Green Party's low cost system
Pennny Shepherd writes:
Active members of the Green Party form a widely dispersed community of people
all over the country (or countries if you prefer). They have very limited
resources - about one third of GP members are low waged and new PCs or ISP
monthly rental are beyond their means - and lack access to the sorts of
funds available in principle to non-political groups.
They have therefore developed a very cheap way to communicate online. They
run an email/bbs server, the Green Express, on a PC which sits in the corner
of someone's living room. It is linked in to the rest of the email world
via greennet but doesnt have web access or the like. It contains internal
conferences as well as policy material, etc and also gives a way to submit
material to published newsletters, etc.
To access it, GP members can use a wide variety of hardware - anything from
a steam-powered Amstrad PCW or Amiga upwards. They pay a onetime 15 pound
registration fee to receive client software suitable for their m/c plus
a manual. Training is provided at party conferences, by peer support and,
I think, by the volunteer sysop. The only ongoing costs for users is for
a 4-5 minute telephone call (unfortunately national rate) to upload/download
mail while the central ongoing costs are basically the electricity bill
and line rental for the server. Needless to say, it receives no external
funding. The Party has just started also to supply bulk-ordered modems at
cost to make it even easier for people to get online.
More info is available from julian.edmonds@gexpress.gn.apc.org.
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