Technology Plays Many Roles in Aftermath of Disaster

Technology played a role in charities' response to the tragic events of September 11,

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both in areas touched by the terrorist attacks and across the country.

In New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, technology companies donated both their products and their expertise to help with relief activities and charities' fund-raising efforts.

Types of assistance offered:

* Consultants from the Microsoft Corporation helped the American Red Cross develop a Web site to match survivors of the attacks with loved ones who were looking for information about them. The charity added the Family Registration Web to its Internet site (http://www.redcross.org) four days after the attacks. Phil Zepeda, director of online media at the Red Cross, says the registration site is "something that we can use in future disaster operations, during hurricanes when family members or loved ones are separated from each other." Microsoft has pledged $10-million to relief efforts -- $5-million in cash and a $5-million in-kind gift from Microsoft Consulting Services.

* The Red Cross set up 200 personal computers donated by the Compaq Computer Corporation in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Washington as public Internet kiosks that survivors of the attacks could use to sign up with the Red Cross family-registration system. Compaq also contributed servers, handheld computers, and storage equipment to the Red Cross, and made cash donations of $250,000 to the September 11th Fund and $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross's relief fund.

* Waypoint Systems Integration, in Phoenix, a company that designs software for blood banks, helped the Red Cross develop a Web site (http://www.givelife.org) to schedule blood-donation appointments.

* Sprint donated 2,300 wireless phones and free calling for Red Cross workers and disaster victims in New York and Washington, as well as $500,000 to the charity.

* The Handspring Foundation donated 500 handheld computers and 500 Web-enabled cell phones to police officers, firefighters, and Red Cross workers to help them communicate during the search and rescue efforts in New York.

New York Cares, a charity that organizes short-term volunteer projects, used its Web site to provide up-to-date information about how city residents and businesses could help the relief efforts.

Accurate information was in short supply in the early days of the relief effort, says Ariel Zwang, executive director of New York Cares. "There was a rumor mill and an absence of information about what could be done to help."

In the midst of that confusion, the charity used its Web site to quickly post calls for supplies -- things like masks, saline solution, and work boots -- and then take the requests down when the items had been donated.

The site's Web traffic increased at least tenfold as local news organizations, including The New York Post and the Fox 5 television station, referred readers and viewers to the site.

The charity lost its Internet connection and its Web site went down around 11 p.m. on September 11, after cables running under the World Trade Center were severed. By early Thursday afternoon, New York Cares was back online with the help of its sister organization, Hands on Atlanta, and the companies that host the Atlanta group's site.

As relief efforts became more organized, New York Cares started receiving requests for large numbers of volunteers, sometimes with only a few hours to assemble the needed volunteers.

The charity will continue in this capacity in the months to come as it coordinates volunteers who offer their services through the September 11th Fund, the relief effort created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust. New York Cares and the September 11th Fund are currently developing a database that will soon allow New York area residents to sign up through the fund's Web site.

Ms. Zwang is heartened by the outpouring of goodwill and offers of help in the wake of the disaster, but she hopes New Yorkers won't forget about other citizens facing difficult circumstances.

"This tragedy is a tragedy of terrible proportions, but the need in New York City is an ongoing need of even greater proportions," she says. "The winter is not going to be warmer this year for those who don't have a coat."

To get there: Go to http://www.nycares.org.

What started out as an event to promote Web-site accessibility turned into a way for volunteers and nonprofit employees in Texas to help their community during a very difficult time.

On the same day as the terrorist attacks, Knowbility, an Austin charity, was scheduled to hold the lead event for its annual Accessibility Internet Rally.

Sharron Rush, executive director of Knowbility -- a group that raises awareness about the potential for technology to improve the lives of people with disabilities -- found herself facing a difficult question: Should the organization postpone the event or go ahead?

Each year, teams from local technology companies compete with one another as they build Web sites for Austin-area charities that are accessible to people with disabilities. Tuesday night's mixer was to be the first time for representatives from the charities to meet with the technology teams assigned to build their Web sites.

In the confusion that followed the attacks, the group didn't have any sure way to contact all of the participants, so Knowbility decided to go ahead with the event and see if anyone showed up.

Ms. Rush says her expectations were low. She hoped that maybe a third of the participants would come, and that she and her staff members would be able to gauge those volunteers' feelings about whether to move ahead with Saturday's rally.

To her surprise more than 130 people attended the low-key mixer, with each of the 26 participating charities and 26 technology companies sending representatives. "People kept saying, 'I'm so grateful. I'm so glad to be here. I'm so glad to be with people, and to be engaged in something that is making a difference,'" says Ms. Rush.

To get there: Go to http://www.knowbility.org.

Street-Level Youth Media's mission is to help inner-city youth use video and other technologies for self-expression and social change. Since 1993, the organization has showcased young people's work in an annual celebration that combines a live broadcast with video installations and performances.

This year's event was scheduled for September 15, the Saturday after the attacks. Students had started planning the evening's activities in May.

Tony Streit, one of Street-Level's five co-directors, says that a number of factors went into the group's decision to retool the event and go forward. "We didn't want to send a message to the young people that their work wasn't important," he explains. The organization's leaders also wanted to show the students how important it was not to live in fear.

So after conferring with local government officials and the other organizations working on the event, Street-Level decided to focus its energies on the satellite broadcast and turn it into a memorial and a dialogue about the current situation.

The broadcast featured youth organizations from across the city in open discussions, musical performances, poetry, and spoken-word performances. A number of the groups talked about the importance of tolerance and combating hate and prejudice.

Mr. Streit believes that like Street-Level's other work, the broadcast disproved many people's stereotypes of urban young people as indifferent and uncaring.

He points to the show's opening segment, in which a young woman who had planned to open with a pop song, instead sang an a capella version of "The Star Spangled Banner." As she sang, the 300 to 400 young people in attendance stood en masse.

It was powerful moment, says Mr. Streit, to see the youth in attendance "realizing that it is their country, and this is their song."

To get there: Go to http://www.street-level.org.

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