THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 14, 1994 TAG: 9411120031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: The Gateway: To the computer world
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
LAST WINTER, as Hampton Roads residents rode out repeated arctic blasts, a group of area residents warmed to an idea: Get businesses, government agencies and educational interests on the Peninsula and the Southside talking to one another on a new computer network. But do it fast and do it cheap - free, in fact.
It's taken about 10 months, but the Southeastern Virginia Network, or SEVAnet, has come on-line. This ``freenet,'' organized by an amalgam of business people, research scientists, university faculty and civic boosters, is composed of a series of electronic hubs called nodes.
Internet explorers can cull local information on technology, education and government. Under development is a business-to-business node and a regional node, where statistical databases that include census and economic information will reside.
On the technology node, for instance, net surfers can track some of the programs and projects under way at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility in Newport News, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley Research Center in Hampton and the state-sponsored Center for Innovative Technology in Fairfax County.
According to SEVAnet chair Bill Winter, a government professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News (where the net physically lives), plans are to open a virtual electronic cornucopia for average and professional folk alike.
``You're looking at a living organism here that will take two to five years to develop and become really robust,'' Winter said. ``We need to work very hard to make sure everyone has a chance to access this system and use it.''
SEVAnet architects were apparently inspired by the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV), an ambitious attempt to cross-connect Virginia Tech students and faculty with the greater Blacksburg population. One of BEV's key objectives, shared by SEVAnet, is to provide easy access to Internet and other worldwide computer nets.
Plans call for SEVAnet nodes containing calendars of community events, public meeting times, minutes of public meetings, museum and library holdings, and detailed economic development information. Eventually, SEVAnet patrons might be able to take college-level courses online.
Christopher Newport is doing that right now, offering 15 for-credit classes in government, urban politics, American politics, public administration, Spanish, philosophy and writing, among others, on its own campus system.
Organizers are in the process of assembling various components to expand SEVAnet's capacity. They'll also be on the hunt for donations and grants to upgrade service. At the moment the only way into SEVAnet's databases is through a direct connection to the Internet or a dial-in service provider such as InfiNet, Pinnacle or America Online.
Winter says personal computer users without their own Internet connection should be able to connect to SEVAnet via modem by early next year.
One of SEVAnet's goals is to encourage the growth of the virtual corporation, which in Hampton Roads would mean the on-line cooperation of groups of smallish firms working together on a proposal or project.
``People go out of town and out of state for services and don't realize they're right down the street,'' said Duncan McIver, director for marketing for Eagle Engineering, Inc. and SEVAnet vice chairman. ``That's the power of this thing.''
Winter says there are about 50 registered freenets around the world and a handful in this country. SEVAnet may eventually charge for technical assistance and training, and perhaps for access to highly specialized databases, but for now and for the foreseeable future, it's a toll-free stop on the information superhighway.
To get into SEVAnet, you need Internet access and a program to browse the World Wide Web, such as Mosaic or Lynx. Point your browser to the following address: http://www.sevanet.
You can also find a quick link to SEVAnet by calling up this column on the Computer Page of the Pilot Online.
Last week this column gave the wrong web address for Vice President Al Gore's cartoon collection. It should be: http://www.whitehouse
html/Cartoon.html. MEMO: Computer users can also find SEVAnet on the Virginia Online page of the
Pilot Online. See page A2 for details.
by CNB