"We're here to connect the dots." said Joyce Plotkin, president of the Massachusetts Software and Internet Council, explaining that high-tech growth centers are cropping up all over the state, and seldom are aware of each other. "Massachusetts is No. 1 in innovation and esucation".

Plotkin said Rhode Island and Virginia have aggressive marketing strategies aimed at attracting high-tech companies and investment. "Virginia even calls itself the Digital Dominion,"she said, adding that Rhode Island lured four Massachusetts companies while during the same period 300 new companies were created in the commonwealth. "We want to keep Massachusetts' competitive edge."

The Dot.commonwealth Coalition's mission is to promote and position Massachusetts as a world leader in software development, telecommunications, internet services, electrocincs and computers, defense systems, healthcare and biotechnology.

"We want to link it all together and brand it as the Dot.commonwealth," Plotkin said. "After this we're headed to Beverly and later to Worcester and Springfield."

The Goldblock building on Oxford Street, directly connected by fiber-optic cable to Primus, the Internet service company formerly known as Shore.net, provided a suitable stop for the road show. In the heart of Lynn's cyber district, the Goldblock has fast become a model of success, offereing high-speed Internet access and rehabilitated office space at an affordable price.

Lynn development Director Stephen Harausz, the man partially responsible for the project, used the occasion to announce that yet another company will soon move into the Goldblock building and, perhaps more importantly, that a telecom hotel is scheduled for construction on Commercial Street.

"The city is on the cusp of a major reinvention of itself," Harausz said. "It is on the verge of a major and profound change."

Harausz noted that the recent addition of 360networks, with its fast .4 terabit transatlantic fiber-optic cable system; the anticipated arrival of Asset Channels, another coastal cable company; and the decision by Burlington-based Lightbridge to establish a call center in the Clock Tower building.

"When I arrived to take this job in Lynn, I set up three priorities: the Lynnway, the waterfront and the downtown. the last shapes peoples' perceptions the most, so that's what we've been concentrating on," he said and unveiled a plan to grace Central Square with new brick sidewalks and antique light posts.

Robert Mudge, president of operations for Verizon in Massachusetts, said Lynn has the space, the workforce and the wire to establish itself as a high technology center. "Places like Lynn are in a great position," he said, remarking on the existing telephone cable network and the presence of a new fiber-optic line running through the downtown.

Mudge said fiber cable is the future. He related the story of a backhoe operator that severed seven fiber-optic cables in Beacon hill. the accident would have cut off telecommunications between Boston and Maine, had it not been for sonet rings, a method of laying cable in a circle to ensure redundancy. "The rings save us," he said. "The only people who knew the cables had been severed were sitting in the alarm office."

Mudge said Verizon has been unable to keep up with the demand for cable connections. "The netwrk demand is doubling every two years," he said, noting that more than 50 percent of network transmissions carry data, not voice.

Lowell Gray, founder of Shore.net, said Lynn's inexpensive downtown office space and existing system of underground telephone cables linked to nearby switching stations, helped his fledgling company grow. In the span of seven years, Shore.net grew to 80 employees and had annual revenue of $10 million. "But 1995 we hit this incredible ramp," said Gray, who earlier this year sold the company to Primus.

Gray told the audience he has left his consulting post at Primus to start a new venture, which will bring him back to the heart of the cyber district where Shore.net was born. "I've come full circle." he said.

Gray praised Lynn for its affordable housing, diligent workforce, abundant downtown parking and the willingness of city officials to assist start-up businesses. He singled out Internet data centers and call centers, like the one established by Lightbridge, as the city'd economic strengths.

"People are tired of fighting the 128 traffic," said Gray, explaining that the need for public transportation will increase as economically depressed urban centers blossom. it was a message later repeated at the Cummings Center in Beverly by U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney, the Salem Democrat who serves as New England's only member on the Committee for Education and the Workforce.