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Government and Communities
From the District's Mount Pleasant neighborhood to sprawling Howard County, residents can find a Web site focused on their community. Some are run by governments, others by entrepreneurs. Many have photos and colorful maps. And all feature reams of both practical and pointless information, depending on your interests.
The Mount Pleasant Virtual Community page, for example, lists bus schedules and the names of police officers who patrol the area. Alexandria, on the other hand, offers a summary of the fiscal 1997 budget and copies of the mayor's latest press releases.
The State of Maryland offers electronic directories allowing you to look up minority businesses or quickly find the phone number of any state employee, while Virginia provides a comprehensive index of bills introduced this year in the General Assembly.
None of the government-run sites in the region, however, allows residents to pay fines or apply for permits on-line. In Maryland, unlike Virginia, the legislature has not jumped on the Web, but all Maryland state agencies are in the process of getting e-mail accounts that will allow residents to communicate with them.
Although Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) and the county executives in Montgomery and Howard counties have posted their e-mail addresses, there's no guarantee of a reply. When The Post sent messages to all three in May, only Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker (R) responded. Several messages to Glendening were returned, apparently because the governor's computer was unable to accept messages.
The District government is still building its site, which it plans to launch this year. An Alexandria firm called JC Computer Services says it maintains the "Official DC Home Page,"name is different in address but city officials said the site is not formally sanctioned by the mayor's office, and the site has not been accessible in recent days.
Every area county ....has a community-oriented Web site, although some are not official government sites. Montgomery, Howard and Arlington counties and the cities of Alexandria and Annapolis have government-sponsored sites. Others are run by volunteers, small businesses or Internet service companies, including Southern Maryland Online, Loudoun On-Line, Middleburg Online and Alexandria on the Net. Often it's hard to tell who runs the services, because many commercial guides also provide detailed government information, and some government sites are on commercial networks.
That sort of collaboration can have beneficial effects. The Potomac KnowledgeWay Project, an alliance of local businesses, governments and nonprofit groups, offers discussion groups and a comprehensive list of links to local Web sites on its Crossroads site.
Alexandria Electronic Community (government)
Alexandria on the Net (commercial)
Maryland Electronic Capital
Annapolis Electronic City Hall
Arlington County Government
Howard County Government
Fairfax County Government
Loudoun County Democratic Committee
Loudoun On-Line
Middleburg Online
Montgomery County Government
Mount Pleasant
Potomac KnowledgeWay's Crossroads
Prince William County Web
Southern Maryland Online
Virginia Community Networks
Virginia Government
Washington D.C. Home Page
WebColumbia
Transportation
For a growing number of commuters, the information superhighway is making driving on some of the Washington area's real—and most congested—roads a little easier.
Still images from 16 video cameras focused on Interstates 395, 495 and 66 in Virginia are available on a site maintained by Erol's, a local Internet service provider, and Pacific Sierra Research Corp. The cameras are operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation and are trained at some of the nastiest patches of roadway, including the Woodrow Wilson and 14th Street bridges, as well as the intersections of I-66 and I-395 with the Capital Beltway.
Erol's plans to add nearly 30 more locations in coming months and is considering providing other information compiled by VDOT, including average traffic speed, congestion predictions and full-motion video clips from the cameras.
Like most Web sites, the information isn't always available or up to date. On a recent morning, some of the images from Erol's were more than three hours old. And the images can be difficult to see at sunrise and sunset.
In Maryland, the Montgomery County Department of Public Works offers on-line images from three of its cameras on Routes 355 and 118.
Other sites frequented by local drivers are the national "Speedtrap" and police car registries, both of which include sections on Maryland and Virginia. The first registry lists, in no geographical order, locations where police departments have most commonly been spotted apprehending motorists for speeding, based on e-mail notes from local drivers. The "Cop Car Registry" describes in detail the types of patrol cars, including unmarked ones, driven by officers in various area departments.
The region's two commuter rail systems, MARC and Virginia Railway Express, have sites listing schedules, fare information and services they provide. The VRE site even has a quiz to test riders' knowledge of the system.
