The Internet Center is open from 9:00a.m. – 5:00p.m. every day except Saturday and Sunday. It is located in Room 78 of the Petrozavodsk Palace of Children’s Creativity and is equipped with full ventilation and security systems provided by the Palace. The Internet Center administrator, Nadezhda Romashina postmaster@petrodtd.karelia.ru, has been tracking usage since the opening of the Internet Center. Based on the usage log of the Internet Center, over 2200 hours of computer time has been logged since the opening of the center last June through the end of February 1999. Approximately 60 users frequent the center on a regular basis. They have registered electronic mailboxes. Additionally, the center meets a constant flow of walk-ins with computer knowledge.

The most interesting project currently being implemented with the aid of the Internet Center is the creation of an NGO which will aid women in crisis. This group of six women has banded together in order to provide services to women in crisis situations such as domestic violence. They use the Internet Center (they currently have no office our computers of their own) to print out information, research other organizations providing similar services and create documentation for the legal creation of the NGO.

When designing the Internet Center, it was built it in a way so that the amount of computers in the network could easily be expanded. In September of 1998, two local Peace Corps volunteers wrote a mini-grant to increase the capacity of the Internet Center by adding two workstations. There is a small pool of mini-grants for Peace Corps volunteers to implement projects which are not in their area of focus. The Petrozavodsk Peace Corps volunteers were awarded this grant in December of 1998 and two new computer stations with furnishings were added to the Internet Center in January of 1999. The addition of these computers has greatly increased the capacity of the Internet Center. Based on the user logs, there are many points during which the Internet Center is at full capacity and all 5 workstations are in use.

Based on the need of the users, Nadezhda Romashina – the Internet Center administrator - and Scott Topash - the local Peace Corps volunteer - use the Internet Center to provide small training sessions to adults on such topics as Windows 98, electronic mail, Internet usage and general computer maintenance.

The week of March 8, 1999, Project Harmony’s technical coordinator, Vasiliy Fokin, from Moscow was in Petrozavodsk assessing the technical aspects of the computer center and checking for Y2K compatibility. All hardware and software was found to be compliant with Y2K specifications. However, Mr. Fokin found several inconsistencies with the configuration of the network with standard computer configurations for such networks. Mr. Fokin consulted with members of the company which is currently providing technical support for the network of the Internet Center. Based on this consultation, the computer network has worked with fewer problems. The main problem is that there are few Windows NT (the operating system of the network) specialists of high caliber in smaller cities. Project Harmony is working through these problems with the local company which provides network support and these problems are being remedied. The primary concern is keeping the Internet Center open to the public and this has happened despite various technical inconsistencies in the computer configurations.

Project Harmony no longer supports the Internet Center financially. However, Project Harmony is dedicated to providing technical consultations and content-related support to the Internet Center in order to ensure its ongoing success. The Palace of Children’s Creativity currently pays the salary of the Internet Center administrator and is responsible for the purchase of printer cartridges and general maintenance.

Project Harmony recently received the grant award for Russia for the "Internet Access and Training Program (IATP)" from the United States Information Agency. This program will work with existing Public Internet Access Sites throughout Russia and bring them together in a cohesive union to increase their effectiveness for the community and USG program alumni. The Internet Resource Center in Petrozavodsk is, in essence, an IATP site. It allows alumni of Community Connections programs and other community members working on projects which better the community. Inclusion of the Petrozavodsk Center in the IATP network will give it greater meaning and a broad network of contacts through the IATP network.

The IATP grant funding will focus not on the technical aspect of the Public Internet Access Sites, but rather on the content of the work being conducted in the Public Internet Access Sites. During the needs assessment portion of the Internet Access and Training Program, Project Harmony staff, USIA and the Palace of Children’s Creativity will decide on whether or not the Internet Center will be inducted into the IATP network. All indicators point to this being a strong possibility as it will be an excellent means to continue the work of the Internet Center in a more advanced and supportive setting.