Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411140049
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Long
Most of that technology is concentrated in Northern Virginia, Robert G. Templin said. But Virginia Tech in the New River Valley are doing much of the leading-edge research in technologies such as fiber optics and wireless communications, he said.
Virginia lacks a source of venture capital to invest in new technologies, Templin said. Because the initial investment comes from out of state, the investor pulls the technology out of Virginia once it has proved itself and takes it back to where the investing industry is located, he said.
``You see the paradox that's involved here,'' Templin said. ``I mean, here we are where it's happening and we don't have a plan to use it... Here we are, the generator of much of the technical knowledge that is going to be important to the world, and we haven't been able to access that.''
Templin was the final speaker at the session on communication technology in the New River Valley.
Previous Vision 2020 meetings have looked separately at economic development, education, environment, land use and transportation, and social services. In planning this year's session, said Dave Rundgren, executive director of the New River Valley Planning District Commission, ``it became apparent that there is one element that kind of ties all that together now.''
Communication technology even affects such projects as a planned regional jail, which would be tied electronically to sheriff's offices and courts with video,fax machines and other communications devices to cut the need for transporting prisoners back and forth as frequently, Rundgren said.
Templin said Virginia needs a statewide telecommunications plan if it is to attract high-tech industry. Ninety percent of what is needed is already in place, but Virginia has more than 20 telephone companies that lack the coordination to tie telecommunications together statewide, he said.
``We literally are sitting on top of a gold mine in knowledge production,'' he said. ``We only need to figure out how to use it.''
He said he hoped CIT could be part of that, although Gov. George Allen's strike force has targeted future funding for the 10-year-old organization. The center, located in Northern Virginia, was set up to transfer technologies developed in research centers like Virginia Tech to business and industry. Templin said it has been successful but has not been good at publicizing its successes. ``We're going to be trying to take a clear look at that.''
Pat Jackson, research associate in information technologies at Virginia Tech, said that fiber optics communications lines were being laid at the rate of 600 miles an hour in the nation as of 1992. Fiber optic lines can carry much more information than regular telephone lines.
``At some point, I think, here in Southwest Virginia, you're going to have fiber to the high schools,'' she said.
The New River Valley apparently has a lot of fiber optic linkages in place, she said, but it is sometimes difficult to know precisely where it is. She suggested that the State Corporation Commission might look into requiring telephone companies to make that data available.
The Blacksburg Electronic Village is one example of what can be done with a telephone company-university-town partnership, she said.
Once the communications infrastructure is developed, she said, ``it's really going to change the way that we learn in the future ... Some of the businesses I've talked to in the New River Valley are poised for this type of service.''
Hoechst-Celanese in Giles County has 200 people with computers who could work from their homes with the right communications infrastructure in place, she said. And the technology exists for college and universities to be taught that way, with the infrastructure. ``You can have education anytime, any place, anywhere,'' she said.
New River Community College has been a pioneer in that very thing, said Tom Wilkinson, distance learning education director. Many of its students are using videotaped lectures and other innovations to take courses at home on their own schedules.
``Technology is just the tool to make that happen,'' he said. ``What is important is what you do with the technology.''
By 1996, he said, the community college will be offering a 24-hour local government and education cable television channel in partnership with Pulaski County and the towns of Pulaski and Dublin. If it had been in place for the 2020 meeting, he said, ``we could be putting this out live.''
Other plans call for ``seamless'' education opportunities ranging from the General Educational Development degree for those who didn't finish high school to doctoral programs. Technology can be used for interactive instruction to students at the school's Christiansburg center and to links with other colleges and universities. Business and industry could allow courses to be taught at their sites over interactive communications lines.
Much of this is tied to the college's Center for Economic Development, now under construction on the Dublin campus.
Technology can also be used to advertise the New River Valley to prospective industry and tourists, said Daria Dittmer of the Planning District Commission, who previewed a multimedia program on the region.
The program, viewed on a computer, allows the viewer to choose options and move from one subject area to another. ``We want people to be able to travel through here however their thought processes go,'' she said.
The demonstration showed how a viewer could get visual and print data on items ranging from Radford University's College of Global Studies to the antiques, art and other attractions now available in downtown Pulaski.
``This is a very adaptable presentation. It evolves as the region evolves,'' Dittmer said. The commission is looking into the possibility of having it available to people driving on Interstate 81 or the Blue Ridge Parkway to show them what is in the valley.
by CNB