Metro has no Web site, but maps of the subway system are available from a host of other sites. The most helpful Metro-related resource is a "subway navigator" designed by a man in France that allows you to find out your route and travel time after entering your departure and arrival stations.
The Metropolican Washington Airports Authority recently launched a Web page for Dulles and National airports that has terminal maps, transportation information, links to airlines' home pages and information about construction projects. Baltimore-Washington International Airport has its own professional-looking site with a detailed map, links to airlines and, like Dulles and National, a connection to Alamo car rental's on-line reservation system.
The Virginia and Maryland departments of transportation also have easy-to-use sites. In addition to standard information about road projects and driver safety, Virginia's allows users to e-mail local transportation planners and to view a map of highway construction areas statewide.
BWI Airport
Cop Car Registry
Erol's Traffic Cameras
Montgomery County Traffic Cameras
MARC (Maryland Rail Commuter Service)
Maryland Department of Transportation
Metro subway map
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Subway system of Washington D.C. (Subway Navigator)
Virginia Department of Transportation
Virginia Railway Express
Personal Home Pages
No matter where he travels on business, Doug Thompson makes sure to update his Web site every day. Using a laptop computer, he has added files from a Manila hotel room, the San Francisco airport and other far-flung locations—all in a quest to keep his on-line newsletter about local and national politics timely.
Thompson, 48, a communications consultant and former journalist who lives in Arlington, runs one of the most popular Washington-focused Web sites, raking up more than 10,000 visitors a day. Every night he writes two or three new stories after spending hours reading wire service reports, talking to well-connected friends and doing his own research. He peppers his Capitol Hill Blue site with color photographs and catchy, animated graphics.
Thompson is one of dozens of area residents who have used their home pages as something more than a new way to write about themselves, by creating useful and entertaining sites that people other than their friends actually take time to look at.
"It's really designed for anyone who stumbles across and wants to read it," Thompson said. "I know I'm not CNN. I'm just trying to cover stuff around here the mainstream media isn't interested in."
Some of the best personal efforts can be found through the D.C. Power Brokers site, which showcases top-quality pages nominated by local users. The guide is part of the Washington, D.C., Personal Home Page Registry, which is a large, searchable list of area residents' personal sites.
Those with a sweet tooth may want to taste Shellie Holubeck's "I Need My Chocolate!" page, which lists her 10 favorite chocolate desserts at area restaurants. Holubeck, a Web page designer who works in Bethesda, also has posted her favorite chocolate recipes and links to other chocolate-related sites.
Another site offers more unusual information.
Bob, a 28-year-old Alexandria resident who asked that his last name not be published, runs a guide to "sex services" in the area called Decadent City Online. His page has reviews—written by himself and others—of local adult theaters, massage parlors, escort services and street prostitution. One section warns of "known prostitute ripoffs"; another allows people to place personals seeking long-lost escorts.
"There are a lot of people that seem to be in search of the services I make reference to in my site," said Bob, whose site is one of several focusing on Washington's sex scene. "It's an effort to coordinate those seeking services with those providing it."
Christis Loizou's page also is a guide of sorts—to seven area cemeteries. Loizou, a computer consultant who lives in the District, has posted pictures of the burial sites, dates of the oldest graves and his personal comments about each.
"People may think its a little strange," Loizou said. "But I get a lot of people looking at it anyway."
And then there's Steve's Ant Farm.
Standing in the shower early last year thinking about how to spice up the site for his Web design business, District resident Stephen E. Chambers decided to buy an ant farm and place it in front of a video camera connected to his computer. Visitors can see up-to-the-minute, black-and-white images of the ants in action.
"I just did it because it's fun and I could do it," Chambers said. "That's what most people are doing on the Web."
D.C. Cemeteries page
I Need My Chocolate!
Capitol Hill Blue
Personal Home Page Registry
Steve's Ant Farm
Tom Howder's Maps of D.C. area
Staff writer Dan Beyers contributed to this report
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