(Re)visions of the village: building and participating in the Blacksburg Electronic Village

Abstract

The Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) project was established as a partnership between C&P Telephone of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the town of Blacksburg. In this thesis, I describe the formation of this partnership and the evolution of the project from early 1991 to the spring of 1996. The focus of this thesis is on the technical and policy decisions made in building BEV and on the involvement of the Blacksburg community. Several understandings, or visions, shaped and influenced how builders designed BEV and how the local community learned about it. These visions were described in the press conferences and media descriptions of the BEV project. The BEV Vision Statement included images of the project as a new marketplace, a place for electronic collaboration, a futuristic town, and a way for citizens to reconnect to their community.

While the partnership is no longer the defining aspect of the project, the original partners were able to generate enthusiasm for the project and to create a market for information services in Blacksburg. They created the electronic village first and then asked residents to come rather than involving the villagers initially in the construction. The BEV project has now entered a new phase where villagers, volunteers and local companies play a greater role in BEV’s direction. This story of the BEV project provides some observations about envisioning, building, and participating in an electronic village.