Wellington Community Net Hosting Policy

Background

Wellington Community Net (WCN) provides free web site hosting for not for profit and community groups based in the Wellington Region. WCN is administered by the Wellington Community Net Trust (WCNT)

WCN is made possible by sponsorship provided from the New Zealand School of Business and Government, local businesses, grants from local authorities, and other bodies.

WCN has no paid staff; volunteer expertise provided by members of the community is used to administer and support the website hosting service.

Wellington Region

Wellington Region is defined as that part of the North Island of New Zealand falling inside the administrative boundaries of the Wellington Regional Council.

Eligibility for website hosting

Access to WCN is limited to not for profit and community groups, who promote participation in civic life and community activities and are based in the Wellington Region.

WCNT has sole discretion to approve or not approve an application for a website to be hosted on the WCN server.

Evidence of non-profit operation

When assessing the eligibility of a group WCNT will require evidence that the group is not operated for profit. This evidence may be obtained from the registers of charities and incorporated societies. Where a group is not registered as a charity or an incorporated society it will be incumbent upon the applicant to provide evidence to the satisfaction of WCNT.

Evidence of compatible objectives

WCN has the objective of supporting eligible groups to promote participation in civic life and to enhance and empower the community socially, culturally and economically. When assessing the eligibility of a group WCNT will require evidence that the group’s objectives are compatible with its objectives.

Evidence of location

WCNT will require evidence that the group is based in the Wellington region. For many community groups this will be self evident from their close links with their local community.

Groups which operate outside of the Wellington Region but have their official postal address within the Wellington Region shall be eligible. It will be incumbent on such a group to demonstrate the extent of their operation in the Wellington region by providing evidence.

Ineligibility for website hosting

Individuals are not eligible for website hosting.

WCN website hosting service

WCN provides the following services:

1. The ability to publish a website consisting of html pages, images etc developed using an offline tool transferred to the server using ftp.
2. The ability to publish a website using an approved content management system based on Fantastico installed software, and/or, with the agreement of the Trust: perl, php and MySQL technologies.
3. An email system which will forward email to an external email address. Users do not have a full email account like a commercial ISP would offer.
4. A mailing list facility.
5. DNS servers for hosted websites.
6. WCN does not backup individual website accounts. WCN backs up the entire server. It is the responsibility of the site owners to backup their websites.

Fantastico installed software

The WCN Trust is concerned to maintain a secure and efficient system for all users. This requires that only well maintained secure software is installed on the server.

Using the Fantastico installation and update service provides the Trust with a high level of confidence that this requirement is being met.

Where groups wish to use software not installed through Fantastico then prior approval from the Trust is required. In considering whether to approve a particular software solution the Trust will consider the following factors:

1. Is an equivalent package available via Fantastico
2. Is the proposed package a current, well supported, package either by an active open source community or a commercial provider
3. Prior experience with the same package
4. Scripts developed by individuals shall have their code reviewed by an independent developer appointed by the Trust. If a suitably qualified volunteer cannot be found to conduct the review the group proposing the script shall pay any costs incurred by the Trust.

The Trust shall appoint a Technical Coordinator who will be responsible for all software approval.

If subsequent to approval any software is found to cause security or performance issues then the Trust shall withdraw approval and the group must remove it from use immediately.

The Trust’s decision to approve or not approve an application shall be final.

Support

All support for hosted websites is provided by volunteers, which imposes limitations on the response time a user can expect. A roster of volunteers will monitor the overall operation of the server and deal with any issues which arise.

Users shall not approach the WCN hosting partner, the New Zealand School of Business and Government, for support with their website.

User group support

The WCN website will be used to provide general information such as:

• A list of Frequently Asked Questions and answers.
• Documents explaining how to do common tasks.
• A forum and wiki where users can share questions and answers with peers.

Users will be able to lodge requests for assistance through a Help Desk system on the WCN website. Requests for assistance will be responded to by volunteers in rotation.

