By Peter Behr and Spencer Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 30, 1995; Page F5

It's grandly called the Potomac KnowledgeWay.

When it debuts next month, it will be another of the proliferating entry points to the World Wide Web, the popular portion of the Internet's global network of computers that provides users with easy electronic access to libraries, data collections and official records.

What could make this venture different are its sponsors and their goal.

Plans for the KnowledgeWay, which were outlined last week, are the creation of Northern Virginia's business, academic and high-tech leaders. They see the Internet's vast information resources as fuel for economic growth throughout the region.

"Our role is to serve as the catalyst," said software entrepreneur Mario Morino, who initiated the project and has financed much of its communications link.

If the plan succeeds, hundreds of area libraries, government agencies, companies, universities and institutions will hook their databanks into the KnowledgeWay's hub. Users will find road maps to locate information within the Internet's often confusing mazes, designed to make the network a part of the jobs and lives of tens of thousands of additional area residents.

"This represents a buy-in by the business leadership," said Taylor Walsh, former executive director of the National Capital Public Access Network Inc., or CapAccess, an area community computer network. Call it the grass-roots Internet with a new, corporate mission statement.

But will the fast-growing, disparate crowd of Internet users choose the KnowledgeWay instead of current entry points? And will a much larger population of ordinary "low-tech" residents find the Internet worth the time and expense of mastering? The fate of the KnowledgeWay depends on the answers.

Morino, one of the Washington area's technology pioneers, built Legent Corp. into the region's largest software developer, until the Herndon company was acquired this year by a New York-based rival. Now his crusade is to use the Internet to create more entrepreneurs, generate more investment in technology, beef up educational performance and help governments and charities provide better service.

The project is backed by the Northern Virginia Roundtable, that area's corporate elite, George Mason University and the Center for Innovative Technology in Reston, the state-supported high-tech incubator.

Last week Morino pinned down the final pledges on an initial $500,000 in outside funding for the project.

The project's focal point will be a Web "home page" that users reach through computer connections from homes, offices or public access centers.

Like other Web sites, the project's page will provide users with text, video and sound. It will be equipped with "search" and "browse" tools to guide us\ers to databases at companies, agencies, universities and libraries across the region.

A trial version will be set up in November with the full service scheduled to begin in March, Morino said. There will be no access charge to users, although institutions that attach their databanks to KnowledgeWay could be billed for special network services.

The KnowledgeWay will be only as valuable as its content, Morino said.

It was unclear, however, how the project would be accepted in Maryland, given that state's economic rivalry with Virginia and its pride in its own information network innovations.

One of Maryland's most popular services, the Department of Education's Sailor network, which connects public and university libraries, receives more than 150,000 queries a week, officials said.

Seeking to build on that base, Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening has directed state agencies to establish links to the Internet by year's end.

Although they have not seen details of the Virginia project, several Maryland government and educational officials expressed interest -- along with some skepticism that any one gateway could serve the encyclopedic interests of Internet us\ers.

"I'm not sure how great the demand is for that sort of comprehensive service," said Dyan Brasington, president of the Suburban Maryland High Technology Council.

Barbara G. Smith, Sailor's manager, said she questioned the appeal of a single entry point to regional data resources.

There are scores of ways to gain access to the Internet now, from commercial services such as Vienna-based America Online and Compuserve to Sailor.

"It's getting crowded out there," said Walsh, now a consultant to CapAccess, whose 16,000 subscribers make it the Washington area's biggest community-based network. Its mission -- spreading information about government and private institutions to the community -- is close to KnowledgeWay's goal.

"There won't be a single Internet page that does everything for all people," Smith said. "It's like trying to collect a whole bunch of ants under one glass."

Several area experts said the project would be welcomed if it helps users cope with the proliferation of information networks in the region.

"There is still a tremendous lack of understanding," Walsh said.

For example, in Blacksburg, Va., although 40 percent of residents and businesses are connected to a multimillion-dollar Electronic Village Project, many remain techno-phobic, fearful of doing more than sending electronic mail.

"We always stress it's a people problem, not a technology problem. The technology is there, it's a matter of teaching people" to use it, said Cortney V. Martin, project information manager.

"If you create a way for people to understand this, you have a way to mobilize the region," Morino said.

Along with the Web site, the KnowledgeWay project includes a big public relations campaign with town hall meetings and briefings for companies and communities aimed at selling the potential of Internet communication.

Part of the message appears meant to reassure Marylanders and District leaders that this is not a power play by Northern Virginia. Originally dubbed "The Northern Virginia Project," the venture was recently renamed to make it more welcome in Maryland and the District.

"We are not here to replace any institution that is in place today, or people or groups," said George Newstrom, a project board member and head of EDS's government services group in Herndon.

Maryland technology officials such as Brasington say they definitely want to take a look.

Jennifer Fajman, acting director of the University of Maryland's Computer Science Center at College Park, said she expects to sign up. "I'll do it, to see if it works. That's one of the beauties of the system. You try things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't."

- Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology

- Virginia's Center for Technology Council

- Northern Virginia Roundtable

- Northern Virginia Community College

- Governor's Regional Economic Development Advisory Council for Northern Virginia

- Morino Institute

- Century Club of George Mason University

- George Mason University