World Wide Notary (WWN) (Privately Held Texas Corporation). As more and more counties are exploring creative ways to offer better public services with stricter budget guidelines, Johnston County of North Carolina is leading the nation by erecording esigned surveying maps.

Led by Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall who chaired the electronic notarization standard setting committee for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), she has long been an advocate of electronic commerce in North Carolina. "This is a great historic moment in the development of eCommerce in North Carolina," Secretary Marshall said at the annual conference of the North Carolina Society of Surveyors. She continued, "This is exactly why we invested so much energy in developing our state's standards for electronic recording-so that we could move important legal business filings to a quick, efficient conclusion that also helps the public have better access to them."

"It is an exciting time here in North Carolina to work with surveyors to be able to accept plat maps electronically. This will increase productivity in their offices as well as the Register of Deeds offices. This process will save time and money for all parties involved. The method of submission is more secure than any other method of delivery to the Register of Deeds office," said Craig Olive, Johnston County Register of Deeds.

"The Johnston County Planning Department is excited to offer this streamlined plat eRecording process to continue its enhancement of customer service. By incorporating eRecording of plats into its daily operations, the department is able to advance its mission of providing efficient and innovative services for its customers and citizens," said Berry Gray, Planning Director.

The North Carolina Society of Surveyors and its Johnston County Chapter has been instrumental in making the pilot project a success. Pilot participants included: WWN, EDL, Johnston County Register of Deeds, Johnston County Planning Office, Byrd Surveying, McKim and Creed, and True Line Surveying. "I would like to thank everyone for their outstanding efforts to make this pilot a success and an example for other counties and surveyors to follow. This protocol of acquiring multiple signatures from multiple locations is a template that could be implemented by most municipalities, states and other professional disciplines," said Sheila Hemphill, Vice President of Sales for WWN.

According to Linwood Byrd, Jr. with Byrd Surveying, P.A.. "The ability to eRecord maps will save time and money for both land surveyors and their clients, and will bring land surveyors into the world of eRecording. The ability to track the status of the map through the approval process will expedite the signing and recordation process."

"By capitalizing on our respective strengths in the world of electronic documents, EDL and WWN have made an important step forward together in electronic document-based commerce. We owe great thanks to Secretary Marshall as well as the pioneering surveyors and visionary county officials who have put forth so much effort to make this extremely significant event possible", said Tim Davis, CTO with EDL.

Utilizing WWN's esigning and enotarization solution DigaSign, the surveyors export a PDF map from their CAD system. In DigaSign, the surveyor designates who should be signing the map and locates the signature and date coordinates with a simple "point and place" technique. An email is automatically sent to all of the designated signers that contains a package key and password that grants them access to review and electronically sign the plat map in DigaSign. The signatures on the map look identical to a paper document. DigaSign utilizes an USB biometric signature pad that not only captures the image of the signature but also captures the rhythm, pattern and skip sequences that makes the signature unique to the signer. Once all signatures are acquired, a completion email is automatically sent to all parties.

The surveyor exports a PDF from DigaSign to store on their local hard drive. The surveyor then logs into EDL's SubmitPRO web-based eRecording application where they select the County Register of Deeds, attach the signed PDF map and submit the map electronically. The Register of Deeds electronically stamps the annotation in the left margin of the map. The surveyor logs into EDL and retrieves the County eRecorded map. The surveyor can then print out paper copies of the plat map if municipality or county officials request a paper copy.


About World Wide Notary:
World Wide Notary, a privately held Texas Corporation, is a leading provider of electronic signature and electronic professional seal technology. World Wide Notary's technology can be utilized by any industry needing multiple signatures and/or professional seal approvals from multiple locations. Professional seals could be for example notaries, architects, surveyors, geologists and government officials. Pioneering electronic signatures, as early as 1996, World Wide Notary's management team has years of experience in the Internet technology industry working with stringent federal mandates, such as HIPAA, E-SIGN and state UETA regulations, regarding security and the use of electronic and digital signatures.

About EDL:
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Electronic Document Logistics (EDL) specializes in the creation, submission and recordation of electronic documents. With a suite of web-based applications for both document filers and county recorders, EDL enables its customers to take maximum advantage of Internet technology to create significant time and cost savings in document-based business processes.