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In her December 2004 article "Getting in the Game," Software Development Managing Editor Tamara Carter set a hopeful tone about the burgeoning New Orleans tech renaissance. Less than a year later, as the Gulf Coast faces the monumental challenge of rebuilding after the devastation wrought by two hurricanes, that hope remains stronger than ever, as seen in IT's rush to the rescue.

Immediately after Katrina and Rita packed their one-two punch to the Gulf Coast, the IT industry responded with a compelling blow to the stereotype of the socially alienated "nerd."

"Like everybody else, you feel somewhat helpless," says Mike Spears, CEO and president of Lafayette, Louisiana-based Web company Firefly Digital, who joined IT companies large and small in the relief effort. "But then you find a little place that you can provide help, and that makes you feel that you're doing something."

Private Good
While FEMA floundered and federal and local governments traded barbs, the private sector filled the void with life-saving alacrity and skill. From Fortune 500 giants like Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and HP to small local firms, the IT corporate world delivered humanitarian aid, knowledge and equipment when and where it was most needed.

In Katrina's aftermath, Intel shipped wi-fi equipment to San Antonio's decommissioned Kelly Air Force Base, where thousands of evacuees had been taken. Working with Avaya, Cisco, Dell and SBC, the company also donated more than 2,300 wireless laptops to American Red Cross shelters, deploying WiMAX wireless broadband infrastructure for first responders at more than 150 access points, and assisting the Veterans Administration with the installation of mobile hospitals along the Gulf Coast.

Microsoft donated $9 million in cash and technology assistance to the relief effort, working with the American Red Cross and the San Diego Computer Center to establish katrinasafe.com, a Web tool that was used by state and regional governments as well as corporations attempting to locate employees. With a foundation of Microsoft's .NET Framework 1.1 and SQL Server 2005, Katrinasafe employs Microsoft Speech Server and Web services. Google, Lycos and Yahoo each created custom Web tools to help people connect in the wake of the disaster, all of which hook into the larger katrinasafe.com site.

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation pledged $5 million to the relief efforts, and, in addition to its employee match donation program, Sun sent company volunteers to Red Cross sites and communications equipment to the hurricane zone to repair Internet infrastructure.

Hewlett-Packard contributed more than $3 million to the relief effort in direct donations to the American Red Cross, with a $1 million match for employee contributions. The company also donated computer systems and surplus buildings to the relief effort, and employees took part in volunteer work and collection drives.

In addition to its direct $1 million contribution and up to another million to match employee donations, employee donations, Cisco deployed mobile communication packages to the region. These briefcase-size kits providemobile Internet Protocol (IP)-based wired or wireless data and voice connectivity for areas with downed infrastructure, enabling speedy communication in disaster and remote locations.

Telecom companies were well represented in the relief effort. Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile USA's German parent company, contributed approximately $2 million toward the education of children affected by the hurricanes, in addition to an employee donation match program for contributions to outside relief efforts.

And in just the first day of its generous 2-1 match drive, the Verizon Foundation raised more than $1.2 million in donations to the American Red Cross. When the firm raised the match to 3-1, the total soared to more than $11 million. Verizon also provided cell phones, free prepaid calling cards, phone banks and mobile pay-phone trailers to hurricane survivors throughout the Gulf Coast, as well as assistance to local leading telephony provider BellSouth to repair its damaged network.

VOiP giant Vonage donated hardware and long-distance services to hospitals to replace services from downed local long-distance providers. And Cingular Wireless established a multimillion-dollar fund to offer assistance to employees and others affected by the hurricanes. Aside from in-store collections, the company created a text messaging campaign that elicits contributions to the American Red Cross relief effort. And, in addition to its own employee contribution match program, Nortel doubled the call capacity for the federal emergency call center that receives all federal disaster assistance calls for Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

Initially, San Antonio, Texas-based SBC Communications raised $1.2 million and then promptly doubled its cap for its employee-matching fund to $2 million. The company also sent equipment, including microwave trailers and generators, to the hurricane zone, and provided free phone service, voice mailboxes, DSL service and computers for Internet access valued at more than $4 million per month at shelters in Illinois, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada.

Hands-On Help
With more than 2,500 employees in the hurricane zone, Siemens took a hands-on approach to the disaster. In Katrina's wake, the company donated generators to Houston hospitals, and the company's medical technology was deployed at the Houston Astrodome, helping to establish electronic transmission of medical images and monitoring of hospital capabilities. Using a T1 line, results from ultrasounds for cardiac diagnoses and CT scan results were transmitted to hospitals for evaluation. The company also delivered portable digital imaging equipment to the Astrodome, as well as water treatment equipment to the Gulf Coast area and heart monitors and imaging equipment to hospitals in Houston. In addition, Siemens instituted a 100 percent employee-matching program for contributions.

