[CSL board] INFO big strategic issue: hosting

[Dan MacNeil]

This will probably fall into the reporting of activities section 
of the meeting.

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For 2 years, we've been speculating about the unhappy 
consequences of not getting a good technical VISTA.

Our last technical VISTA is now free to spend more time with his 
family.

John's been working on improving MVHub and Eric is great but not 
technical. Eric's presense requires me to spend more time on fund 
raising (good) which takes away from tech stuff. (bad)

I'm pretty much buried, there are 4 groups that have been waiting 
at least 2 weeks for me to set them up with a site.

I'll eventually catch up, but odds are good that I won't have 
time to do much else.

If we get the Parker money, hosting will be helpful loss leader 
for useful and profitable desktop support.

If we get a good VISTA, in January, we'll have a reprieve.

We should probably discuss if we should continue hosting or not.

LONG TERM PROS OF HOSTING

	Chance to provide training

	Service for (some) people who wouldn't have it.

	Possibility to be really, really good

	Tremendous Visibility in community.

	Very useful integration with Desktop support

	Not all our eggs in one basket.

LONG TERM CONS OF HOSTING
	Need 1000 customers to break even

	We provide service that can be gotten for
	$100-200/year from somebody else

	Distraction from other important work

	Other free services are better.

OPTIONS
	Stop hosting now

	Decide Hosting is essential

	Decide conditions where hosting stay
		a. We get parker money or a good vista

CONS OF ENDING
	Time to transition people will mean
	short term **INCREASE** in resource
	burn.

	Loss of prestige

	Loss of goodwill for University

CONS OF CONTINUING
	
	Loss of training opportunities	
		
PROS OF ENDING

	Focus on MHUB, as soon as this spring

CONS OF DEFERRING DECISION

	Loss of morale associated with uncertainty

	We may have enough info to make a decision

	We many have enough info to make a decision

PROS of DEFERRING DECISION

	We may in the medium and long term
	have the resources to support hosting