BEV in a Box
These services are provided to the community as a part of BEV in a Box:
Community Web Site Hosting
Each community receives web space and server administration for a community web site. This is a full service, permanent site with nightly backups, complete statistics reporting, full text search engine, and 125 megabytes of space.
Community Web Site Design
BEV web design staff will design a community web site in collaboration with the Technology Leadership Team. The BEV will elicit input from the committee, develop an overall site design, develop pre-coded HTML templates for all content areas on the site, and provide training to the committee on how to update and maintain the pages.
Community Village Mall
The BEV will provide an automated online business directory (identical in functionality to the BEV Village Mall) for each community to help local businesses gain more recognition online, especially from local customers. The BEV Village Mall is the most popular part of the BEV web site, and use continues to rise steadily. Local businesses can create and edit their own entries/links--no manual support is needed. The look of the pages will be fully integrated into the community web site.
Community Group Web Sites (Community Connections)
The BEV will provide community and civic groups with the same web site hosting services that the BEV provides in Blacksburg. Currently, over 150 organizations use BEV Community Connections services.
The BEV will set up an online registration system so that no local technical or setup support is required, and will provide the community a URL (e.g. civic.ourtown.org, or whatever is requested).
Groups receiving a Community Connections account get:
- A web site (up to 20 megabytes of text and graphics)
Sample URL: http://civic.yourcountyaddress.net/yourgroup/
- Two permanent email addresses for group use (with forwarding, if
needed), and webmail access.
Sample address: yourgroup@civic.yourcountyaddress.net
- A broadcast mailing list that makes it easy to send messages to your
members (up to 100 subscribers).
Example: yourgroup@civic.yourcountyaddress.net
Please note: This package does not include web site design and development. Community groups are responsible for the development of their own web site.
Online Community Calendar
The BEV will provide each community with an online, interactive community calendar. The community web site committee will be able to add, delete, and update events as needed. The calendar will be integrated into the main web site.
Online Community ("Villager") Directory
The BEV will provide an automated online directory (identical in function to the BEV Community Directory). The directory allows individuals and organizations in the community to create and maintain their own directory entries, which include their name, e-mail address, and URL/link to a web site (if one exists). Directory entries can also include telephone numbers and addresses if the person/organization wants to share that.
Online Discussion Forum
The BEV will provide a complete online forum system for use by community and civic groups and local government. Online conference systems make it easy to talk about and organize community projects and initiatives, to hold town meetings about important issues, or just to help people meet and learn about their neighbors.
Virtual Business Incubator
The BEV will provide a Virtual Business Incubator service to help home-based and microbusiness enterprises (businesses with fewer than 5 employees) get started. This service is similar to the Community Connections service.
Groups receiving a Virtual Business Incubator account get:
- A web site (up to 20 megabytes of text and graphics)
Sample URL: http://vbi.yourcountyaddress.net/yourgroup/
- Two permanent email addresses for group use (with forwarding, if
needed), and webmail access.
Sample address: yourgroup@vbi.yourcountyaddress.net
- A broadcast mailing list that makes it easy to send messages to your
members (up to 100 subscribers).
Example: yourgroup@vbi.yourcountyaddress.net
Participating businesses will also receive marketing and business management assistance to help understand how to successfully integrate the Internet into their business.
Please note: This package does not include web site design and development. Businesses are responsible for the development of their own web site.
