Milestone Report

Project: SchoolWeb
Milestone No.: 1 and 2
Date: 30 June 2000

1.0 Deliverables

There were 6 major objectives in milestone 1, and 7 major objectives in milestone 2. Comments on the objectives of these milestones are given below:

1.1 Milestone 1

1. Equipment Purchases Completed - Done
   
   The first objective was to purchase the equipment that would be required in 10 schools and the headend.
   
   What we found when receiving quotations for equipment, was that Server component prices were changing weekly, and either the price was dropping for the same component, or the features of the component were increasing. This rapid change in cost or facility encouraged us to delay whatever purchases we could of the school and headend equipment, until we needed the equipment. This allowed us to use the money saved to upgrade the school systems to larger memory, and to add new units and features such as UPS (uninterrupted power Supply) for reliable shut-down on power failure.



2. Headend and school equipment being assembled - Done
   
   All units of head-end and school equipment were assembled upon receipt, but the application software was not installed initially, since the software was being developed at the same time, and was not in a final form and tested.
   
   Our plan is to install the application software just before shipment of equipment to schools, to ensure that we put on the latest version of the software.



3. Two of Four operations persons hired - Done
   
   Early in the project we advertised for the full-time computer programming and technical personnel that we required for the project. We had over 200 responses, but very few had Linux experience, which was essential.
   
   After taking quite some time to assess the applicants, we decided to hire special Sub-contractors instead of full-time staff. This turned out to be a very good decision, since we could find a few people with exactly the skills we needed, and they were flexible as to time and availability. Our cost is less, and program development is fast.
   
   It is our intention to continue with this revised type of organization.



4. Training of School Personnel is underway - Yes
   
   Initially, we sent a questionnaire to the School Districts and schools, to gather information on their personnel, equipment and facilities. We placed this information into a spreadsheet for easy reference.
   
   We had planned to train school (technical and teacher) personnel, concurrent with the installation of their equipment system; with possibly only a small amount of advanced information being sent to allow for some pre-planning.
   
   However, as we progressed with the software development and were incurring weekly changes and upgrades, it did not make sense to install and train until we had a complete "alpha" version of our software running, with all initial features provided and tested.
   
   At that point we decided to choose a local school, Gladstone Secondary School, in Vancouver, as our first test site to get up and running and tested before going to the field. With the help of the local Computer Science teacher (Phil Arnold) and after many weeks of co-operative work, we have been able to provide a server which does all the caching we desire, but also provides many new services to the school that they did not have before. In addition, we are developing tools which the school can use to automate tasks; such as assigning email accounts and passwords to each student that is registered, and have that email 'roam' with them, both internally (anywhere on the LAN) and externally (at home).
   
   A further benefit from this work has been the ongoing assistance of Phil Arnold to help us document all of the features and procedures, which we can use for training, as an instruction manual on all services, and which can be left as a reference at the school.
   
   As we explored further into the proposed installation at other schools, we learned that almost every school is different in terms of hardware, software and networking, and in the way 'clients' are set-up. This means that we need to install, test and solve the problems at several more schools, to give us the experience with a variety of circumstances that we could run into, before we go to the remote schools which are not easy (and are costly) to reach.
   
   This experience is further addressed in the second milestone.



5. Interconnection of a return channel being made to schools - Done
   
   PlNet advises that all schools planned for SchoolWeb service have an operating, return channel of varying speed.



6. Advanced Interactive Canada web site is set-up - Done
   
   The web site address is: http://Advancedinteractive.com/SchoolWeb/Canarie.html

1.2 Milestone 2

1. Initial service commenced to schools - Done
   
   Before June30, 2000 initial service was commenced to Gladstone Secondary School on a test basis. Two additional school systems were ready for deployment but were delayed installation until we were prepared to place a freeze on the initial application software. Additional schools are planned for installation in August and September.



2. Operations group completes initial software to activate the initial service - Yes
   
   The initial software package was completed and installed at Gladstone Secondary School. But experience soon proved that lots of changes would have to be made to make the system "more attractive for teachers and students to use" and "user friendly". Indeed the system was going to have to be simple to deploy, super reliable, and have lots of features that the schools did not now have, but desired. Caching alone, it turned out, was highly desirable, but the schools wanted much more, (and right away!) and without the need for a fully trained person on tap to manage it.
   
   This sent us back to the design stage to re-assess what we had planned, and to come up with an up-grade which would meet teachers needs more closely. Upgrades included, full remote operation, set-up, remote monitoring, remote upgrade, diagnostics, etc., as well as full, automatic file backup, and standby power. These features have since been included for test at Gladstone, and will be more fully discussed in the next milestone report.



