KooteNet's Photo Album - part 4
How does a community pull this off ? ( continued )
let the users solve other users' problems ...
teach some kids enough HTML to do homepages for their schools ...
In the meantime ... Homer's cage overflowed as hundreds of new families came on-line and gradually
the project began to receive many donations to "the communities' cause" ...
1st, a storage cabinet from the Library
then a real file cabinet ... from Noranda when they shut down their Libby operation;
then a "hot pink & black" desk from the judge's office ... just right for that orange chair !
Here's that same board for the phone lines 2 years later
...
Can you tell that Tony [aka "sysadmin"] is a retired veterinarian?
Lots of critter pictures hang around the phone board ...
Summer - 1996: over 500 families now on-line; our help-desk volunteers get a donated desk from the County and KooteNet gets it's own phone number... much to the relief of the Libby library staff who have been fielding calls since the Fall of 1994 !
More donations including another desk, 2 chairs, some worktables and a bookcase completed the necessary stuff needed to equip the area. KooteNet was initially started with $25,000 seed money from a Lincoln County economic development fund (not tax dollars) which was used to buy the Sun Sparc 5 Server hardware, a terminal server, router and a few modems.
The project currently still uses 3 borrowed PC's [one for Tony to keep track of user accounts, one to run the satellite newsfeed and one for the helpdesk] and a borrowed laser printer.
Revenue from user fees have supplied the additional
terminal servers, routers, modems and paid the phone bills and internet connection charges
and currently pay for services of 1.5 people who also volunteer many more extra evening
and weekend hours.
Volunteers, too numerous to mention, from the membership continue to step up to the plate
when necessary to keep the project growing.
Winter - 1996/97: Tony & Randy take a break ... amazed at where we are... 600 families on-line... getting ready for a T1 Line ( that's a connection 24 times bigger than we started with just 2 years ago!)
No fancy modem racks here...we use traditional external modems stacked on end between library bookends...they work just fine and they are more within our price range!
Summer - 1997 Extraordinary growth brings a visit and recognition from Montana's Governor, Mark Racicot.
Homer's "Cage" finally runs out of room !
KooteNet's rapid growth forces a rethinking of the hardware aspects and physical layout of the Project. Homer's "cage" becomes congested with wiring; debugging and heat problems become a major concern. System administrator, Tony Pajas, makes plans to upgrade equipment and address the working-area problems that have accompanied the growth of both the project and the need for more customer-support.