The Day of Service, a long-time NTC tradition, gave NPTechies the chance to give something back to the New Orleans community. In spite of some weather related travel delays -- apparently, some pilots didn't want to play hide-and-go-seek with tornadoes -- 2008 saw record volunteer turnout for the DOS.

Volunteers traveled to the Community Center of St. Bernard to install a wireless network, others conducted strategy consults with local nonprofits; later in the day, there was also a video blogging work shop. Additionally, a second team of volunteers, led by some great people from Cisco -- who also donated the hardware for the wireless installation -- went back to St. Bernard to train local residents one-on-one.

Lisa Stansky, New Orleans Legal Assistance

When it comes to using technology to rebuild New Orleans, sometimes less is more. That certainly seemed true immediately after the storm, when there was no power, few or no land lines, and little or no cellular phone service across a swath of the gulf region. Basic communication tools, when they worked, became lifelines, sometimes literally.

What happened? People took baby steps. But the truly remarkable thing, observers note, is that those who were low-tech or no-tech quickly got with the program. Average cell phone users learned how to text. People who never touched a computer keyboard quickly picked up the basics of e-mail communication and online research.

Deborah Cotton, LouisianaRebuilds.info

There are some words we are so beleaguered by, we don't use them anymore. We don't say Katrina, we just say "the storm" -- or "the Thing".

This is really like living in a civilization that has been shattered and blasted throughout the universe. From the outside looking in, it's hard to imagine the many details that come together to making your life work. Sometimes the basic pieces of information take half a day, even days to track down -- how to get utilities restored, where and when you can find food or gas in your area, how to find your doctor or old medical records.

LouisianaRebuilds.info is dedicated to pulling all the information together that can help people reconstruct their lives.

AdamNicholson's NTENny DisplayI'm composing this weekly round-up differently this week, for two reasons: 1) there's a LOT of buzz in the blog- and twitter-spheres from and about NTEN members because of last week's conference, so I'll be truncating the summaries; and 2) I want to take this opportunity to share my thoughts about the conference and the NTEN community -- and thank everyone for the great experience.

First up, here's an abbreviated round-up of the 08NTC-related posts from members:

Laura B. Crochet, LANO New Orleans

On August 28th, 2005, we had a cool city, an alive, vibrant city. Then the lights went out, and it was the Dark Ages here.

In St. Bernard Parish, 25 feet of water in rose in 23 minutes -- not even the length of a sitcom. Slab houses bobbed like ice cubes along the street and floated down 3 blocks. Months later, the house's curtains are still in the windows, dancing; kids’ papers are still on the refrigerator. Like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, I had to touch those houses, because I had a hard time believing that a house had been picked up and sat down like that.

The only reason the community is going to come back is that nonprofits, faith-based groups, schools, colleges, people like you, have come in.