`ELECTRONIC VILLAGE' PROPONENTS MEET TO GAZE AT FUTURE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 12, 1993                   TAG: 9301120124
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
`ELECTRONIC VILLAGE' PROPONENTS MEET TO GAZE AT FUTURE
Partners hoping to turn this college town into the country's first "electronic village" gathered in the Municipal Building on Monday to talk about the next phase for a project that could link people and businesses by computer.
It was a striped-tie affair, with politicians, college presidents and Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. executives pumping hands and talking about a future they say is not so far away.
Nearly a year ago, administrators from the town, Virginia Tech and C&P announced the possibility of this venture that eventually would allow people to conduct transactions electronically with stores, banks and travel agencies - even pizza places.
Since that time, they have conducted a feasibility study that ended with a commitment to the project, a financial commitment from C&P and organizers saying essentially: "We were right; this is a good idea."
The difference between the two news conferences - the one a year ago and the one Monday - was largely a difference of tense.
"We might do this," they said last year. In '93, the slogan changed to: "We will do this."
Now, said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, we are talking about reality.
"The results will be closely observed throughout the country," Boucher said, fist clenched. "This is a dramatic new development. Now we can move forward."
The success of this experiment will depend on how frequently people will use the new services it provides. Then, too, said C&P Telephone President Hugh Stallard, who repeated several times that the project needed more partners, it will depend on how many businesses and companies start offering services through the network. Virginia Tech and its partners are looking for companies interested in testing new computer services through the village network.
The test will start with people who could benefit from computers the most: Blacksburg's school children.
As early as the fall, students will be able to access a computer bulletin board where parents could check for students' homework assignments or upcoming PTA meetings.
Stallard said C&P also will become a partner with at least one local apartment owner in Blacksburg to install a local area network for tenants.
The system will use fiber optics in some areas, but in many, the same, basic copper wiring already put in place by the phone company.
People are "hungry" for new services, said Stallard.
In the future, visionaries see a computer network where patients, convalescing at home, could transmit blood pressure, temperature and other symptoms to a doctor for diagnosis. Students could receive class assignments or read articles and even textbooks on computer from the comfort of home.
Boucher said that since the village was first publicized, Charlottesville has set up a task force to study a similar project there.
The United States has set a target date to have a fiber-optic network set up and running by 2010, in hopes of beating the Japanese who have put aside money for such a network there.
The project here already has begun, and services will expand each year.
"We really don't know the full potential yet of the electronic village," said James McComas, Tech's president. "But it will let us go around the world."
In the past, telephones have helped us "reach out and touch someone," McComas said. Now we will be able to learn as a result of that touching.
But a computer cannot replace caring, McComas said. Computers still will need to be backed with a human face.
"Things happen when conditions are right at the right moment," said Blacksburg Mayor Roger Hedgepeth.
C&P has contributed $6 million toward the project, though some of the services likely would have been provided even if the electronic village did not exist, said John Knapp, director of economic development and partnership initiatives for C&P.
Some of the services will be free to users. Others will come with standard fees and others will vary in cost according to the services used.
"Part of this trial is to determine people's willingness to use the services and willingness to pay," Knapp said. "That will help determine the kind of rates you will see."
Economically, the village will ease communication for small businesses, McComas said. It also could attract more highly technical industries to the area.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB