Neighborhood America

Neighborhood America is a provider of enterprise social networks for businesses, media and government organizations. The company’s solutions are delivered on a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, allowing the access and moderation of user submitted content to take place online. The enterprise social software and enterprise relationship management tools allow one to build a social network with targeted, revisiting audiences.

Founded in 1999 by land use attorney Kim Patrick Kobza, and programming expert David Bankston, the company has grown to host social networking projects such as HGTV’s Rate my Space and the Flight 93 Memorial. The company also acquired mobile marketing provider Movo Mobile in October 2006, expanding its social networking services to the wireless device.

The Name
Primary credit goes to the late Kristina Bublick of Virginia Beach, Virginia for giving Neighborhood America its name in the Spring of 1999. The founding board member based her choice on the company’s mission to help build interactive communities and promote online dialogue by using Internet based applications. The term “neighborhood” would represent the way that many “brick and mortar” communities serve, whether large or small, as a space for social relationships and communications.

“In the early stages of the business, it seemed to be a pretty confusing name in that customers did not associate it with a technology company and it did not have the ring of e-business. Many confused us with being a non-profit. We even tried to develop new names – for instance Aktera – for some of our products. After September 11, 2001 things changed. All of the sudden, it was very acceptable to have a name that conveys the importance of community in communication. Today the name and brand of Neighborhood America stands for both – community and superior technology.” –Kim Kobza Neighborhood America CEO

Deliberative Communities
Neighborhood America introduced the concept of deliberative communities in early 2007 to represent its vision of providing enterprise social networks as a means of facilitating purposeful, results-driven online interaction between organizations and their audiences. Deliberative communities consist of a group of people organized within an online or physical environment for the purpose of public discussion, analysis and eventual decision-making around an issue. These social organisms are frequently formed to build sustained relationships between individuals and their brands, or governments, facilitating product development, service delivery and customer experience management, among others. They rely upon informed opinion and advice that is given with a clear expectation of outcomes.
see online community

Awarded by IBM
In 2006, Neighborhood America received the “Top Star” award from its Global Public Sector Business Partner, IBM. The award was granted to recognize the leading company in creating and maintaining structured digital communities for organizations seeking to engage and interact with the public. Neighborhood America was recognized in the government sector for its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for building deliberative social networks.

Leadership Team
Kim Patrick Kobza – President, CEO and Co-founder.

Other executives and directors include:

David Bankston – Executive Vice President, CTO and Co-founder
Dan Miller – Vice President of Mobile Solutions
Robert Toatley – Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Patrick J. Mulloy – Chief Financial Officer
Headquarters
Naples, Florida