Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994 TAG: 9404050168
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG NOTE: ABOVE LENGTH: Long
The builders of the Blacksburg Electronic Village envision it as an ambitious experiment that provides an entire community with an on-ramp to the Internet.
There, residents can access data beyond measure, talk to people with interests ranging from video games to geology, send a message to cousin Joe in California or President Bill in Washington.
At the same time they can delve into going-ons closer to home, like what Town Council members are saying or when a certain Little League game is scheduled.
The Electronic Village, which went on-line in October, is a ticket to the ``information superhighway.''
But, as with any road, there are potholes. And drivers sometimes have to deal with faulty directions, traffic tie-ups or a towing service swamped with calls.
That translates into difficulties with the network's software, slowness in downloading information, and too few trouble-shooters in the BEV office.
Andrew Cohill, the system's director, acknowledges there have been problems. ``We've had some rough spots. I make no bones about that,'' he said at a recent demonstration of its capability.
The main issue of connectivity - making it smooth, simple and speedy to get into the BEV and the Internet - isn't yet resolved.
The majority of users are trying to get on the highway out of their home computers with modems. And the vast majority of complaints come from those users.
``It's inadequate,'' Cohill says bluntly of using modems. ``We've never said that this is the way we want people to drive on the information superhighway.
``It's like having to hitchhike. It's slow and you don't always know when you're going to get there.''
Even though 500 apartments - four complexes - have been wired with Ethernet, which makes access easier and faster, residents of only 100 of those apartments are actively using the service. Complexes need to better market the service, Cohill says, and they need time to get dwellers in who actually want to use it.
As for staffing, the BEV can't afford to hire more people to help with problems, he said.
Perhaps most critical, without better connectivity, it can't tap into the pool of users that someday may drive the whole program: businesses.
``I'm sort of in between a rock and a hard place with local businesses right now,'' Cohill said, ``and I'm kind of embarrassed about it.''
But despite the network's shortcomings, Cohill insists, ``It's an experiment.'' Partners Virginia Tech, C&P Telephone Co. and Blacksburg don't know - nobody does - if it's possible to network a community together. But they're trying to find out, and that's the most important thing.
``We're just trying to get the whole community jump-started,'' said project manager Joseph Wiencko.
``You can't just do it all at once,'' Cohill said. ``It takes time to figure out some of these things.''
Cohill points out that 800 people have signed up since October, more than he expected. At a demonstration, he walks observers through multimedia applications that will be available shortly.
And he said, ``back in the fall I didn't have a bunch of targets'' to meet.
``I think it's a success right now.''
As always, he and other supporters speak of the project's potential. They cite the project's ambition itself, and the eyes nationwide that are watching it.
Supporters never cease to stress its access to the Internet, as opposed to commercial on-line services such as Prodigy or CompuServe.
With the latter, a customer pays for certain services the company provides and gets a peek into the Internet. With the BEV, a computer actually is on the Internet, with virtually all of its information at the user's disposal.
``As far as we know, there is no other place ... that says that anybody can come in and be a node on the Internet,'' said Joseph Wiencko, project manager for the system.
``We're putting more and more people on the network all the time,'' said Paul Miller, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic. The company has invested $7 million for fiber-optic cable and a digital switch for its central office.
``It's gotten a lot of national notoriety,'' Miller notes; the New York Times and NBC have reported on it.
``We'd like to duplicate it someplace else,'' he said, and if it ultimately proves a success, ``we intend to invest a whole lot.''
``What we're doing right now is really assessing,'' said John Knapp, director of partnership initiatives with Bell Atlantic. ``If you ask my opinion, the demand will grow because people will come to understand the value of the Electronic Village.''
Up to now, he said, ``I think everything has been a tremendous success.'' But the question remains, ``Is there a market? Everyone likes the service, but will they be willing to pay?''
In August, Bell Atlantic will start charging a monthly fee for using the BEV via Ethernet - somewhere in the $10 to $15 range, Miller said.
``At some point we need to start recovering some of our costs,'' he said.
For it to prosper, "we're going to have to learn how to pay for it ourselves,'' Cohill said. ``We can't live off the largess of the university or Bell Atlantic forever.''
And the business aspect is a chicken-and-the-egg problem for supporters to solve.
``Ultimately businesses are going to play an extremely important role ... as both clients and providers of services,'' Wiencko said.
If businesses come on-line, it should entice more residential users on-line looking to buy. But for businesses to come on, they need to know there will be customers out there.
``That's the next challenge - to get businesses on,'' Cohill said. ``It's more than advertising. It's bringing the whole store on the Internet.''
Plus, ``the community really has to take charge if it wants to get a lot out of it,'' said Andrea Kavanaugh, director of research with the BEV. She spoke recently at a round-table discussion of townspeople, and Tech students and faculty.
``Ultimately this is a people project, not a technology project,'' said Wiencko. ``The technology is deployed in such a way as to make the people element happen.''
``The idea is, once someone gets started, they might be able to help someone else,'' he said.
Community involvement - other than users themselves - means volunteerism, helping out each other. Dozens of people are interested in helping out those with difficulties.
Nathan Parrish, a Blacksburg High School junior, is one of the volunteers. He, and others in a group led by Doug Mauer, assist people in setting up their modems, getting acquainted with the software and learning basic commands.
Residents and would-be users should not be so quick to criticize the shortcomings of the network, Parrish said.
``They want to plug something in, throw a switch and have everything running,'' he said. ``A lot of people don't realize what's involved.''
It takes time to figure out how to navigate the Internet and the BEV, he said. And learning from experience is the best way to go.
``I think this is a good way to learn about computers - hands-on experience. But BEV can't come out and hold their hand.''
Specifically, Parrish, who will graduate a year early and enter Tech's computer science program this fall, said people shouldn't judge too harshly the software packages the BEV has put out. Parrish himself uses a different software package.
But then, that's minor when one considers the scope of the BEV's ambition, he said.
``The BEV is not a software package,'' Parrish said. ``What the BEV is doing is providing worldwide access to the Internet.''
by CNB