of the MP3 Warehouse proposal are in the PACE report at http://www.pacifica.org/documents/pdf/PACE.pdf.

There was general agreement that the Committee should divide itself into four initial workgroups to study and report on areas of emerging technology, that Pacifica members with interest and expertise in these areas should be encouraged to assist, and that attempts should be made to include participation in each workgroup from all Pacifica signal areas. Committee members will be polled via email to identify their areas of interest. The initial workgroups will focus upon:

1) Technical issues related to broadcasting
2) Technical issues related to content distribution from producers to broadcasters
3) Technical issues related to content delivery to listeners
4) Technical issues related to Foundation infrastructure and information technology

There was discussion about the election of a Committee Chair. [12:20] C. Schroell, Adelson, and Hernandez were nominated and accepted nomination. There was agreement that the election of Chair should be conducted via email.

Motion by W. Schroell: [12:25]

Resolved:
That Dave Adelson shall serve as Chair Pro-Tem (Continuing).

Motion passed without objection.

Sarv Randhawa and Mark Hernandez left the meeting. [12:31]

Motion by T. Goodman:

Resolved:
That Terry Goodman shall serve as Secretary Pro-Tem (Continuing), that the Secretary Pro-Tem shall coordinate a survey of Committee Members on the election of a Chair, that the Chair Pro-Tem shall coordinate a survey of Committee Members on the election of a Secretary, that there shall be a call for nominations and candidate statements to be distributed by email followed by emailed ballots, and that Member preferences shall be tabulated by IRV.

Motion passed without objection.

Spears joined the meeting. [12:39]

There was discussion about meeting minutes, the Maclay and Hernandez contributions to the Committee Report, and the possibility of a Technology Committee meeting at the upcoming PNB meeting in Houston.

Manning will ask the PNB Chair if there is time for a Technology Committee report at the Houston meeting.

The next Committee meeting will be at the call of the Chair Pro-Tem (Continuing).

Maclay will phone Pete Korakis regarding the Audioport project.

Adelson will contact the Executive Director to ask if there is material relevant to the Technology Committee already planned for the ED's Report.

All reports and the minutes of this meeting should be sent to PNB Secretary Roger Manning and copied to Lailoni and Maclay.

These minutes will be recrafted into the form of a Committee Report and a draft distributed by the Secretary Pro-Tem, with reference to the Maclay and Hernandez contributions which will be appended prior to the PNB meeting.

There was a motion to adjourn. [12:52]

Without objection, the meeting was adjourned at 12:53 pm PST.

Terry L. Goodman
PNB Technology Committee Secretary Pro-Tem (Continuing)
(These minutes were approved on 9/27/04.)

-----
APPENDIX A - CALL OF PNB COMMITTEE MEETING

Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 12:52:27 -0700
To: PNB Technology Committee Members
From: David Adelson
Subject: 1st National Tech Committee Meeting

dear all,
if you're getting this note, it means that pacifica national board
secretary roger manning believes you to be a member of the National
Technology Committee, and i for one am inclined to trust him...

i've been asked by marty durlin to convene the first committee meeting,
which will be via telephone conference call, with web-streaming to provide
public access to the meeting.

i would like to convene the meeting on Friday, May 21 at 10 am PST, 1 pm
EST. is this acceptable to a majority of the members of the
committee? please email me directly to let me know if this works for you,
and if not, what other times would be good for you...my own preference
failing Fri. the 21st would be Sat. the 22nd. we must have 10 days advance
notice i believe, so i would like get the meeting noticed by tomorrow
(tues) afternoon.

among the agenda items for the first meeting will be election of a chair
for the body...plz let me know other issues you'd like considered...there
are a number of them, incl. for example a report back from the preliminary
tech discussion at NFCB, and the planned tech retreat at GRC in late
june. other issues might include: wireless internet technologies and how
they'll affect pacifica, pacifica's uses of the web (current and planned),
best ways to connect stations that want to broadcast large chunks of
pacifica station programming but can't afford hours and hours of ISDN calls
(e.g. the recent station started in columbus, oh that wants to broadcast
large expanses of KPFK programming), linux at pacifica, remote studios,
mobile studios, station infrastructure, issues of digital conversion (which
was raised by our KPFK GM, eva georgia, at our last LSB meeting), etc etc.

also, might we want to ask to have a couple of guests on the call to give
some brief reports or be there to offer some advice? i'm thinking jim
bennett and otis maclay might be able to offer a lot...anyone else?

looking forward to hearing from you and working with you...
best regards,
dave adelson

-----
APPENDIX B - NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING

From: Roger Manning
To: Pacifica National Board
Cc: LSB Secretaries and Others
Subject: NOTICE of PNB Technology Committee meeting
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 12:53:14 -0400

PLEASE PUBLISH WIDELY

In addition to the 3 PNB committee meetings just announced for this week
there is also the previously announced Pacifica National Board Technology Committee
meeting.

Fri., May 21, 10:00am Pacific, 11:00am Mountain, 12:00pm Central, 1:00pm Eastern
PNB Technology Committee Regular meeting

To be webcast on http://kpftx.org

Roger Manning, PNB Secretary
212-219-1873
http://wbai.org
http://wbai.net
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://web.wt.net/~rogerm

-----
APPENDIX C - PROPOSED AGENDA

Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 22:32:30 -0700
To: PNB Technology Committee
From: David Adelson
Subject: agenda for 1st pnb tech committee meeting
Cc: Dan Coughlin, Marty Durlin, and Others

dear all,
i'd like to recommend the following agenda for our conference call set for
friday May 20 at 10 am PST, 1 PM EST
(the call can be accessed directly at Dial-in Number: [Access Number and Code Redacted -TLG]

Proposed Agenda (total time: 2.75 hrs)
note: while i know 2.75 hrs is awhile, i think the time will race
by, and we need to spend the time to get off to an effective start...if
we're disciplined about the administriva, we may be able to get it done
more quickly. however, my experience in the newly formed democratic
republic of pacifica is that nothing goes quickly, and the substantive
parts keep suffering because not enough time is allotted.

(0) Call to order & appoint note-taker aka secretary pro-tem (if someone -
not roger manning - would be prepared to volunteer for this it would be
much appreciated...) and time-keeper (5 min)
- note: the job of the secretary pro tem is crucial for this
meeting since a report on the meeting will be due asap (see below for more
details)
(1) Approval of agenda (10 min)

(2) Introductions (90 sec each) (25 min)

(3) Report back from NFCB tech presentation/meeting and initial discussion
of plans for GRC tech retreat (30 min)
(i've asked otie, who was at the NFCB meeting, to give a brief report on it
to frame the discussion) - i've also taken the liberty of inviting jim
bennett of kpfa and nate scott, operations director at kpfk, to join us...i
apologize for not inviting the operations folks from wbai and wpfw, since i
don't know them, but if anyone from those signal areas would like to
forward this message to them so they can join us, i'd appreciate it. if
there are any committee members who object to this invitation, please say
so at the beginning of the call and we can take a vote on it...

(4) Developing a work plan
         (a) how will we split up the work to accomplish it most
effectively (15 min)
         (b) what are the priorites of the group (40 min)
         (c) splitting up the work as agreed upon in (a) to begin to move
forward on (b) (10 min)

(5) Elect Committee Chair (10 min)
- note: i placed this here so that we've all had a chance to
interact a little bit before deciding on it...

(6) Assign responsibilities for assembling Tech Committee Report for
upcoming PNB meeting (the report should be submitted by the end of the day
Friday if possible, if not, then within the following day or two) (15 min)

(7) Set date of next meeting (5 min)
- note: i recommend that the next meeting be Fri. June 18th at 10
am PST, 1 pm EST...this is in part to give sufficient time before GRC 9
(June 24-27 in Santa Barbara - see http://grc.kcsb.org/ for more info) to
discuss our progress and plan for the meeting

btw, i'll be making the following suggestions for 4(a) and 4(b)
for 4(a)
i think we should set up caucuses, either organized by signal area
or by subject area, to do the work between committee meetings to organize
specific agenda items for meetings, incl. doing whatever research is
necessary, compiling and distributing relevant info, and making
recommendations.

for 4(b)
         based on the feedback i've seen from my initial call for subjects,
i think it might make sense to split topics up into the following 4 areas,
and i thought maybe we could spend 10 min on each
                 tech issues related to broadcasting (e.g. digital
conversion, antennae&transmitters)
                 tech issues related to distribution of content between
broadcasters and from programmers to broadcasters (e.g. if other stations
want to carry our content or vice-versa what ways are available - ISDN, KU,
web, etc etc - ways of doing remote programming, etc)
                 tech issues related to distribution of content to
listeners (webcasting, the impact of new technologies in wireless internet,
etc.)
                 tech issues related to network infrastructure (e.g. IT
issues incl. the potential for using linux, archiving, phone systems, good
ways to do conference calling, issues related to interaction with and
getting feedback from listeners incl. surveying mechanisms, how to
streamline tallying votes conducted using STV or IRV, etc.)

these are just my suggestions and i post them here so you've had the chance
to see them...again, my apologies for not having sent this around sooner

see you soon,
best,
dave adelson
convener, pnb tech committee

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2004-05-21 Technology Minutes