Thomas College Partnerships Bring Central Maine
                               to the World
                                    
Waterville, Maine---March 12, 1996--- Maine's Secretary of State's Office has
had 3400 requests for information on their World Wide Web site within the past
three weeks, thanks to Thomas College.  A small, private business college in
Waterville, Maine, Thomas is providing the ability for business and economic
organizations to market themselves on the World Wide Web.  The Information
Services staff at the College creates their web sites, maintains the information,
and links their sites to other sites in Central Maine.   Besides the Secretary of
State's Office, the College has created and maintains sites for  the Mid-State
Economic Development Corporation (490 requests in the past three weeks) and
the Maine Chamber & Business Alliance (430 requests).  By providing this
service, the College hopes to strengthen the economic development of the
central Maine region.
      At the same time that the College was creating a presence for these
organizations on the Web, it was helping them gain access to the Internet.  The
College entered into a partnership with a local Internet access provider, The
Maine Internetworks, which currently has over 100 modems and 4 dial-in local
access areas.   The Maine Internetworks houses its point of presence in the
College's computer center.  
      A high speed Central Maine Wide Area Network (WAN) is now being
developed to allow these organizations to communicate with each other. 
Thomas College, along with The Maine Internetworks, State Cable TV, and the
Waterville School System, has developed a WAN with 10 Megabit, high-speed
coaxial cable lines.  This network allows information to be transmitted at
ethernet speeds among anyone connected within the cable TV area.  This is
one of the first networks of its kind in the country.  The technology will allow
educators to share resources, to video conference, and to send and receive
information over 300 times faster than a standard 28.8K modem. Thomas
College can be found at http://www.thomas.edu/ 
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