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VICTORIA, BC — Two years after the B.C. government announced its own on-ramp to the information highway, the first traffic is ready to roll.

In the fast lane is the Provincial Learning Network, a $123-million, six-year project which began in April. PLNet will link 1,700 public schools, 22 post-secondary institutions and 20 community skills centres in a telecommunications pipeline to the Internet. Another lane is devoted to a $207-million partnership with IBM which calls for "Big Blue" to open a software development lab in the Vancouver area. In exchange, the company gets access to key "human services" ministries in B.C. — Health; Human Resources; and, Children and Families — to help it develop and implement applications for data management which could be sold to governments around the world. Both projects were sketched out in the province's Electronic Highway Accord, unveiled in 1996.

The accord's objectives include universal, affordable access to communications networks; development of the province's high-tech industry; and increased efficiency in delivering public services.

"High-tech, I don't think, has been on the government radar," says David Hughes, one of the founders of the Technology Industries Association of B.C. "Now it is."

Indeed, says Sue Thomas, communications manager for the government's Information Science Technology Agency, traffic on the provincial on-ramp will soon build to rush-hour volumes. Several additional projects fitting under the accord's umbrella are ready to roll off the conceptual assembly line.

Hogging the road initially will be the five-year partnership with IBM. The deal, says Thomas, will stimulate the high-tech industry on the West Coast.

"It's going to help pull other firms into B.C.," she says.

IBM will open its new Pacific Development Centre software lab on the campus of Simon Fraser University. The centre's focus will be on new government, Internet and industry applications for the global marketplace.

"This is the first of its type in the world," says Roger Garriock, communications manager for IBM Canada's Western region.

Whatever applications emerge will be licensed to the provincial government, with IBM owning the rights and marketing them globally.

"I'm not sure we would have ever developed them on our own," says Thomas. "We know social services, they have the technical skills."

Another component of the partnership calls for B.C. firms to do at least half of the development work as IBM and the government jointly transform existing business processes and technologies.

The company will also fund scholarships for B.C. students — 50 of them initially, each worth $10,000. Five percent of the sales of the government products developed under the deal will go into the scholarship kitty.

Educational opportunities are also the green lights of the second lane on the government's info highway on-ramp, belonging to PLNet. The network linking students and teachers around the province to the Internet will increase the range of courses available in small and remote schools, and slash connectivity costs for school districts.

"Connecting to the PLNet means that technology education in B.C. is a continuum that begins in kindergarten, and continues throughout students' lives, making them citizens of a global village where anything is possible," says Andrew Petter, Minister of Advanced Education, Training and Technology.

The ministry says PLNet will save the government at much as $72 million over the next seven years by decreasing network connection bills, cutting travel-related costs, increasing the lifespan of education resources by distributing and updating them via the Internet, and making common administrative systems such as student records available on-line.

"It brings a lot of resources to the table that we've never had before," says Brian Kuhn, IS coordinator for the Nanaimo school district on Vancouver Island.

SHL Systemhouse, a private consulting firm based in Vancouver, is overseeing support services including network monitoring and help desk. The provincial information technology services division will design and engineer network delivery, including operations management.

Thomas is sure that what is currently a small patch of cyberspace road will some day grow into a busy super- highway.

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