THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090287
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Cities and counties in Hampton Roads will soon have an electronic foot in the door of tens of millions of computer users worldwide.
Network Hampton Roads, an electronic reference guide assembled by two local companies, is scheduled to go on line with the global Internet computer web beginning Thursday.
The network was designed and is owned by Internet Presence & Publishing Inc. of Norfolk. A Virginia Beach marketing company, Media Access Group, helped IPP get local cities and counties involved in the network.
IPP is hoping the network will be an electronic gold mine. While it is putting information supplied by city and county governments on the Internet for free, it intends to charge fees to businesses that are lured into promoting their products or services via the network.
Six Hampton Roads businesses so far have decided to participate in the network, including Taste Unlimited, a gourmet-food retailer; Cellar Door Productions, a national concert promoter based in Virginia Beach; and CI Travel, the region's largest travel agency.
In the past year, businesses all over the world have been scrambling to capitalize on people's increased use of the Internet and other on-line resources to gather information and entertain themselves.
Landmark Communications Inc., parent of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, is among them. It is setting up an electronic marketplace of its own on the Internet through a Norfolk-based company in which it has a controlling interest, InfiNet L.C. Among the participants in that marketplace are GSH Real Estate, The Virginia Diner in Wakefield and the Norfolk Airport Authority.
Keith Basil, president of Internet Presence & Publishing, said his company has spent about 2 1/2 months developing its network. ``We will be replicating this in other areas of the country,'' he said, declining to say where.
Public participants in Network Hampton Roads so far are the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. Forward Hampton Roads, an economic-development agency, will also get a free presence on the network.
``It's something we'll try and see what happens,'' said Ann Baldwin, research director for Forward Hampton Roads. ``It's another means of exposing the region to somebody who might be interested.''
More and more communities are going on line. At least three other Virginia cities - Arlington, Blacksburg and Staunton - already have established their own Internet links.
Hampton Roads governments, schools and regional public agencies are already distributing information to computer users through electronic bulletin boards.
To reach the new Network Hampton Roads, Basil said, one will have to use the Internet's World Wide Web tool and one of two navigational devices, Mosaic or Netscape.
Once there, the first thing that the computer user will see on the screen will be a map of Hampton Roads. He or she will then be prompted to click onto one of the cities pictured. A range of geographic, economic and demographic information will typically be available with a community's ``home page,'' along with listings of tourist spots and calendars of events.
Users who call up business listings will be able to order products or services on line. MEMO: Area Cities Going On Line
Public participants in Network Hampton Roads so far are:
Chesapeake
Newport News
Portsmouth
Virginia Beach
Williamsburg
Hampton
Norfolk
Suffolk
by CNB