Ewu Computer Network On Chopping Block Tincan Provides Free Internet Access For Social Service Organizations, Poor, Rural Residents

Eastern Washington University plans to get rid of its TINCAN computer network and may have to return thousands of dollars in grant money that supported the free Internet access system in seven counties.

The action also may lead to EWU being audited by the U.S. Department of Commerce or others.

The plan, which was announced last Wednesday to users of The Inland Northwest Community Access Network, leaves nearly 40 social service organizations in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene wondering how they will communicate electronically and provide public access to the Internet.

The system is used by an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people each month.

EWU Provost Niel Zimmerman alerted users in a letter that TINCAN’S electronic mail, Web page services and rural telephone line connections will be switched off July 1 if a new sponsor does not take over the project.

University officials and a pair of hired consultants said TINCAN has been underused and underfunded and has strayed from its original mission of connecting rural and low-income residents to the information highway. The university also has removed the manager of the service.

“The decision not to continue to provide TINCAN is a business decision,” Judith Penrod Seminoe, associate to the president, said Friday. “We overcommitted and have not been able to keep up with all of our obligations.”

Seminoe said she was unsure if TINCAN’s operations are losing money and taxing EWU’s budget. The Cheney-based school has been under pressure recently to cover unexpected expenses and to give pay raises to teachers.

Bill Dillon, executive director of the Northeast Community Center, said he understands EWU’s need to meet its grant contract obligations, but he said he worries the university’s action will kill the computer network - and the electronic access available to 60,000 people who surround the Hillyard neighborhood center.

“It’s terrible timing,” Dillon said. “We are at a unique time when people are recognizing the opportunities to come together in ways they never have before. TINCAN was the backbone of the infrastructure for community information.”

TINCAN includes Web pages and free e-mail accounts for several non-profit organizations, professional associations, public agencies and special interest groups. With a computer and a modem, citizens can dial into TINCAN’s access lines to learn about upcoming events, locate health-care providers, volunteer at social service agencies and join discussions about local issues.

In a related action, EWU has removed Karen Michaelson as manager of TINCAN and has barred her from using her office at the downtown Center for Technology, Education and the Community.

Seminoe declined to explain why Michaelson had been removed.

Michaelson, who continues as director of the center by working from her home, has brought millions of dollars in grant money to the center and EWU. She referred questions to her attorney, Jeffry Finer of Spokane.

“She opened TINCAN before anybody knew what a Web site was,” Finer said. “This woman had real vision.”

Finer said Michaelson wants to preserve TINCAN and the grant money that supports the system.

EWU shares part of that vision, saying its “desired outcome is to transfer sponsorship of TINCAN to a not-for-profit organization.” Officials said they will begin this week to map a strategy for passing ownership of TINCAN to another organization.

Consultant James Pyle, executive director of academic research at Ball State University in Indiana, and a partner wrote in a 16-page report that TINCAN suffers from lack of users, bare-bones Web pages without graphic-based technology and a heavy reliance on grant money.

Some of that money should be returned, they wrote, because TINCAN cannot fulfill terms of the grants on time.

The grants include $33,000 from the state Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop Web pages for low-income neighborhoods and $162,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help rural high school students find careers and create online businesses.

Another $164,000 already spent may have to be returned to the Commerce Department, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Endowment for the Humanities, the consultants wrote. Those agencies could react by demanding an audit of TINCAN.

Finer said TINCAN has been a pioneer in providing electronic access to the poor and rural residents. The network always has had the ability to provide state-of-the-art graphics, he said, but Michaelson deliberately avoided the technology because it would compete with local for-profit Internet providers.

In his letter, Zimmerman asked interested TINCAN users to send comments on the plan by e-mail to adminsig@tincan.tincan.org or to call Zimmerman at 359-2201 or Raymond Soltero, dean of the College of Science, Mathematics and Technology, at 359-6244.