Domain names

The wellington.net.nz domain

WCNT will provide free of charge a sub-domain under the wellington.net.nz domain.

e.g. for a group called my-not-for-profit-group WCNT will provide free of charge a domain name of the form my-not-for-profit-group.wellington.net.nz.

Own domain name

WCN will only host websites in the .nz first level domain name space.

Where an organisation wishes to use its own domain name it is advised to consult the NZ Domain Name Commission policy on the appropriate choice of a second level domain.

WCN will only host websites in the following second level domains:

• ac.nz
• geek.nz
• gen.nz
• health.nz
• iwi.nz
• maori.nz
• net.nz
• org.nz
• school.nz

WCN will NOT host websites in the following second level domains:

• bank.nz
• co.nz
• cri.nz
• govt.nz
• mil.nz
• parliament.nz

It is the responsibility of groups to register their required domain name and pay any related charges. WCN is not a domain name registrar and therefore does not handle domain name registrations.

Advertising

Groups shall not use their website for advertising except for occasional fund raising activities incidental to their core activities.

Groups shall not include advertisements from on-line advertising agencies such as Google, Yahoo, etc.

Groups shall not use their websites to advertise other organisations commercial activities

Groups may place the logo of their significant sponsors on their website. It must be clear that these logos relate to sponsors and not general advertising

Behaviour

Groups with websites hosted on WCN:

Must

• Keep demand on server and network resources within reasonable bounds
• Agree to remove any material that is unreasonably expensive to access. (This includes software libraries, streamed video and other 'data heavy' content).
• Adhere to best practice in administering their website to ensure that all necessary security and performance issues are addressed
• Maintain proper security and access controls on all their files and directories on the WCN server.
• Keep all software and scripts up to date with the latest versions.
• Agree to a review of their website if required by WCN administrators and cooperate with them to rectify any shortcomings.
• Provide WCNT with two nominated contacts, one of whom will be the person responsible for the technical operation of the group website. These contact details must be kept up to date. WCN support must be informed by one of the nominated contacts of any changes to those details. Failure to do so may result in the website being suspended or ultimately deleted.
• Agree to be contacted by email and phone about matters associated with the group's use of WCN.

Must not

• Infringe the copyright of any person or organisation
• Host material that is offensive or overly negative, or of a discriminatory, racist, sexist or pornographic nature.
• Condone, endorse, facilitate or in any other manner promote or encourage any breach of the law
• Access, tamper with or, alter any sites on WCN other than their own, or to copy or intercept email messages for other groups.
• Install any software or scripts that could impact the safe operation of the WCN server.
• Setup any kind of automatic redirect to a site not hosted by WCN.

Logos

All user websites shall display the following logos:

• WCN
• Current sponsors of WCN

Information on how to display these logos can be found in Getting Started - Logos

Abandonment of website

WCNT will periodically attempt to contact each group to confirm that they wish to continue using WCN.

WCNT will use the two nominated contacts provided by the group and any email contact point on the groups website. If no response is received within 4 weeks the website will assumed to be abandoned and the account will be suspended.

If the group does not respond after a further 4 weeks the account will be deleted and any DNS records relating to the domain name will be removed.

Should the group wish to return to WCN the request will be treated as a new application and if approved a new account will be created.

Non compliance with WCN policies

Where WCNT has reasonable grounds to believe that a group is not operating its website in accordance with current WCN polices WCNT will take the following steps:

• Contact the nominated persons for the group and ask them to rectify the situation.
• If the nominated persons do not respond the WCN account will be suspended
• If the problem is impacting on the overall operation of the WCN service the account will be suspended immediately.

The above steps may be taken by any of the volunteers authorised by WCNT to administer the WCN.

A volunteer taking any action to suspend an account shall report the issue to a WCNT trustee immediately.

When an account has been suspended WCNT will nominate a Trustee to work with the group to resolve the issue.

Where the issue cannot be resolved the group shall be offered an opportunity to attend a meeting of the WCNT trustees to have the issue discussed before a final decision is taken.

The decision of the WCNT shall be final.

Acceptance

If you apply for free webhosting on WCN and your application is approved then you are deemed to have read, understood and accepted the above terms and conditions