1. Name of Project Director
    Yurii R. Koftan

2. Title of Proposal
     “Obninsk Civic Network”

3. Report period
    July-September, 2000

4. Names of individuals and institutions participating in the project or intending to participate directly or to support the project with additional funds.

• Not-for-Profit Partnership “Obninsk Computer Club”,
• Obninsk City Administration,
• JSC “Obninsk City Information Center”,
• “Maxnet Systems”, Ltd.
• Not-for-Profit Partnership “Community”,
• Not-for-Profit Partnership “Municipal Informatics”,
• Obninsk City Fund of Scientific-Technical, Innovative, and Creative Activity of Russian Youth,
• International Academy of Modern Knowledge.

    Development of Obninsk Civic Network

6. Achievements during report period:
a) useful meetings and contacts:

• In the framework of the project “Obninsk-Oak Ridge: Volunteer Based Model for Non-Governmental Social Programs” (executed by not-for-profit fund “Our Children” under the support from IREX/USAID – SPAN Program) the OCN members met with Oak Ridge team visited Obninsk in September. The discussion resulted in a decision to establish a Coordination center of volunteer activity in Obninsk by the end of 2000.

• The OCN organizational-technical structure is completed. All planned OCN centers: Information-Methodical Center, Telecommunication Center, and 3 Public Access Centers (PAC) are established and started working.
• All PAC give questionnaires to their clients to be filled in. The analyzed answers will be used for further development of OCN.
• The OCN has now new site – portal of local media - allsmi.civnet.obninsk.org
• The number of the OCN users become 166 (30 corporate users and 136 individuals). 103 users (86 of them are individuals) have dial up connection.
• The number of web site hits in September – 266, number of page-to-page transitions – 9659 ( average 35 transitions during one visit).
• Local newspaper “Chas Pik – Region” (OCN participant) got a grant from Soros Foundation to connect the newspaper to Internet and to develop its own WEB site.
• The OCN members – youth not-for-profit organization “Intelligence of the Future” and OK_Club announced Russian Open Competition “Computer – XXI Century” in the framework of the federal scientific and educational program “Youth, Science, Culture”. The announcement and all materials related to the competition are accessible on www.okclub.org
• Two groups of non-profits’ members were trained in the “Fundamentals of Internet” program:

• 5 members of the Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children and Youth “Trust”.
• 5 individuals from not-for-profit partnership “Community” in the framework of “Leadership – Obninsk” program.

• The OCN Information-Methodical Center (in OK_Club) provides consultations on the OCN, Internet, and information technologies since 9AM till 10PM. The service is free for not-for-profit organizations.
• 3 Public Access Centers works now in:

• Ten representatives of not-for-profit organizations have been trained.

• The general meeting of the OCN members is planned for October to approve the decision of the Organizing Committee.
• The solemn opening of the OCN is planned for late November – early December.
• Seven to eight new sites for non-profits will be developed by the end of October.
• Creation of “Open Power” WEB site to include complete information on Obninsk budget.
• Training for OCN users (3 workshops in November for municipal officials; series of workshops for non-profits since September).