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Friday September 19 8:07 AM EDT Company Press Release
San Antonio Launches Community Link Kiosk NetworkTouchscreen Connection to Cyberspace: `People's Internet' Opens Web to Consumers``Many other cities, including New York, have installed networked kiosks,'' explained Paul Kennedy, President of North Communications, which developed Community Link. ``Some have implemented full financial transaction features; some have used the Web to deliver information. But San Antonio is the first to bring all these features together, in a `People's Internet' that we believe represents an important face of government to the public in the 21st Century.'' Community Link is the vision of City Manager Alex Briseņo. ``The kiosk machines can provide a lot of basic information that we normally receive calls on,'' Briseņo said. ``Interactive technology will free staff to devote their attention to more complex questions and requests. That will result in a higher level of quality customer service.'' Mayor Howard Peak stated, ``Through the Community Link Kiosks, the City of San Antonio has embraced a forward-thinking, customer service philosophy that responds to our customers' needs and expectations today and in the future.'' By connecting to a number of the City's homepages on the World Wide Web, providing a standard credit card reader, and enhancing the program with motion video and stereo sound, the ATM-like devices open up the world of electronic commerce to all citizens, in convenient public places like malls. The sophisticated multi-media systems are completely controlled by the touch of a finger, and are easy for anyone to use, regardless of computer skills. North Communications built the entire network, with a complete suite of hardware, software and server components. David Baley, marketing manager for the company's Info/Texas division headquartered in Austin, said, ``Our goal is to bring the benefits of cyberspace to those who don't or can't use the Internet -- the `un-Webbed majority'. People will have no idea they are using a powerful workstation when they use Community Link -- it will just look like a friendly, intelligent TV that you touch.'' The kiosks are manufactured, installed and serviced by North Communications, and feature a top-of-the-line 200-MHz Pentium Pro Hewlett- Packard PC, with MPEG video, CD-ROM, Windows NT, Microsoft Internet Explorer and NetGain, the North software that creates a secure touchscreen interface on a standard Web browser. TNPI provides authorization of credit cards; the kiosk software makes a completely separate connection to a North Communications financial server over a private network, so citizens' confidential information and credit card numbers are never transmitted over the World Wide Web. Today, Community Link Kiosks offer the following services to the people of San Antonio:
In spring of 1998, people will be able to reserve and rent City park facilities. Services are available more than 12 hours a day in most locations, seven days a week including holidays. The City's main Website can be viewed on the Web at http://www.ci.sat.tx.us. CommunityLink kiosk locations currently available are:
Later this fall, a kiosk will be opened at the North Star Mall. Based in Marina del Rey, California, North Communications is a designer, manufacturer and operator of transactional kiosk networks for the public and private sectors. The company is known especially for its award-winning work in ground-breaking government projects in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, and New York and internationally in Canada, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. It was the first company in the world to develop and deploy a Web-based kiosk system, at the Superbowl in January, 1995. More information can be found on the Web at http://www.infonorth.com and http://www.kioskstore.com. SOURCE North Communications
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