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Seattle Community Network: Dedicated to Free Speech, Community Participation and Volunteerism

by Teresa Ginal, edited by Rod Clark

In 1992, the Seattle chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a national non-profit association, started planning a new community service that they hoped might bring more Seattle residents together to build stronger and more connected communities, through Internet e-mail and other new communications media. Based on the Cleveland Free-Net's FreePort system, the Seattle Community Network went live on the Internet in the spring of 1994.

The Seattle Community Network is a free public access computer network for exchanging and accessing information. The network's Internet communications also often bring people together in person to work on community projects in old-fashioned ways that can't be carried out by electronic means, and this is as much one of SCN's purposes as is communications through any of its new technologies.

The network is run by a corps of volunteers dedicated to upholding SCN's guiding principles of access, democracy, free speech, community-building and volunteerism. Anyone who's interested can volunteer to help out.

About the Community
By 1995, the Free-Net had flourished and had exceeded CPSR's limits for budget expenditures, so in July of that year, SCN incorporated as the Seattle Community Network Association (SCNA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

SCNA continued CPSR's commitment to encouraging community participation through free and equal access to new communications technologies for everyone, including those underserved and under-represented in more established media.

A varied collection of people and community groups have chosen to participate in SCN. Some are part of the city's social service establishment, while others look askance at the city's government, newspapers, broadcast outlets, social policies and status quo. SCN maintains a neutrality about its members' views, and provides communications services for any citizens and organizations who wish to take part.

Accessibility
Free access for all is one of the Seattle Community Network's goals. SCN offers free Internet accounts to everyone who's interested, whether or not they live in the Seattle area.

SCN is accessible from terminals in a host of public places in Seattle. People in several areas of western Washington State can dial up their local public library's modem line and connect to SCN in addition to the library catalog. SCN users all over the world can telnet to scn.org and log in. Thousands of people a day log in to SCN, and thousands more visit SCN's Web site.

Funding and Collaboration
The Seattle Public Library provides SCN's connection to the Internet and a few other in-kind services. The Library has pursued a generous, hands-off working arrangement with SCN. Other than its Internet connections through the Library, SCN operates independently. Many SCN volunteers admire the Library's commitment to encouraging citizen access and participation, which they feel it has done at least as strongly any other sizable organization in City government.

Prior to 1995, funding for SCN had always been by private donations to CPSR. But when SCNA was created, it asked people to join the Association and contribute annual membership dues. SCN was still a Free-Net, but those who joined the Association had the ability to vote, and to voice their opinion in shaping the corporation. Basic membership dues are $25 a year, but range up to $500 if you want to sponsor a phone line. Over the last year people donated over $25,000 to SCNA, and there are now over a thousand Association members. Almost all of the network's funding comes from small individual donations from members and users. To encourage membership, SCNA allows those who can't afford to pay membership dues to contribute a few hours of volunteer work instead.

Content
SCN's main content is in the Web site's Community Pages. The menus there include Activism, Arts, Civic, Earth, Education, Health, Marketplace, Neighborhoods, News, People, Recreation, Science and Technology, and Spirituality. Each area is further broken down into more specific headings.

SCN's focus is on local information, but many pages have links to general resources on the Internet. One often-visited section is the Civic menu, about local politics, social services and non-profit organizations.

Services
SCN's e-mail and Web services are about as reliable as typical commercial services, but they're sometimes slower and lack many features that commercial services commonly offer.

• E-Mail - This is the most widely used and most important service that SCN offers.
• Mailing lists - The numerous mailing lists are a popular way for groups to communicate among themselves.
• Web browsing - Users can view the entire Web with a text browser, and download text, images and other multimedia files to their personal computers.
• Web sites - Local organizations can publish Web sites. So can any individual SCN user, simply by picking an option from the login menu.
• Forums - Users can carry on discussions on the local SCN newsgroups. These aren't propagated outside SCN, but anyone can read them on the Web.
• Usenet - SCN's own small news server carries a few thousand newsgroups. Links to several large Web-based Usenet services let people read and post messages to all of Usenet.
• Telnet - There is no open telnet prompt. Users can pick from menus of telnet links to other community networks.
• Chat - There is no IRC or other chat facility on the system.

Special Features
A noteworthy aspect of the Seattle Community Network is their dedication to volunteerism. SCN is entirely staffed by volunteers, who do a variety of technical and non-technical tasks for information providers and users. Each volunteer must sign a conflict of interest agreement and agree not to accept money for any volunteer services rendered.

SCN strongly supports freedom of speech and expression, and the open exchange of ideas. It considers the right to privacy to be important.

Democratic processes are part of SCNA's structure. All members of the Association have the right to vote, and to voice their concerns and suggestions in shaping the Seattle Community Network's ongoing expansion and development.

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