3. Evaluation committee put in place, meeting held - Delayed
   
   The Evaluation Committee was to be drawn from the schools and School districts where SchoolWeb systems will be deployed. The process was to meet with each school and District, install the equipment, provide training, and through personal contact, collectively decide on who should be the contact person(s) for (a) technical interaction, (b) school (teacher/student) services, and (c) evaluation.
   
   While this process is currently ongoing in Vancouver, it is planned that this activity be delayed in other locations until the process above can be done at one time. This work is planned for August and September when school installations take place.



4. Technical Systems assembled and installed at the headend and most schools - Partial
   
   The headend and most school systems are assembled, but not installed as of June 30, 2000. The headend will be installed in August and the schools will be scheduled for installation in August and September. As of 30 June, only one test school is fully operational, with two others ready to install. The three schools will be considered as 'test' sites, with initial software (V1.1) installed.



5. Training of school personnel complete - Partial
   
   This training will be co-incident with the delivery and installation of equipment. One major advantage of the delay is that we will have detailed documentation to take to the schools; which provides the basis for all training, system maintenance and set-up, and provides the schools with a good overview of the services they can employ. Not all schools will want to use all services provided.



6. PLNet internet connections completed to KNOW and schools - Done
   
   Connections have been made to KNOW and all schools planned for SchoolWeb systems; and access through the PLNet router has been assured. However, we are still negotiating the possible upgrade to the OLA - PLNet link to Harbor Towers to allow for greater speed.



7. Connection made to CA*net3 - Done
   
   Arrangements have been made for connection to CA*net3 through BCNet and PLNet at Harbor Towers. This connection is expected to be operational in fall 2000.

2.0 Schedule

The following is an overview of our schedule of progress versus our original Statement of Work.

1. Equipment systems are ready for deployment at schools and the headend, but have been delayed until software version V1.1 has been finalized.
2. Software development was slow at first but is now up-to-schedule, and in some ways is ahead of schedule, with new features that were not originally planned for the initial release. Software V1.1 is scheduled for release in August, after extensive tests at one or more schools.
3. Training of school staff and set-up of the evaluation committee will be undertaken co-incident with installation of equipment. Training will be based on documentation from the test school(s). Documentation will also serve as the foundation for student/teacher services that will assist the evaluation committee.
4. Our target is to have all schools installed and trained by this fall.
5. The date for completion of milestone 3 (the next milestone) is September 30, 2000.

3.0 Budget

3.1 Comment on the budget status of the project

1. Direct labor and Sub-contractors
   
   Although we got off to a slow start, we have picked up speed and cost in this cost category. As of this date, we are about 9.5% ahead of budgeted expenditures. This would appear to be about where we should be, since we are slightly ahead with our software development.
   
   With our current organization model (more use of Sub-contractors) we can quickly modify our workload and costs, to be close to budget as time goes on.



2. Travel and Training
   
   As explained previously in the Report, we have delayed our installations and training so they are co-incident, and follow the finalization of tests of Software V1.1 Thus, in milestones 1 and 2, there was no travel and little direct training other than the time spent at Gladstone, which was logged as development. Travel and living costs will be incurred in the next two months.



3. Use of KNOW facilities
   
   KNOW has not billed us yet for this low-cost item.



4. Connection to PLNet
   
   PLNet has made all connections to schools at their cost, and do not intend to invoice us for their upgrades. However, the connection from OLA/Aii to the main terminal room at Harbor Towers is still under negotiation. The current connection, a fiber link running at 10Mbps, is adequate, but our target was higher speed. We are continuing to talk to AT&T and Telus for better rates for 20, 30 and 100 Mbps connections. We do not intend to spend an additional $20,000 per year (as shown in the proposal) for this upgrade. We continue to look for alternatives.



5. Special Purpose Equipment
   
   Equipment purchases are relatively close (within 7.2%) of the predicted amount for Milestones 1 and 2 combined. Were we to carry on with the equipment plan as originally conceived, we would be close to the budget originally proposed. However, we now expect to provide additional equipment services and features (such as UPS mentioned above) which will increase the overall equipment budget.
   
   We may also have to provide upgraded satellite receivers at some cable headends in order to get the maximum number of lines of data re-inserted into the video signal. Further, as a backup, we may also have to put industrial version satellite receive systems at some remote schools where broadcast coverage may not be reliable.
   
   The extent of equipment increases is not known at this time, but will be kept below the maximum amount of 20% allowed for eligible equipment expenses.