Brief Summary

The Kingdom of Ansteorra should purchase and maintain its own Internet
server for webpages and email for official offices. This server will
be a moderately powerful Intel based system similar to other Windows
systems. The system will allow multiple users to access the system at
once from remote locations. The cost to the Kingdom would be approximately
$2000.

Purpose of this proposal

To have the Kingdom approve the equipment, maintenance, and structure
of a computer system that provide for the Kingdom's growing needs
for a Internet presence for communication between officers, members
and potential members of the Society for Creative Anachronism within
Ansteorra. This proposal will cover the background of what has happened
so far, the necessary steps to take and cost of equipment to ensure
continued growth of services to our populace, as well as addressing some
of the concerns that may arise over time.

Background

In the days before time, or about 4 years ago, Viscount Sir Galen of
Bristol created a website to help the people of the Kingdom of Ansteorra
to find some items of interest easily. The Kingdom Chronicler decided that
the Kingdom needed to have a presence on the Internet to help people to
find us, as well as to properly display information of interest to our
populace. This is when the Virtual Scribe position was created. Phelim
"Pug" Gervase was appointed as the first Virtual Scribe this Kingdom
had, but there was lacking structure and guidelines for the office to
follow. Pug took, with permission, the webpages that Viscount Galen had
created and used them as a basis for the Kingdom website.

Over the years guidelines have been created with input from the Society
webmasters and Chronicler as well as officers within the Kingdom. In
addition some incidences arose within the Kingdom that caused some to
be created. Unfortunately all of these guidelines were only in Pug's
head, so when he gave up the office at the end of his term to Krzysztof
Kopernik the guidelines had to be written down and formalized. This is
how the Kingdom Virtual Scribe's Handbook came into existence.

Since the time that Krzysztof has taken over as Virtual Scribe there
has been a greater desire for people to have their webpages appear as
if they were on an official Ansteorran server. This type of need is
for things such as the 20th year celebration, the Hospitaler's office,
and different Orders trying to get things started. This desire is
unfortunately stifled by the fact that the server for www.ansteorra.org
is owned and donated by an ISP in Austin, Texas (IO.com) that we are
unable to give additional accounts on. As well, it is undesirable to
share the account with others since there would be no accountability if
something accidentally went wrong with the website. Not to mention the
possibility of someone accidentally over-writes an area of the website
that they were not responsible for. This is further confused since Pug
is allowed to have a personal website on his work system at GlobeSet,
Inc. from which he maintains the Southern Regional website as well as
some personal interest items.

Proposal

The Kingdom is in need of purchasing a server that they will own in order
to maintain a consistent and reliable face to the Internet. This server
would need to be maintained by someone who is a System Administrator
with experience in the OS installed. The OS used should be sufficiently
secure and flexible to allow for different functions to be performed. The
functions being proposed are:

1) Host the Kingdom website with CGI capability.
2) Provide POP email boxes for the Kingdom Great Officers of State.

The reason for having POP email boxes for the Officers is to allow for
a consistent naming scheme for all Officers, a mailbox that is separate
from their work and/or personal mailbox, and ease of transition to a
new Officer as far as business concerns.

Once those requirements have been met and are functional, the proposed
additional functionality would be as follows:

1) Host Regional and Group websites with consistent names for each
   Region/Group. (i.e.  southern.ansteorra.org, shadowlands.ansteorra.org)
2) Host websites for the Great and Lesser Officers of State regarding
   their offices. The regional and lesser officers can do their work through
   their regional or local Virtual Scribe.
3) Host websites for the Orders of the Kingdom that wish to provide them.
4) Provide POP email boxes for the Kingdom Lesser Officers of State.
5) Provide POP email boxes for the Regional/Group officers.

If permitted, it would also be desirable to host the mailing lists
currently being maintained at GlobeSet, Inc. upon this system to allow
for a consistent naming scheme to be maintained.

Given the desire and available resources other functionality can be added.

