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                        THE BOULDER COMMUNITY NETWORK


The Boulder Community Network is intended to be a comprehensive web of
information and communications services that apply  information technology
to the greatest benefit of all Boulder County citizens.  The BCN will
provide on-line access to local and national information for the general
populace in order to promote civic participation, educational excellence,
economic vitality, and community involvement.

The BCN is a cooperative effort involving Boulder educational, civic, and
corporate entities.  Organizations and individuals are being invited to
participate, including the University of Colorado, the public broadcasting
stations, Boulder Public Library and other regional libraries, the Daily
Camera, the Boulder Valley School District, the City and County
governments, the United Way, the Chamber of Commerce, other community
organizations, the Knight-Ridder Information Design Lab, Apple Media Labs,
local BBS and communications providers, and national labs.

At the core, the Boulder Community Network will provide information on
topics ranging from weather and ski conditions to city and county
government regulations and meetings,  lifelong learning opportunities,
district school and univerity information, calendar of events, health
services, etc.  Access will also be provided to library catalogs, listings
of corporate facts, medical information, and other repositories.  In
addition, information resources on the Internet will be available to the
community users.

Around this core will be a number of public and private services that will
disseminate the community information and augment that base with additional
databases and enhanced services.  For example, both commercial network
providers such as Colorado SuperNet and OneNet, and local BBSes, such as
the BCCC and the Denver Freenet, can provide the same data, along with
value-added services such as personal login accounts with electronic mail,
and customized interfaces.

Among these service providers will be a "safety net" of public access
points, ensuring that all members of the community will have the ability to
obtain information freely.  These access points will be based on kiosks
placed in libraries, governmental and educational sites, as well as in
commercial locations throughout Boulder county.  In addition, dial-up modem
access will be provided to a central server of the information.

The Boulder Community Network will also serve as a living laboratory into
key issues of the information age.  Researchers at the University of
Colorado, principally in the Schools of Journalism and Computer Science,
will investigate topics from the organization of popular information to the
impact of various interfaces and the adaptation of newspaper tools such as
editorials and advertising to electronic delivery.  Students in classes at
both CU and in district schools will have the opportunity to participate in
the production of materials for the BCN and the analysis of its impact.  In
order to develop a deeper understanding of how the alternative
architectures for civic networks may vary among diverse communities, the
Boulder effort will be aligned with a similar one in the Western-slope
community of Gunnison.

Boulder, with its singular mesh of advanced technology organizations and
computer literate population, represents a unique opportunity for an early
look into what may be the new metaphor for the old "town square": a place
where citizens can come to learn, share, and be informed about whatever
concerns each of them.

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