Sally Blessing and Greg Eiler started a nonprofit, pornography-free Internet provider in Teays Valley last summer. Membership is growing among Putnam County parents, and now the pair are part of the planning for a new countywide electronic village.
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| STEVEN
ADAMS/Sunday Gazette-Mail Sally Blessing and Greg Eiler started a nonprofit, pornography-free Internet provider in Teays Valley last summer. Membership is growing among Putnam County parents, and now the pair are part of the planning for a new countywide electronic village. |
By Tara Tuckwiller
SUNDAY GAZETTE-MAIL
Jan. 17, 1999
In just nine months of offering pornography-free Internet access, Christian Internet Services has seen its clientele balloon -- especially among Putnam County parents.
Now, county business leaders are making plans with the Teays Valley Internet provider to launch a countywide electronic village, offering one-stop information on everything in Putnam County.
The concept is still in its infant stages, said Gayle Vest, director of the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce. Plans should be more concrete by March, but right now planners envision something along the lines of the much-publicized Blacksburg Electronic Village in Blacksburg, Va.
In Blacksburg, where the network is supported by Virginia Tech and a combination of grants, residents can log on from their home computers or free terminals at public libraries. One site provides links to everything from area job listings to government agencies.
"We've been talking about it for a while," Vest said. "It just is a good way to market Putnam County to residents outside the county or state, and provide information for the people who live here."
Putnam's electronic village would cover not just one city, but government agencies, businesses and organizations countywide. Several individual pages exist now, including an extensive Web site maintained by Putnam County schools. Other organizations have only skeleton Web sites now, and they're not consolidated into one easy-to-find site.
County government is already looking at getting involved in the project, said County Manager Linda McClanahan.
"It would be up to each elected official," she said, "But what I would like to see is a listing of services provided by our offices, what you need to get the services, how to apply. It would better prepare people when they come to the courthouse."
Preliminary plans indicate that each government agency could be represented for about $220 a year, McClanahan said. Vest said planners may apply for grants to help fund the project.
Christian Internet Services may or may not become the Internet provider for all county offices, McClanahan said, although she approves of the screening process.
"I think the screening would make for a more efficient operation," she said.
Two local residents, Sally Blessing and Greg Eiler, started the nonprofit enterprise last summer. Eiler approached Blessing with the idea after he noticed that his son's innocent Web search for a Christian music group called "For Him" turned up some graphic sites dealing with homosexuality.
Eiler and Blessing attend the same church, but they say Christian Internet Services isn't affiliated with any religious group.
"It's about traditional family values," said Blessing, who quit her job as a church secretary to work full time with CIS. Eiler, a former vice president of finance for Joe Holland Chevrolet, also works full time with CIS now. Neither receives a salary as yet, although "that's coming," Blessing said.
Blessing said she hopes the Putnam electronic village will offer an affordable way for community groups to offer services via the Internet.
"Otherwise, some organizations like the Boy Scouts or LaLeche League might not be able to afford Internet connections," she said.
CIS subcontracts a national filtering service, which has a staff that filters through new Web sites added to the Internet each day. Staffers tag sites with content that the service considers pornographic, too violent, satanic, or hate-related, Blessing said. They also tag sites that advocate illegal activity, such as bomb-making, and unmonitored chat rooms.
Blessing estimates that the service blocks 30 percent of all sites on the Internet. Blessing and Eiler check some of the sites, too, to make sure they aren't blocking valuable information.
"Initially, our filtering service blocked the Starr report," Blessing said. "We unblocked it."
If a CIS subscriber wants a blocked page opened, they click an on-screen button or call the office. Because an open site will be open for all customers, Blessing said she often opens one only for a short time. For others, she advises subscribers to log on after 10 p.m., and she will make the site available until 8 a.m.
Unlike filtering software, Blessing said CIS doesn't block out every site using certain keywords - such as "sex" - so legitimate sites, such as those on AIDS awareness or gay community organizations, don't get blocked out as often.
CIS already provides service for some of the county's public schools. Blessing said businesses also subscribe, because the service eliminates the sexual harassment liability that is possible if racy sites are displayed on screens. It also eliminates the temptation for a user to "play" on such sites instead of doing class or office work, she said.
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