The MTN Monitor
Minneapolis Telecommunications Network, Inc. 125 Southeast Main Street | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
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MTN ... Moving Ahead

The MTN staff and board would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you, our dedicated and loyal members, for another successful year. As we move ahead, I believe it is important to revisit our organizational mission, which in part states: "MTN strengthens community by encouraging creation of and access to programs and information using electronic technology."

When I watch our local news stations I see so many unpleasant and often violent events depicted. When my own neighborhood, Powderhorn Park is discussed it is usually crime related, yet that is not my experience on a day to day basis. In the commercial news industry, sensational stories sell and these stories are often negative. It is this negativity that increasingly influences how we feel about our community. I have been pleasantly surprised at the number of community events that I have attended onl y to find someone there gathering footage with a MTN video camera. Whether it be political rallies or street fairs, someone takes on the task of capturing the event for our viewers. It is this profound desire to share our community, in all of its comple xity, with each other that keeps MTN alive and thriving.

In the last couple of years many new members have joined MTN with the same aspirations, but a slightly different electronic medium. MTN's River Project now hosts 157 World Wide Web sites on the Internet. These sites represent non-profit, social service, arts and civic organizations, all vital community members - instrumental in strengthening both our city and state. We find this new medium to be exciting and challenging. Unfortunately, we also find that not all of our citizens have access to th e Internet. It is our intention to remain an Internet Provider for the above mentioned organizations. It is also our intention to offer low cost training to all citizens on Internet use and WEB site design. As with our public access television channels we will continue to affirm the First Amendment on our WEB sites and honor all of the diverse voices seeking a forum from which to be heard.

As 1997 advances, we, at MTN, re-dedicate ourselves to our mission and ask all of you for your continued support in "strengthening our community". Pamela Colby MTN Executive Director.

In this Issue:
MTN Page One: MTN ... Moving Ahead
Page Two: Ask the Engineer, MTN Bash
Page Three: MTN Profile
Page Four: Programming Notes
Page Five: Email to all Monitor Readers
Page Six: Training Notes
Page Seven: Thank You Members, Thank You Donors