DATE: Friday, October 24, 1997              TAG: 9710240802

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   55 lines

LAWMAKERS SEEK TECHNOLOGY ADVICE BUSINESS COMMUNITY PUTS IN ITS TWO CENTS.

Wayne Baer bristled that it took him an hour-and-a-half to get from Virginia Beach to Hampton Wednesday, a trip that by his reckoning shouldn't have taken more than 45 minutes.

The day before, a transportation-related snag delayed a key package delivery to his company - Beach-based Oceana Sensor Technologies - for hours.

On Wednesday, appropriately enough, Baer was on his way to a talk on technology issues facing the General Assembly.

Now's the time for folks like him and others in technology-related businesses to make their voices heard by politicians, said speakers at the event.

``It's your responsibility to tell us what needs to be done, if anything,'' said Del. Alan Diamonstein, a member of the General Assembly's Joint Commission on Technology and Science.

``You are the future of the Commonwealth,'' he told the audience - mostly members of Hampton Roads' high-tech business community.

``You are going to change the face of the Commonwealth.''

Since the late 1970s, the General Assembly has attempted to grasp the impact of technology on the state's future, authorizing a slew of committees, task forces and work groups through the years.

In 1984, the General Assembly created the Center for Innovative Technology, a non-profit corporation. Under the aegis of the state-funded Innovative Technology Authority, which has an annual budget of $10.8 million, CIT hooks up businesses with the Commonwealth's high-tech resources.

Through it all, politicians have groped to find the precise relevance of computers, microchips and high-speed data networks to the Old Dominion.

Today the picture is much clearer: Northern Virginia is nationally recognized as home of information technology giants like America Online and Internet pioneer UUNet Technologies; computer chip maker White Oak Semiconductor calls Richmond home; Hampton Roads lays claim to federal labs, several technology-oriented companies and a wealth of higher educational institutions.

Sensing that technology's role in the lives of Virginians is only going to get bigger, the General Assembly formed JCOTS in July. Its task: explore high-tech issues and perhaps come up with the legislation to deal with them.

Among other issues, the commission is looking at state funding for more high-tech training - a hot-button topic as Virginia looks to home to fill job spots.

Locally, the Hampton Roads Technology Council is soliciting the opinions of business in a ``legislative and planning issues survey,'' accessible through the council's website at (www.hrtc.org).

The program marked the Hampton Roads Technology Council's first ``Technology Tigers'' Breakfast. For information on upcoming events call HRTC at 757/631-2978. MEMO: News researcher Diana Diehl contributed to this report.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu