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Revision of About Us from Wed, 06/13/2007 - 2:41pm

General Company Description

Public Computing Services (PCS) is a Minnesota nonprofit corporation providing Information Technology (IT) services. The PCS mission is to put the power of information at everyone's fingertips. Our business model is to empower nonprofits so that they can they can provide information services to their clients.

Goals

The PCS goals are:

  1. internet access in every home (a virtual chicken in every pot)
  2. 'Office' software for all (and 'Money,' too)
  3. Secure access to data from any internet connection
  4. a living wage for each employee, including full health care

Business Philosophy

  • We are proud to be a democratically run organization, and use consensus in our meetings. Our policy decisions are made by a group of volunteers and staff called the council, and those policies are executed by our staff collective.
  • Our board keeps an eye on our financial and legal decisions.
  • No one will be denied services. Our fees are based on trust. We trust our clients to pay what they believe to be fair value for services rendered, within their budgetary constraints.
  • The Living Wage for Each Employee (Including Full Health Care) goal is ambitious, but strives to attract and retain skilled employees and motivate them to devote their skills and energy to the mission. Part of the PCS business philosophy is that employees that don't have financial and health care burdens are greater assets to the organization. We believe that human resource and administration expenses decrease with employee satisfaction and that the overall return on human investment improves.

Products and Services

Computer-related Services for Charities

Website hosting

(In another section, we discuss how organizational members can be ISP for their clients).

Software development

Training and Documentation

Computer Maintenance and Repair

Computer-related Services to Families

The Internet Access in Every Home goal assumes that the four components of internet access are a computer, an operating system, a connection, and an ISP (internet service provider). PCS does not directly provide any of these, but acts as a 'broker' or facilitator to make sure these are globally available. We do this by educating our members to find other providers. The services we provide will be training classes and partnerships.

Training

Our Low (or no) cost Internet Access class teaches members where to look for used computers and free services. We offer this and other classes through our nonprofit members (e.g., Community Education) that can support them.

We assume that most of our members will have phone lines. That's the lowest level, but most prevalent connection to the internet. For those that don't have phone lines, the class teaches them how to find low (or no) cost phone or wireless service.

Finally, we teach members how to find low (or no) cost ISP. Examples include NetZero, Juno, and AOL.

Configuration and Provision of Equipment

Connecting to the internet does not require a powerful computer. Many organizations donate, refurbish, and/or recycle their hardware when it no longer meets their needs. Examples include Craig's List, Twin Cities Freenet, and Materials Processing Centers. These computers are usually more than sufficient for internet access.

PCS will endeavor to learn about any source of low (or no) cost computers to pass along to our members. One of the reasons PCS will offer corporate memberships is so that our corporate members will partner with other members to 'hand-me-down' computers that no longer meet their needs. Examples include Target, CompUSA, Similarly, when our nonprofit members (schools, etc.) are ready to upgrade, they can pass their computers along to family or individual members. Similarly, PCS will establish partnerships with community recycling programs and computer refurbishing organizations.

The class shows members how to find and set up these computers to access the internet.

Many of these computers come with a valid license of the Microsoft Windows or Macintosh operating system. We teach members how to make the most of those licenses. For those that don't come with a commercial operating system, we distribute and teach the Linux operating system.

Support

  • Partnerships
    2. For members that don't have phone lines, PCS will endeavor to connect them with other agencies and programs that provide low (or no) cost phone service. Where community wireless internet access is available, PCS will help members connect using that.
    3. The server products PCS will offer to nonprofit members will enable them to act as ISP for their clients. We will configure their servers, modems and IP addresses to allow their clients to connect to the servers for internet access.
  • The Office for All goal aims to make the 'office' capabilities (especially, word processing, email & spreadsheet) that businesses take for granted available to everyone. We will teach members with valid licenses of Microsoft Office how to make the most of those licenses. For those without access to Microsoft Office, PCS will distribute and teach OpenOffice.
  • The Secure Access to Data from any Internet Connection goal aims to allow members to access their files from any internet connection. As an example, an individual member should be able to update a budget document using a computer at a public library. Individual and family members will have accounts on PCS or nonprofit member servers for secure access to their files. The servers will host, synchronize and backup their files so that data is never lost. The servers will provide terminal access so that users can work with their files using the same desktop environment they have on their individual computers.