THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090450
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Hampton Roads met the rest of the world on the Internet Thursday, as local organizers offered up photographs to an international project documenting the use of computers during ``24 Hours in Cyberspace.''
Photographs of computer users throughout the area were placed on a locally produced World Wide Web page, and were submitted for possible inclusion in the international project. ``24 Hours in Cyberspace'' was to have posted pictures from around the world on the Web Thursday night for viewing through the weekend. Later, they will be gathered into a coffee-table book as part of the acclaimed ``Day in the Life'' series.
One hundred photographers were contracted for the project, but free-lance pictures, such as those taken in Hampton Roads, were to be considered.
Here, Sue Page Knapp, who runs Page 2 Public Relations, arranged for Virginian-Pilot photographer Motoya Nakamura to shoot the pictures, and for those pictures to be posted on their own Web site. Knapp said she hoped the local efforts would promote Hampton Roads throughout the world.
Among those photographed for the local project are Robert Schihl, Cmdr. Roy J. Balaconis, Steve Goad and Gene Waters.
CHESAPEAKE - Dr. Robert Schihl expects to hear from Taiwan soon. And Canada. And California.
Though his office is here, at Regent University, he has students in all those locations and more, studying for doctorates in communications through the Internet. His students read what he writes, prepare their own papers, do research and discuss each other's work via computers. Regent's program is the first in the world to merge an on-campus program with an Internet ``distance'' class, Schihl said.
``To think the only education occurs in the classroom, sitting at the feet of the professor - it's past,'' Schihl said. ``I think it's a better experience than on campus. I really believe that the distance group is better prepared (for their classwork).''
Schihl's students use their computers to do research in libraries around the world, chat with each other through electronic mail, critique each other's work and question the professor. Schihl does much of his teaching from his home, where he is less likely to be interrupted, but his students don't miss a word.
``It's more interaction than you get in the classroom,'' he said. ``I'm very excited about it. It's the future. It's happening.''
ABOARD THE USS MITSCHER - The computer room is dim, and the screens on the wall cast brown and blue light across the captain's console.
From a seat deep within the destroyer, the location of every Navy ship is tracked constantly, even while the ship is in port, as it was Thursday in Norfolk. Combat commands can be sent via computer instantaneously from Washington. Missiles can be tracked, targeted and launched.
Commander Roy J. Balaconis has his own computer monitors, two of them, in his living quarters.
``We try to use the computers for two things - in war, fighting, but more importantly, to make the ship run more efficiently,'' he said. ``This is both my living quarters and my work quarters. Tactically, I can see what's going on. I get immediate situational awareness coming out of a dead sleep.
``We live and die by the computers.''
NORFOLK - Steve Goad is preparing for guests by setting up 400 computers with direct links to the Internet. When Norfolk plays host in April to an international organization of city managers and staffs, Goad will be there to teach them how computers can make the world a single community.
Goad, assistant director of continuing education at Tidewater Community College, tailors computer classes for local businesses. The April conference will be his biggest class.
``The Internet is totally revolutionizing our society,'' Goad said. ``Now's the time to get people demystified, give people an idea on how they can use it in their lives.''
Some cities use the Internet to promote themselves as tourist attractions and business locations. Anyone with a personal computer and access to the Internet could easily see just what that city has to offer, he explained.
``The computer is basically just another communication tool for people to use. That's really what the Internet is all about. It's not a huge techno outer space thing where you've got to be a Ph.D. to operate it. It's becoming more and more user-friendly every day.''
CHESAPEAKE - When Gene Waters wants to examine a General Assembly bill that might affect his neighborhood, he boots up his computer and, within seconds, is reading the legislation.
If it's important to his colleagues in the Hampton Roads Coalition of Civic Organizations, he might mark it on the group's Web home page for others to see. Waters, president of the 250-league coalition, is introducing the membership to the ease and convenience of communicating by computer.
``When we want to work together on issues we can e-mail each other and we can share information via our home pages,'' Waters said. ``In the past, we've had a large force of people but they haven't been communicating very well. Now we can share.''
The home pages provide basic information on each civic organization, who the officers are and what issues are being discussed. Waters can update the membership within minutes of a meeting by typing information on his computer. He has already alerted them to next week's meeting and discussion of a regional sports arena. Members can read the pertinent General Assembly bill as well.
``This is just a real excellent way to make the whole Hampton Roads community a lot closer,'' he said, ``and not only that, the world.''
Hampton Roads photographs taken for submission to ``24 Hours in Cyberspace'' were to be posted on the World Wide Web at http://akainc.com/hamprds/index.html
The Web site for the international project is http://www.Cyber24.com ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, The Virginian-Pilot
Kevin Herbert, who works in database management for the destroyer
Mitscher, operates a web program that helps the ship find hostile
vessels quickly. ``We try to use the computers for two things,''
ship commander Roy J. Balaconis said, ``in war, fighting, but more
importantly, to make the ship run more efficiently.''
by CNB