Report on Technology Forum

Technology Forum
participants at Waynet, Inc.'s annual meeting on Monday, September 25, 2001 included:

David W. Osburn, General Manager of Richmond Power and Light,
Renee Oldham, Executive Director of Main Street Richmond-Wayne County,
Rodger Smith, Technology Coordinator for Richmond Community Schools
Chris Hardie, Principal at Summersault Web Design.

Current Projects Discussed:

David W. Osburn, General Manager of Richmond Power and Light:

As with many companies, technology permeates almost every aspect of our business. RP&L deploys technology throughout our operation to either improve efficiency or in some cases, solve a problem. An example of the later is a current project involving converting our transmission line relaying to state of the art fiber optic equipment. This enables the system to more accurately isolate faults and clear them extremely quickly. Our system reliability has already been greatly improved because of this technology. Software is also at the heart of many of our technologies. Our engineers use software programs to run complicated analyses of our electrical distribution system. An engineer can perform an analysis in a matter of hours that previously would have taken months. RP&L is converting our legacy financial and CIS systems to a system based upon web-enabled architecture. We hope that this will enable us to offer our customers Internet applications in the near future.

The one area of our operation that has gathered the most attention is clearly our new telecommunication venture, Parallax Systems. Through Parallax we plan to offer high-speed communications services with an emphasis on Internet. Parallax will be installing an ATM backbone communications network, with various edge technologies to interface with the customer. Parallax is also negotiating contracts with other Tier 1 providers to provide ample bandwidth into the Internet. It is our plan to establish Parallax as the premier local provider of these services.

Renee Oldham, Executive Director of Main Street Richmond-Wayne County,

Our technology initiative program will result in the creation and implementation of technology zones within the city of Richmond. The primary focus zone will be in Uptown Richmond with the secondary zone being adjacent to but not limited to Old Richmond, Depot area and Historic Starr Neighborhood. The technology zone program will include three phases: a feasibility assessment/economic marketing plan, marketing development and training, once the first two phases are completed. Phase one was completed this past summer.

Rodger Smith, Technology Coordinator for Richmond Community Schools

Currently we are implementing a 5 year 10 million dollar Technology Plan. We are starting year 3 of the plan. Technology in RCS consists of 21 buildings fully networked with internet access in all classrooms, along with voice and video accessibility.

Chris Hardie, Principal at Summersault Web Design.

I'm currently the Principal at Summersault, LLC. As a website development, hosting, and consulting firm, Summersault is always involved in technology-related projects. Our skills and services deal from the lowest levels of network design to the highest levels of software interface design, and so our range of projects is notable. I'm also working with Main Street Richmond-Wayne County on the Technology Initiative, with WayNet.org on its continued growth, and with various other local organizations on technology-related projects.

Return to the minutes of September 25, 2001.

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