Technical Details

This system should be a powerful enough system to last at least two years
with expectations that it would last four or five assuming no massive
changes in expectations. The storage within this system should be of
a size to allow for all desired functionality to be achieved within a
6-month time frame, with a proposed storage capacity of 2 years being
optimal. If the storage needs are not enough, additional storage should
be added.  The OS should be configurable enough to allow for diverse
security schemes as well as a level of security such that there is no
unnecessary concern with the system being on the Internet.

The proposed OS is Solaris for Intel systems running on a Dell Dimension
system with a Pentium II 450Mhz processor, 256Mbytes of memory and at
least 14 Gbytes of diskspace. The proposed system would cost approximately
$2000 with a 3-year on-site warranty. A detailed price quote is not
given since there is the possibility of minimal change in this amount,
as well as the ability to purchase some systems through Dell employees
in Austin at a discounted rate.

Logistical Details

The system would be maintained outside of any warranted office to ensure
that there is no transfer of office unless there is a dire need. Since
warranted offices are required to turn over after 3 years no matter what,
this is the best method to ensure the integrity of the system. More than
likely, the office should be a deputy to either the Kingdom Chronicler
of the Kingdom Virtual Scribe. It is proposed that Phelim "Pug" Gervase
maintain the system just as he has maintained the mailing list site for
the last 6 years, in addition to arranging for sites for the Kingdom
webpages to be hosted on.

If this is acceptable, the system will be located at GlobeSet, Inc. in
Austin, Texas. This system would be plugged into a 10 Mbit network
that is connected via a packet filtering firewall to two T1 (1.54Mbit)
connects to diverse Internet providers. The security on this system will
be such that:

1) Only limited people will be able to directly log in from the
   Internet. If possible using SSH (Secure SHell) as the method to ensure
   security.
2) Those people maintaining webpages will be allowed FTP (file transfer)
   access to their webpage area that they are responsible for.
3) Those people using the POP email service will be allowed this access.
4) No one except Pug would be permitted superuser/root/administrator
   access to the system to ensure the systems integrity. Methods would be
   setup to allow the Kingdom Virtual Scribe and/or Kingdom Chronicler to
   override/modify the websites that are hosted on this system.

Addressing Some Concerns

Pug is the manager for the IS department at GlobeSet, Inc. in Austin
Texas. This company is a software development company with an emphasis
on Electronic Commerce. His expertise is in UNIX system administration,
with particular specialization and expertise in network and system
performance and security. While it is possible that he would leave
this position in the future, it is unlikely for several years to come
considering his position within the company and the company's potential
within the market.

The CFO of GlobeSet, Inc. has already given verbal permission and written
permission will be obtained if there is any concern.

In the case that Pug is unreachable, a member of the local SCA will be
assigned to act as liaison between the SCA and GlobeSet, Inc.

In the case that Pug does leave this position for another company, he
will ensure that there is a connection for this system that allows for
minimal outage of the services. If there is any cost incurred, it will
come directly from Pug's pocket if the Kingdom is unwilling to foot the
bill.

In the case that Pug happens to leave the Kingdom, the system would
be immediately transferred back to the Kingdom Chronicler and/or
Virtual Scribe in order to allow a quick transition to a new Internet
Provider. There will be enough warning of this case that the Internet
Provider should already be chosen and the outage of service minimal. If
done properly, the Internet Provider should be willing to donate the
service for the tax advantage they would receive.

In any case if there is a need or desire for Pug to be replaced in this
capacity, there is the technical expertise in the Kingdom for others do
maintain this system. As well, Pug is willing to continue maintenance of
the system, even from out of Kingdom, until such as time as a suitable
replacement is found.

Unfortunately Pug is unable to plan for the possibility of his death,
but the local contact within the SCA will be able to retrieve the system
from GlobeSet, Inc. in that hopefully unlikely situation.

Pug has been paying for and maintaining the Ansteorra.org domain for 3
years out of his own pocket and time. He is very willing to give to the
Kingdom in this manner.

Pug has very high standards and ethics when it comes to security and
privacy. Even though he has the ability to look at email, change files,
etc, he never does so without a dire need and explicit permission. This is
something he has felt very strongly about for the many years he has been
a system administrator. This means the privacy of email and integrity
of the files will not be compromised by any action he takes unless it
is truly needed to be taken.