IBM also took a direct tactic, sending a crisis team to the area to render immediate technical assistance and offering an initial contribution estimated at $1 million in technology and services, as well as an ongoing employee match donation program.

And, closer to home, Firefly Digital partnered with its Web hosting company, Rackspace Managed Hosting, to create www.reliefportal.com, a website listing resources for survivors, families and businesses. CEO Spears explains its genesis. "We wanted to launch something quickly, because finding lost loved ones was the hottest issue at that point." So the 15-employee firm worked a marathon through the Labor Day weekend. "We wanted to find a niche that hadn't been filled already, so we went out there and aggregated over 200 sites."

General Manager Doug Meaux concurs. "In those first few days, Mike and I were wondering, like everybody else, 'What can we do?' So we created a database back-end website, very clean, quick-loading, and Rackspace jumped on board to provide a dedicated server and bandwidth pipe on their own dime to support the bandwidth we needed."

A month later, the portal remains a vital tool, not only for hurricane survivors, but as a resource for future disaster relief efforts, now moving into self-service mode. "Now, the people using it have taken ownership of the site and are contributing new resources daily on their own," Spears says. "I recall one man found his grandmother, who had been in a New Orleans nursing home and had been moved to Covington; he then became one of our champions."

At the Grassroots
While corporate giants orchestrated comprehensive relief plans, many local firms and individuals did what they could to help. A lack of cash didn't stop Tablet aficionado Peter Rysavy from getting creative. On his website, Rysavy states, "I spent Labor Day weekend near Washington, D.C., and eventually ran out of cash after stopping at various intersections where firefighters were collecting donations. Thus was born my grassroots Tablet Relief campaign."

A crude but charming drawing of a TIP (Tablet Input Panel) created on Rysavy's vintage Toshiba M200 enlivens his "Scratch Out Katrina" t-shirt (available at www.cafepress.com). With a $20 purchase price and a production cost of $8.99, each t-shirt sold will earn $11.01 to be split evenly among the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Noah's Wish, an animal rescue organization.

Open source advocates were also well represented in the relief effort. Linux developer Steve Hargadon is creating a grassroots network of independent organizations and individuals who can design and run free public Firefox Web stations for hurricane survivors who remain homeless.

On his website, www.publicwebstations.com, Hargadon writes, "... A huge number [of Katrina survivors] will be unable to return to their homes for weeks or even months. Free, readily available public access to the Internet can provide a crucial lifeline for them during this time."

Rebuilding a Future
Looking beyond immediate aid, Duluth, Georgia-based EnvisionWare, purveyor of public PC management solutions for libraries and other institutions, is helping to regenerate careers.

"We're offering temporary, contract-style opportunities for C/C++ and Java programmers who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and are relocated to Atlanta," says CEO Rob Walsh, "and are leaving open the option that any temporary position could become permanent."

U.C. Davis is also looking to the future, offering facilities and technical support to universities and labs affected by the hurricanes.

And the American Electronics Association Midwest Council, representing more than 1.8 million workers nationwide working in 2,500 high-tech companies and 130 organizations, is accepting and circulating résumés and job requests from hurricane survivors. "We hope to assist those affected by Katrina by connecting displaced workers with high-tech companies in this region," Ed Longanecker, executive director of AeA's Midwest Council, says.

And, aside from concrete aid, the tech community's overwhelmingly generous response has served as ongoing inspiration for employees at the firms who offered assistance. As Firefly's Mike Spears said, "We're very proud to be one of the many IT companies who took time out to provide some help."

—Laurie O'Connell

Feature Funhouse: Remember the Future Ask your customer what you need to know. Goal: Understand your customer's definition of success. Activity: Hand each of your customers a few pieces of paper. Ask them to imagine that they've been using your product continuously for one week. Ask your customers to write down, in as much detail as possible, exactly what the system will have done to make them happy (or successful or rich or safe or secure or smart—choose the adjective that works best for your system). Note that the question's phrasing is extremely important, as you'll get different results if you ask "What should the system do?" instead of "What will the system have done?" If you're skeptical, just try it. Luke Hohmann is the president and founder of the Silicon Valley consultancy Enthiosys LLC. Reach him at lhohmann@enthiosys.com. This is the 12th of 12 activities. Illustration by Zach Trenholm.

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3. The Object Primer : Agile Model-Driven Development with UML 2.0, Scott W. Ambler	4. UML Bible, Tom Pender
5. Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Using UML, Patterns and Java, Second edition, Bernd Bruegge	6. Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML: A Practical Approach, Doug Rosenberg
7. UML 2 Toolkit, Hans-Erik Eriksson	8. Enterprise Development with Visual Studio .NET, UML and MSF, Carsten Thomsen
7. Large-Scale Software Architecture: A Practical Guide Using UML, , Jeff Garland	10. UML Pocket Reference, Dan Pilone

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