[Greennet-l] 2009 Christmas Newsletter

[GreenNet Support]

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    GreenNet Christmas Newsletter 2009


GreenNet would like to wish all our members a very peaceful, happy and 
healthy holiday time.  The GreenNet office will be closed from 24th 
December until 4th January, although the technical team will be 
monitoring the system daily.  If you have any urgent problems, please 
call us on +44 (0)20 7065 0942 and leave a message on our answer phone 
or email support.  We will try to help you as far as possible.  Make 
sure you include any error messages that you are getting and your email 
address.

We hope you are able to turn off your computers and enjoy the holiday 
(don't leave them on standby!).
With warm wishes from all of us in the GreenNet Collective,

Anna, Cedric, Howard, Ian, Liz, Mimo, Marek and Sharif.


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    GreenNet Broadband now even better value


Many you have switched to GreenNet's fast and reliable Broadband deal 
since we began offering it a couple of years ago.  But did you know that 
the connection just got better?  We are now offering an unlimited 
monthly download package at the same price as our previous 2GB monthly 
limit, just £24.50 per month.  As always you get GreenNet's full 
technical support for your broadband as well as any other GreenNet 
service you have it bundled with (email, web hosting, etc.).  To switch 
to us and support GreenNet through your broadband connection visit: 
http://www.gn.apc.org/services/adsl


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    New Sites



GN's gallery of new web projects 
<http://www.gn.apc.org/services/gallery> is proudly listing lots of new 
sites this year - with better organised content that's easier to find, 
creating more impact.  Edited highlights including sites for Fern 
<http://www.fern.org>, Paulo Longo Research Initiative 
<http://www.plri.org>, Women Living under Muslim Laws 
<http://www.wluml.org>, Development in Practice 
<http://www.developmentinpractice.org>, Asian Foundation for 
Philanthropy <http://www.affp.org.uk> and Quakers in Britain 
<http://www.quaker.org.uk>.


Many of the projects have been developed in partnership with our 
wonderful design colleagues at wave <http://www.wave.coop>.  We've been 
working together on sites since 2007 and the collaboration has brought a 
new creative dimension to our project planning work and much more 
beautiful designs for the finished sites.  Technical advances have also 
allowed us to come up with better options for multi-lingual content; 
improved searching that guides users through their search; online 
bookshops and subscription tools for taking orders and processing 
payments; and integrated newsletter tools for easy mass mailing to 
members and subscribers.


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    Greening IT



      GreenNet uses low-power server

GreenNet's efforts at reducing our environmental impact this year have 
had some modest successes and some frustrating obstacles - searching in 
vain (so far) for a UK green data centre, with predictable resistance 
from the owners of our data centre on switching to a green power supply, 
and no response yet from Dragon's Den to support us in reducing the 
carbon footprint of our hosting set up.  We know that some providers are 
using carbon offsetting (buy a tree for each server somewhere on a tree 
farm) but we've always believed that if emissions are worth reducing we 
should really be doing it ourselves.  And so we've been looking more 
seriously at how we can make the most difference.

Luckily our long-standing bike, bus and train habits mean that we're 
already on track with transport.  And our office building in Leonard 
Street has a very good standard of low-power use, low-water use, 
composting and recycling.  The impact of reduced-energy hosting on 
carbon emissions is relatively minimal.  For instance, using the lift 
less often to get to the 5th floor of our building is probably greener 
than some of the measures we looked at!  Nevertheless, every little 
counts and we have invested in a new server that saves approximately 
two-thirds of a normal 1U machine 
<http://www.itpro.co.uk/607056/verypc-greenserver-janus-ii/2>, which is 
an exciting development for all of us here (not just the geeks...).  Let 
us know if you're interested in greener hosting options, and also send 
us your own energy-saving suggestions. 


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    New Billing System


We are pleased to announce GreenNet's new billing system which will be 
on stream early in the new year and will replace the now aged system 
which was somewhat past its use-by date.  More details on its benefits 
will be announced soon.  We are also taking this opportunity to review 
our subscription services to make them more flexible and user-friendly.  
Look out for these in 2010.

Regrettably VAT returns to 17.5% in January.  Please note this will be 
shown on invoices dated after 1 January 2010. 

And finally thanks to all of you for your continuing support!

With warm wishes for 2010 from all of us in the GreenNet Collective

------------------------------------------------------------------------
GreenNet supports a progressive community working for Peace, the 
Environment,

Gender Equality and Social Justice, through the use of Information

Communication Technologies (ICTs).


GreenNet, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT

UK Tel:  0845 055 4011

Intl:    +44 20 7065 0935

Fax:     +44 20 7065 0936

Registered in England & Wales, Company No. 02070438



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