Pennsylvania has produced a way-new atlas that maps the state's voice, data, and wireless information highways, just as traditional atlases chart highways, airports, and railroads.
Governor Tom Ridge on Thursday unveiled the unique Technology Atlas, a comprehensive electronic road map of Pennsylvania's information pathways.
"We're using this new tool to illustrate the expanding high-tech infrastructure available to our schools, municipalities, hospitals, and employers," Ridge said in a statement.
The atlas is a combination mapping system and database freely accessible on the Web. The customizable system lets users select which types of information byways they'd like to see displayed for any part of the state.
The Technology Atlas shows the exact location of more than a million miles of fiber-optic cable, cellular-phone service, and Internet access networks. It also pinpoints more than 900 microwave towers, videoconferencing sites, and corporate wide-area and local-area networks.
The project began in 1996 as a way to ensure that state money spent to network public schools would not duplicate infrastructure that was already in place. As the project progressed, state officials realized the data they were collecting could be used to woo businesses that critically need access to high-tech information.
"Employers looking to move or expand in this day and age are just as interested in the availability of Internet access and advanced telecommunications services as they traditionally have been in the location of interstate highways and train stations," Ridge said.
Data-collection teams identified nearly 11,000 organizations that own, rent, lease, or sell technology resources in Pennsylvania: telecommunications companies, schools and universities, public utilities, local governments, state agencies, and other public and private organizations across the state.
The resulting 400 million-byte database will be maintained and continuously updated by staff at the University of Pittsburgh.
