THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702010571
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 66 lines
Over the past 15 years, the volunteers of Norfolk-based Operation Smile have trudged everywhere from desert outbacks to inner-city slums to repair the facial disfigurements of 40,000 poor children across the globe.
For the most part, it has been a story told in past tense. Operation Smile's supporters have had to wait for the group's latest newsletter or hope for a brief newspaper article or TV spot to learn the results of trips to faraway places.
But starting Monday, if all goes as planned, Operation Smile will use the power of the global Internet computer network to give people all over the world a day-to-day glimpse inside its latest mission to the Philippines.
Using a digital camera, Operation Smile volunteers and staffers plan to document each day's events and post the photos on the group's World Wide Web site (http://www.operationsmile.org). Every day, at about 5 a.m. Hampton Roads time, a new set of images and accompanying text should appear.
The result, if it works as expected, will be a daily documentary-style look inside a drama 13 time zones away that will be both heart-warming and heart-wrenching. On the mission that runs through Feb. 23, a team of 155 medical volunteers on the mission will provide free reconstructive surgery to an estimated 1,000 children. But that's just a fraction of those who will likely seek surgery, says Lisa Jardanhazy, Operation Smile's communications manager.
She is hoping that the group's Internet exposure will help recruit more volunteers and donors so even more children can be helped in return trips to the Philippines and new missions elsewhere.
``I think if we can give people an immediate taste of what goes on in these missions, it's going to go a long way,'' she says.
Nevertheless, Jardanhazy only cautiously talks about the planned Internet documentary. Few such efforts have been tried on this scale, she says. Something may go wrong.
But it won't be for lack of help. Olympus America Inc. lent the camera and related software. Norfolk-based Robertson Technology Inc., a computer-consulting company, provided two notebook computers and other hardware needed to store the digitized images.
Larry Robertson, owner of the Norfolk company, said he has arranged with an Internet services provider in the Philippines for help on the ground. Robertson plans to shoot and process the photos through Feb. 11, when he'll return to Norfolk. Then Operation Smile staffers and other volunteers that he plans to train will take over.
Robertson says he can't wait to get started. ``We don't know exactly what is going to go on these Web pages until we get there,'' he says. ``To me, that's what the real excitement is.''
Some other Internet sites of local and regional interest:
Chesapeake Bay-Net (http://www.chesbaynet.com). Based in Columbia, Md., this site launched last October claims to be the most comprehensive online directory of the bay. Restaurants, tourist spots, marinas and yacht brokers are among the 2,000 listings. There's a handy events calendar and a selection of crabmeat recipes.
Bigbook at Greater Hampton Roads (http://www.greaterhamptonroads.com). Agent Knowledgebase Associates Inc., a Virginia Beach-based Web site developer, linked with Bigbook Inc. for this directory of local businesses. Bigbook is one of several large developers of online Yellow Pages directories. Another such developer, Zip2 Corp., teamed with The Virginian-Pilot's Pilot Online for a local site called BizSearch (http://www.zip2.com/bizsearch/). MEMO: Staff writer Dave Mayfield can be reached at 446-2270 or by e-mail
at dmay(AT)infi.net