US Virgin Islands

• Name of Network: U.S. Virgin Islands Guide
• Web Address: US Virgin Islands
• Region: Serves the United States Virgin Islands and surrounding islands like St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John
• Mission: To be a sort of one stop shop for information and links for government, maps, local businesses, site seeing, and activities. It also has weather updates for tropical systems.
• I cannot find who it is sponsored by. Maybe the tourism bureau sponsors it.
• Again, I cannot tell who runs the site, there is "no contact us" area.
• It does not connect to anything like email, but it does connect you to forum sites to talk about experiences. There are a tremendous amout of links to go to the local businesses.
• Since this is a tropical paradise, a lot of the information here is for tourism, although they do have links to government sites. Since the primary focus is on tourism, the site breaks things up by activity, so accomodations, restaurants, night life, watersports, what to see and do, facts and maps, and real estate. From there, it is broken up by island, so St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John.
• I think it offers little in a sense of place. It was more information based, not based on history or what the residents do. To me, it would be hard to see the difference between activities here and in Cozumel for example. It does not try to be unique, rather just a place for information.
• By far the coolest part of the website is the interactive map. You click on the city or bay that you are interested in, and then it will zoom in and will give you a high definition picture and all the resorts, condos, restaurants, and scuba tours show up. From here you can click the icon of the buisness and it will take you right to that business' website!
• This information was collected by Jack Gerfen

  Silicon Valley

• Name of Network: Silicon Valley-Public Access Link
• Web Address: Silicon Valley
• Region: Serves the Silicon Valley
• Mission: To provide an online community by providing internet, email, and web accounts. It is a non-profit organization.
• Since it is all volunteer, there is a small army of people providing internet access to those less fortunate. There is a board or directors as well.
• The board of directors and volunteers run the site.
• The site offers internet access for a small fee as well as the ability to use email. This is a great, simple tool to get those less fortunate online. Internet access is $65 a year.
• Unlike the US Virgin Island site, where there are a variety of local information available, the Silicon Valley site is simply for getting to the internet. Not really too much on it.
• The site really has no "sense of place" because it is just a portal to the internet. There are a few links to some local services, but the website is very bare bones. There are AIDS resources too.
• There is nothing interesting about this site, USVI blows it away.

  Jack Gerfen