(excerpted from Rochester Free-Net's Original Bylaws)

PURPOSE

The purpose of the organization shall be to form a reliable public access educational electronic information system for the greater Rochester, New York area with the cooperation of governments, businesses, educational institutions and the public to:

  1. Provide electronic access to governmental and non-governmental public information presently available only from diverse digital and non-digital sources in the community;
  2. Provide computer telecommunications training and ongoing support for users of the system;
  3. Provide equipment and training in its use to public libraries, public schools and other public outlets at the discretion of the Board to enable easy access to the system;
  4. Provide a source of lifelong learning without regard to age, educational level or other barriers;
  5. Create and distribute tele-learning programs with access to educational information in various fields without regard to time of day or distance from the source;
  6. Bridge the social, economic and geographic barriers that keep persons from sharing information;
  7. Furnish a means of fostering an on-line electronic community for the greater Rochester, New York area with connections to local, state, national and international sources of educational and informational electronic data;
  8. Make available a means of electronic information exchange between members of the public and their elected representatives in all levels of government;
  9. Provide a reliable, private electronic mail system for the exchange of information by and among users of the system and the world electronic community;
  10. Collect, reproduce, catalog and distribute public domain and shareware software; and
  11. Provide a public forum for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience in the field of computer literacy at all levels of technical expertise.