Date: Fri 23-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Internet-EDC-World-Wide-Web

Full Text:

EDC Plans To Promote Newtown On The World Wide Web

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Economic Development Commission (EDC) is formulating plans to launch the

town into cyberspace with a Newtown "home page" on the Internet's World Wide

Web.

Elizabeth Stocker, the town's economic development director, said Wednesday

the town will be provided with free Internet posting service for its home page

by ZipLink, a Hartford computing firm.

The Internet is an extensive international computer network made up of

thousands of other smaller, business, government and academic computer

networks. People with a personal computer and computer modem are able to

connect to the Internet via telephone lines.

The EDC wants to electronically publish information about Newtown on the World

Wide Web promoting the town as a good place to do business, Ms Stocker said.

The EDC wants to create a home page to attract people to Newtown from an

economic development standpoint, with an emphasis on bringing new tenants to

the Commerce Road business area and to the vacant Fairfield Hills campus.

Information about various sites available for industrial and commercial

development, as well as marketing information about Newtown, will be available

to people with "web browser" software, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft

Explorer.

Computer users with access to the Internet will be able to glean both textual

and graphical information on the Newtown home page which also is known as a

"web site."

The town's home page will be "hotlinked" to other home pages to provide

related information to Internet users.

The information will augment data about the town which already is published in

economic development advertisements in special-interest magazines such as Area

Development and Business Facilities.

After the town's home page is established with economic development

information as its content, the town's presence on the World Wide Web can then

expand to provide various types of community-based information, Ms Stocker

said.

Information to be posted on the Newtown home page will be reviewed by Ms

Stocker. The information will be updated as needed to keep the data fresh.

Residents who don't have a personal computer with access to the Internet would

be able to view the Newtown home page or any other Internet sites on the Booth

Library's computers.

The Internet service company known as ZipLink has agreed to provide Newtown

with connections to the Internet for two years for free. After the two-year

period, a monthly service charge of $75 to $100 is anticipated. Newtown

resident Gurdev Sethi of ZipLink has explained Internet details to EDC

members. Sethi, the company's Internet business products development manager,

will help the town get connected to the Internet.

Also, town resident Ann Hearn, the software development manager for Daprex,

Inc, will advise the town on the Internet project.

The town is seeking approval for an Internet "domain name" or computer address

which will allow computer users with Internet access to connect to the Newtown

home page. A domain name is an exclusive-use address for gaining access to a

home page via computer modem. The town is awaiting confirmation of its recent

domain name request.

The Internet project will allow the town to monitor how often computer users

view the town's web page.