Neighborhood America's Solution Powers Unprecedented Public Outreach Initiative in Atlanta

Tremendous economic growth in the city if Atlanta has given this thriving, diverse city the promise of becoming a model city of the 21st century. Over the next 25 years, the city will undergo a dramatic transformation with the redevelopment of 22-miles of unused land, now recognized as the BeltLine. With the most extensive community involvement plan in the city’s history, planning officials will bring their vision of a sustainable urban community to life with the support of Neighborhood America’s online communications solution.

From the start of the project, the planning team was charged with ensuring equitable treatment of all who would be affected. This meant making public involvement opportunities easily and equally accessible to all. Without this assurance, they could not obtain the federal funding necessary for the project’s $2.8 billion budget. After careful search for a cost-effective solution that would engage the entire community and collect a representative sample of opinions, they turned to the IBM – Neighborhood America Public Comment® Service.

Public Comment Service made it possible for the planning teams to reach a mass audience and consider over 10,000 varying responses - in just a few months. Comments collected both online and offline were easily integrated and organized within Public Comment, providing project teams with the structure they needed to review all the information in a timely manner. And since the solution negates the need to open and track single messages, one at a time, project teams could quickly filter through responses and deliver the results immediately, accelerating the approval necessary for funding.

Planning officials are dedicated to making the BeltLine project a true community experience, so it was equally important to ensure that the public felt their opinions were being valued. Through Public Comment’s simple and structured environment, project teams were able to quickly select comments and publish them to the Web, giving citizens the confidence that they were truly being heard.

With a comprehensive sampling of public views, the BeltLine project team was able to process and deliver a draft Working Plan to the City Council laying out the project’s priorities over the next five years, and thereafter. Over the long course of planning and development, the BeltLine project team will continue its commitment to engaging the Atlanta community with the support of Neighborhood America's solution.

To learn more about the Atlanta BeltLine project, visit www.beltlinecommunity.com

Is e-Democracy Working?

With Congress now requiring citizens to solve a math problem prior to submitting a public comment via email, an important question is raised. Is email the best way for citizens and their public officials to communicate online?

Since the first official state government web site appeared on the Internet in 1993, online governance, or e-Government, has advanced to provide citizens with an easier way to obtain information and to transact some of their civic affairs online. While some government practices have successfully transitioned to the Web, others have not fared as well.

Consider the traditional relationship between public officials and citizens when it comes to communication. While traditional forms of public participation like town meetings or forums, phone calls and letters continue to exist, the online version of public comment and constituent communication is chaotic.

Email and blogs have proven to be an ineffective form for communication. Some would argue they even pose a threat to historical democratic processes.

This is a challenge that Neighborhood America takes seriously. Citizens want to engage in meaningful and productive online dialog with their public officials and, conversely, officials seek constructive means to share information with and collect input from their publics online.

As more and more citizens, government agencies and elected officials use the Internet to communicate and to be informed, this challenge becomes more critical for all parties. Successful e-Government, or in this case, e-Democracy will rely on a structured environment to mirror its traditional, offline counterparts for collecting public comment and for daily constituent communication.

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Neighborhood America Drives the Value of Its Solutions at Key Industry Events

Media - On June 23rd, Neighborhood America joined with leaders in media, entertainment, technology, and government to discuss the convergence between their industries through digital media. The conference, held in McLean, Virginia, gave Neighborhood America the opportunity to educate industry experts on how they can increase revenue by using Neighborhood America's solution to drive audience interaction.

Government - On June 27th, Florida Association of Counties held its annual conference in Marco Island, Florida. The conference presented Neighborhood America with the opportunity to connect with key local officials and demonstrate how Neighborhood America's Web-based solutions can empower inter-agency collaboration and citizen interaction.

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