Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce Puts Out Sales Pitch in Cyberspace : Thousand Oaks: With its new service on the Internet, the business group hopes to link merchants and consumers, government and residents.

With the flick of a cursor, Internet browsers can now skim a directory of Conejo Valley businesses, research the area’s work force or find out the average humidity in Thousand Oaks.

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With another two clicks of the mouse, they can study a listing of apartment complexes, send e-mail to a job search service or note upcoming performances at the Civic Arts Plaza.

Hoping to create a computer-linked community of Thousand Oaks businesses and public institutions, the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce has gone on-line.

At the core of the chamber’s effort is a signpost it has placed on the World Wide Web, the fastest-growing area of the Internet. Called a home page, the chamber’s electronic debut consists of a four-color image of a majestic valley oak and a menu listing 10 topics about Thousand Oaks.

From the home page, users may jump to ads for individual businesses, some of which allow customers to place orders on the Internet.

Or by brushing an icon, they can skip to screens that include graphics and text on cities such as Charleston, W. Va., Palo Alto or Fresno.

“It’ll take time for all of this stuff to build,” said Ray Cobel, co-chairman of the chamber’s Internet Task Force, which designed the home page. “But I think it’s going to be phenomenal.”

Eventually, Cobel said, the chamber hopes to create a network that links the city of Thousand Oaks, the Ventura County Government Center, the Conejo Valley Unified School District, Cal Lutheran University and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“If we can really make these pages rich and synergistic, by getting the best of the different entities . . . when people log on to this community, we could just knock their socks off,” Cobel said.

In part, designers of the chamber’s Internet address say their optimism stems from the area’s demographics. The 1994 Conejo Valley Attitudes Survey found that 65% of households own a personal computer.

“We’re better poised to take advantage of this kind of technology than other communities in Southern California,” said Gary Koppenjan, communications manager for the chamber. “We have the higher income and the residents more likely to get involved.”

Already, the Thousand Oaks Library has a spot on the Internet and an icon linking its address with the chamber. The city of Thousand Oaks, which posts City Council agendas and civic events on an electronic bulletin board, is considering creating a home page. And Cal Lutheran has its own Internet address.

But in other areas, the chamber’s vision is still in the early stages of construction.

The county, for example, has just begun studying on-line possibilities at the urging of Supervisor Frank Schillo.

Schillo said he joined the chamber’s Internet Task Force because he wants to make county services more accessible to Thousand Oaks residents.

As residents conduct more business over the Internet, fewer people would need to drive to Ventura. That could potentially reduce air pollution.

And in the two weeks since it appeared, the chamber’s home page has been tough to find except to those who know the cumbersome address: https://adnetsol.com//chamber/cvcoc-hm.html..

Designers hope to improve its visibility in the next few weeks by linking the chamber to directories that allow Internet users to search the World Wide Web by categories and key words. That way, users could find the chamber’s address simply by typing in the words “Conejo” and “chamber.”

For the 1,200 businesses that belong to the Conejo Valley chamber, the real test of the Internet project will be their ability to attract new customers.

Designers of the home page, which has logged about 500 viewers in its first two weeks, hope to grant Thousand Oaks businesses entree to the national, even international, marketplace.

Because the city is approaching build-out, chamber directors say the Internet is one way to continue boosting the city’s tax base.

Said Cobel: “We could be doing it without tearing up more ridgelines, building on vacant lots or polluting the area.”