THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604060006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
When hundreds of city and county administrators come to Norfolk late this month for a national conference on making local government more efficient, the city could present an ordinary workshop on ways progressive local governments use the Internet. An instructor might demonstrate Internet uses while workshop participants watched, with thumbs twiddling.
But local officials wanted something that would blow the socks off visiting officials.
Peter Mark Shaw, director of continuing education at the Norfolk Campus of Tidewater Community College, suggested a daylong conference offering every participant hands-on experience using the Internet. The city manager's office said fine, if that was possible. And it was - barely.
Thanks to tremendous public and private cooperation and contributions, the workshop will have 400 powerful personal computers, each connected to the Internet, so every participant will receive a day's worth of hands-on experience, along with instruction. The workshop will be April 27 at Ruffner Middle School.
As far as anyone here has been able to discover, no one has ever offered hands-on Internet training on that scale before, and for good reason - it's expensive and difficult to arrange.
Arranging the workshop required seven months of planning. Contributions from public sources and 12 local companies, both in labor and materials, total $3 million, including $1.3 million from Cox Cable. Among other things, Cox donated the 400 high-quality personal computers. Bell Atlantic and Cox laid fiber-optics cable.
A top Navy Internet expert, Cmdr. Gary Ryan, helped with planning. He attended one meeting the day after discussing computers with Secretary of Defense William Perry. The Navy is contributing 800 manhours toward installation of the computers.
Four different Internet providers, normally competitors, are cooperating to connect the 400 computers to the Internet.
The TCC Norfolk Campus, which over the past two years has taught 2,000 people to use the Internet, was recruited to teach 32 instructors for the conference and create the courses. The 32 instructors, all volunteers, come from Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk school systems.
Others involved include WHRO and the technical staff at Ruffner Middle School. The workshop is an out-of-the-blue bonanza for the school and the whole city (see editorial below).
The Internet workshop is an adjunct to a larger conference called ``Transforming Local Government.'' That conference begins the evening of April 27 and runs through the 30th. It will focus on using management and technical innovations to deliver government services cheaper and better. One example: A city's Internet site, if attractive and informative, can be a powerful tool in recruiting business and industry.
By having the Internet workshop, local officials say, they are ``walking the walk'' - not just saying but showing possibilities.
The whole conference is sponsored by four groups, including the city of Norfolk and the International City/County Management Association. About 600 of the association's members are expected. The Internet workshops costs an extra $95, and more than 200 of the association members have signed up. The rest of the slots are expected to go to any local residents who would like to learn to use the Internet.
To learn more about the conference, see http://www.visi.net/icma on the World Wide Web or call Heather J. Stone, a Norfolk city management analyst, at 664-6620.
The Internet workshop is a classic example of what can be accomplished when public and private officials become enthusiastic together and seek to do the extraordinary. At the center of the workshop preparation, keeping everyone pointed in the same direction, was Ron Hodges from the city manager's office.
It was far from obvious last September that all the financial and technical obstacles could be overcome, but they were, to the credit of everyone involved. by CNB