CSI and State of Utah team to deliver first open source infectious disease
                   management system to meet CDC mandate

    PORTLAND, Ore., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Collaborative Software
Initiative (CSI), the company that brings like-minded organizations
together to work on collaborative software at a fraction of the cost, today
announced the release of the first open source, web-based infectious
disease reporting and management system.

    The system will both protect citizens and meet the requirements for the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Electronic
Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). NEDSS is the infrastructure
cornerstone for the nation's Public Health Information Network (PHIN).

    The disease reporting and management system, which is being piloted in
Utah, will be adaptable in all 50 states and available under an open source
license later this year. It is designed to support local health departments
in the early detection and investigation of individual cases and local
clusters of communicable disease, while simultaneously meeting the state
and federal needs of outbreak control, disease surveillance and
epidemiologic research.

    According to the December 2007 report from Trust for America's Health,
only eight states are currently fully prepared to protect the public from
disease, disasters and bio-terrorism. Existing NEDSS solutions are either
too expensive or outdated and don't meet the states' needs. CSI's open
source infectious disease reporting and management system, developed with
the collaborative software development model, is significantly less
expensive and meets all local, state, and federal requirements.

    The collaborative software development model, based on a unique
combination of industry standards, open source business practices, and lean
software development techniques was chosen in order to bring multiple
stakeholders with a common need together.

    "We are excited by the promise that this collaborative approach offers
to provide software that meets our needs," said Dr. Robert Rolfs, MD, State
Epidemiologist, State of Utah Department of Health. "It will really help us
to do our job of protecting people's health by detecting and preventing the
spread of communicable disease."

    "The project is a perfect example of how collaboration in software can
have an impact on society -- in this case, we can help prevent the spread
of disease and improve quality of care for patients by developing a system
that works for everyone," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of CSI. "The State of Utah
is taking a necessary leadership role to begin the rollout of an infectious
disease reporting and management system for the 21st century. We are very
excited to enable that transition and to work with other states to deploy
this important system."

    "Disease surveillance is a critical component of public health, it
serves to protect all of the citizens of our state on a daily basis.
Through this unique partnership and approach to developing a solid
detection management system, we believe we're serving our citizens' very
best interests," said Jon Huntsman, Utah's Governor. "We're looking forward
to partnering with our neighboring states to enable the same level of
public health service across state lines."

    The project has more than 100 contributors with a core team of 15
members, which includes doctors, nurses, and epidemiologists (subject
matter experts) and IT managers from across the state, and CSI program
managers and developers. It is being built with an open source software
stack that includes Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, PostgreSQL, Apache
HTTP Server, Apache Tomcat, Java and JRuby. The system and database resides
and is maintained on servers managed by the Utah Department of Technology
Services on its secure network, accessible by users in health departments
across the state.

    "The combination of Lean and open source allows us to provide high
quality software releases early and often and to involve all the major
stakeholders in the process," said Mike Herrick, program manager and
project leader at CSI. "We look forward to rolling this out and talking to
other states about how to implement it and improve the health and safety of
their citizens."

    About Collaborative Software Initiative

    Collaborative Software Initiative (CSI) was founded in 2007 by Stuart
Cohen, a veteran IT executive and former chief executive officer at the
Open Source Development Labs. Cohen has partnered with Evan Bauer,
financial services technology veteran and former chief technology officer
at Credit Suisse, to bring together like-minded companies to build software
applications at half the cost of outsourcing. CSI introduces a
market-changing process that applies open source methodologies to building
Collaborative Software -- software developed or acquired by a variety of
companies at a fraction of internal developer or outsourcing costs.

    CSI engages the power of community to build project teams and provides
the central project management function for developing Collaborative
Software, including development, testing and support for the code. The CSI
also offers the software to a broader base of customers under the open
source licensing or Software as a Service (Saas) models.

    For applications that don't enable competitive advantage or are
associated with non-value added activities such as compliance,
Collaborative Software empowers business managers to maintain individual
control and direction over a project while accelerating compliance,
reducing costs and consolidating project timelines. CSI delivers on this
new promise of Collaborative Software -- on time and on budget.



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