Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 25, 1992 TAG: 9202250271
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE BLACKSBURG EXPERIMENT
WORLD-OF-TOMORROW scenarios have been around for most of this century. The New York World's Fair of 1939 depicted Americans living in domed cities, zipping to market and back in little personal aircraft. The years just after World War II were filled with predictions of technological wonders. A decade ago, the prospect was of a cashless society where we'd transact all business electronically.Tomorrow hasn't come quite yet, not in these regards. But tomorrow does have a way of arriving, especially if we work at it. Such is the premise, and the promise, behind the "Blacksburg Electronic Village" concept unveiled at Virginia Tech last month.
Tech and the town of Blacksburg are partners with Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. in a six-month feasibility study of the idea. The vision is of every dwelling, business and school in the community of 32,000 people - town and university - electronically linked with each other for conversation, commerce and other interchanges.
With one cautionary proviso, it's a vision well worth pursuing.
Blacksburg, for one thing, is a natural site. Because of Tech, an extraordinarily large proportion of its residents are already linked by computer network. While a smart road cuts travel time, the smart community would reduce the need for travel, among other benefits. It's a special attraction here, where physical isolation and long distances are facts of geography.
Many potential services wouldn't be available or commercially feasible for years, even given the critical mass of computers already hooked up in Blacksburg. (For example, don't hold your breath until you can buy items picked out with the help of video cameras.) Still, it's clear that ultimately - not tomorrow, but not decades away - it may be as difficult to get along without electronic access to information and consumer services as it would be today to get along without a telephone.
Which brings us to the proviso. Let's acknowledge up front that newspapers, including this one, have a commercial interest in the future of the information-services marketplace. Regional telephone companies are a potential competitor - already are, in some respects.
Even so, it should be clear to everyone that competition, and thus the public interest, would be served by maximum, free and fair access to the lines over which new electronic services will become available.
It should be clear, too, that if government-protected Baby Bell monopolies start providing information services over the lines they control, they could be in a position to compete unfairly, ultimately to stifle competition.
Strong regulatory safeguards would be needed to discourage such behavior. Or, even better, the regional phone companies could remain common carriers, leasing cable space to information-service providers.
Think of fiber optic networks as a single pipeline, through which will be transmitted most of the information Americans receive - video, data, text and telephone. Ensuring free flow of diverse information through this pipeline is crucial to the future of democracy. Early electronic experiments, such as Blacksburg's, should not afford contrary precedents.
The feasibility study is a great idea. The Blacksburg experiment holds immense promise for Southwest Virginia - not just in new and exciting ways of doing things, but as a generator of economic development.
Consider that Tech scientists and engineers, with support from Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, are doing important work with fiber and electro-optics - while companies such as ITT, Alcatel, Galileo, FiberCom, General Electric, Litton and others are engaged in fiber-optics-related research and production down the road.
If the joint C&P-Tech-and-town study finds it feasible, Blackburg's electronic-village project could prove a national prototype, attracting business and industry wanting to be on the edge of innovative technology in the Information Age. All the more reason to develop it as a correct prototype, promoting full competition among information services.