IBM - Neighborhood America Public Comment Service

October 12, 2004 - IBM and Neighborhood America announce an innovative, on demand solution that combines Neighborhood America's award winning Public Comment® software with IBM's industry leading hosting and consulting services.

The IBM - Neighborhood America Public Comment® Service (www.publiccomment.com) enables project managers to collect, moderate, and report public comment - those comments collected both on-line and by traditional means such as fax, phone and public hearings. The Web-based system also simultaneously enables project teams to create and manage project records, and enables these teams to easily publish content to dedicated public involvement Web sites or government portals.

Highly flexible and scalable, the IBM - Neighborhood America Public Comment® Service has been used in small projects such as downtown master plans, and in large, complex projects such as environmental, transportation, and regional planning. The Service is also available for the management of other types of public involvement - those based in event, issue, rule or legislative environments.

"IBM - Neighborhood America Public Comment® Service is a unique, fully integrated application that supports both project administration and citizen participation," said Kim Patrick Kobza, Neighborhood America’s president and CEO. "The system will set the standard in the public involvement industry by enabling citizen participation and inclusion, while bringing down the cost of project management."

The application is available through IBM's Public Sector Sales organization and Neighborhood America's direct sales force. Additional information on the IBM - Neighborhood America Public Comment® Service can be found at www.publiccomment.com.