Habitat

Press Release

HAILS INTERNET INITIATIVE

Interactive Internet Service Will Enable Private and Public Sector Collaboration to Fulfill Habitat II Goals

Alliance between Open Text Corporation, Business Coalition for Sustainable Cities, World Business Forum, and Non-Governmental Organizations Highlights New Form of Partnership

HABITAT II SUMMIT, ISTANBUL–June 3, 1996–A new Internet service that will facilitate collaboration between private and public sector organizations to further the Habitat II Agenda was announced today. The free service, called Livelink Commons, will enable individuals, organizations, and communities around the world to identify opportunities for community building and information exchange in support of healthy cities and sustainable development.

Open Text Corporation, an Internet software and service provider, will create Livelink Commons for use on the World Wide Web, and is joined in this initiative by the Business Coalition for Sustainable Cities, The World Business Forum, and many Non-Governmental Organizations.

“I am very gratified to see such a strong private and public sector partnership use information technology to continue the Habitat II process through time and across geographic boundaries,” said Dr. Wally N’Dow, Secretary-General, UN Habitat II Conference on Human Settlements. “My belief is that this project creates the kind of combined force needed to develop new solutions for healthy, sustainable communities,” Dr. N’Dow added.

“Open Text, a member of the Business Coalition for Sustainable Cities, is making a major investment in this new partnership of the private and public sectors by providing the hardware, Internet software, and staffing to create Livelink Commons so that new solutions to our common problems may be to be developed and implemented,” said William Lurie, chairman, Business Coalition for Sustainable Cities and former president of The Business Roundtable. “There are a number of consumer-oriented online services today, but this is the first Internet service designed to bring corporations, public sector organizations, and individuals together to do business at the intersection of their common interests,” Lurie added.

Overview

Every year, both public sector governmental and non-governmental organizations spend hundreds of billions of dollars on projects that relate to issues of healthy communities and sustainable development.

Every year, private sector corporations spend hundreds of billions of dollars creating products and services and developing markets for them.

These groups increasingly understand that the future depends on finding better ways to enrich the quality of both our inner and outer environments. And yet neither sector can do the job itself.

Livelink Commons is an Internet-based service that provides individuals and organizations with ways to identify opportunities and solve problems at the intersections of enlightened self-interest, leveraging the resources and unique perspectives of both private and public sectors.

Livelink Commons: Objectives

• Continue the Habitat II process through world-wide information technology

  
  

• Provide for ongoing forums, dialogues, and projects for conference participants and other interested parties throughout the world

  
  

• Contribute enabling technology for the formation and functioning of global communities of interest and action

  
  

• Facilitate intersections of mutual interest between private and public sectors

  
  

• Facilitate exchange of information, goods, and services between stakeholders

  
  

• Livelink Commons: Description of Partnership Initiative

  
  

• Provide online “commons” within which people may collaborate

  
  

• Provide a comprehensive index for searching across all organizations and content providers

  
  

• Provide an online library of archival and in-process documents

  
  

• Provide online project areas for inter-organizational participants

  
  

• Provide areas for interactive discussion and commentary

  
  

• Establish initiatives and secure partnerships to make available communications and computing technologies to all communities

  
  

• Contribute expertise, resources, and technology to other stakeholders where appropriate

  
  

“Open Text is committed to developing partnerships and products that utilize the collaborative potential of the Internet in order to dramatically improve the quality of our increasingly interrelated work, home, and community environments,” said Tom Jenkins, CEO, Open Text Corporation. “The Livelink Commons project helps address the critically important issues of Habitat II by enabling the formation of communities of interest and action on the World Wide Web,” Jenkins added.

The Business Coalition for Sustainable Cities, a division of the Earth Pledge Foundation, was created by Theodore W. Kheel, noted businessman and labor mediator. BCSC encourages and facilitates private sector participation in sustainable development by ameliorating the conflicts between the parties, such as environmentalists and developers.

Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEXF) is an Internet software and services company whose mission is to put the Web to work. Open Text enables organizations to leverage the power and global reach of Internet technology by providing applications, tools and services that create intranets for collaborative, distributed work. Organizations and individuals use Open Text solutions to identify, create, and manage information, opportunities, and empowered teams.

For additional information, contact:

Daniel Cheifetz Leslie Hoffman

Open Text Corporation Business Coalition for Sustainable Cities

tel: until June 5: 90-212-231-21-21 tel: until June 14: 90-212-231-21-21 Rm 904

after: 1-847-267-9330 X239 after June 15: 1-212-688-2216

e-mail: daniel@opentext.com e-mail: lhoffman@earthpledge.org