Terminal #02 25 июня 1996

Самиздат

Parallels - Blacksburg - a paradise for students and seniors.

                      P A R A L L E L I


 - SERG -


           "E L E C T R O N N Li E D E R E V N I"


          Blacksburg - a paradise for students and seniors



   When a resident of Blacksburg Cameron Gaylord was born, his
Clark's father told the news to friends and family. But do not 
call and no letter. He just went to the computer and typed a 
short phrase: "It's a boy!". Then a few more times touched the 
keyboard, and an e-mail went to 14,000 addresses. 

   14,000 subscribers - it's home computers Blacksburg, a small 
town in Virginia with a population of 35,000. 

   Before you go have lunch with his wife, 69-year-old Dennis 
Gentry sits at the computer and causes the on-screen 
information that What's new in local restoranah.Chto tasty in 
today's menu, which recommends that the chef, where announced 
discounts. Strike by klvisham, movement arm "and the printer 
creeps restaurant coupon. Welcome to lunch! 

   In Blacksburg, the city is around Polytechnic Institute and 
unizhersiteta Virginia, you can not leave home to vote, obtain 
a driver's license or a foreign passport. Not getting out of 
the slippers, and listen to Tchaikovsky concerto performed by 
an amateur orchestra, sound and image excellent quality come on 
the screen. You can walk the halls of the museum, or order the 
book from the library. 

   If you are going on vacation, bleksburzhtsy send an e-mail 
to neighbors asking look after the house, water the flowers, 
remove mail from the mailbox. Fathers arranging meetings over a 
beer on the monitor screen and reconcile their time when it is 
time posting on a fishing trip. 

   "We give people the opportunity to communicate an 
unconventional way, "Says Andrew Cowhill, project manager 
Blekburgskaya electronic village", through which the everyday 
life of this the city was now the most technically advanced in 
the U.S.. - And not only communicate, but also save a lot of 
time shopping and domestic affairs, on the implementation of 
all the boring but necessary duty. " 

   Blacksburg - the "electronic" U.S. city, although apparently 
it is no different from thousands of small towns, "one-storey 
America: a cozy, green, clean and quiet, despite the fact that 
62 percent of its population are studenty.V Blacksburg lowest 
unemployment rate (3 5%), and sociologists make it to the list 
of twenty cities, where having retired, to spend the rest of 
life. But behind the quiet town outside - the raging sea of 
​​the latest achievements and capture the imagination of 
technological experiments. The project "e-village" linked 40% 
of city dwellers with the Internet - and 62% gave access to 
e-mail system. 

   Contrary to the belief that older people are reluctant to be 
attached to the latest and technology, the most active 
"computer people" in Blacksburg  - Pensioners. According to 
opinion polls, they are using electronic communications to 
three times more likely than younger people. Scientists very 
interested in the city and its inhabitants, because of 
"electronic village", in essence, is a model of future American 
society. 84.6 percent bleksburzhtsev believe that the 
computerization of society was divided and not bring people 
together, that today they live more friendly than before.


   To the level of Blacksburg have already reached the city in 
the state Tellyurayd Colorado, Glasgow, Kentucky, Taos, New 
Mexico and Palo Alto, California. They are characterized by 
common features: the presence of more shogo University, a 
network of enterprises with modern technology, a high 
percentage of educated population and relatively small number 
of inhabitants. 


                           / As the world's press materials.