The Blacksburg Electronic Village

Describes a project to link an entire town in the USA with a comprehensive “twenty‐first century” telecommunications infrastructure. Argues that this is a prototype for future“electronic villages”, which will encourage and nurture the development of applications. Emphasizes that the prototype will exemplify: first, inclusion of the whole community, to achieve a“critical mass”; second, focus on interactions between people, rather than technologies; third, provision of applications tailored to each type of user; and fourth, implementation on a timely basis. Provides examples of possible applications, with benefits to the community.