BLACKSBURG, Va. — In sheer size, the Village Mall in Blacksburg, Va., would put many big-city shopping malls to shame. Ninety-one businesses hang their shingles there--one-third of the town's commercial establishments.
You won't find a Neiman Marcus or a Bloomingdale's--the town only has 36,000 people, after all--but there's no shortage of places to spend money on items ranging from clothing to floral arrangements.
Locals drop by the mall to scan the latest videotapes. If they're looking for a place to live, they can check in with a real estate agent to peruse apartment floor plans or view photographs of houses for sale.
The odd thing about this mall is that it doesn't exist in the physical world. It is but the most conspicuous feature of the growing, first-of-its-kind cybercommunity of Blacksburg.
Don't be confused. Blacksburg is a real place. Located 40 miles southwest of Roanoke in the mountainous western part of Virginia, it is where Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University is located, home of the fighting Hokies, last year's second place finishers in the Big Eastern football conference.
But Blacksburg--or more precisely, the Blacksburg Electronic Village--is also a computer construct, a virtual town overlaying the real one. It is a place where folks may hunt for apartments or apply for municipal permits without leaving home, where they can view offerings at the local florist on their computer screens and then order them with the click of a mouse.
Alas, the electronic Blacksburg doesn't have a football team, but its residents--13,000, and growing--soon will be able to order groceries via computer and have them delivered to their door. If they want, they can leave standing orders: The store will deliver the same items on the same day every week and charge it to a credit card.
Proponents of the Internet--the network linking computers worldwide--have always lauded its ability to turn the world into a global village, to allow someone in, say, Fresno, to exchange e-mail with strangers in Istanbul or browse a library in Dallas. But creators of the Blacksburg Electronic Village say they are doing something revolutionary: harnessing the power of the World Wide Web to strengthen the ties that bind a real village.
In doing this, the network's creators say, they are redefining the meaning of community.
