Technology's Role in Rebuilding New Orleans

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.

How a Website Can Affect Real Change

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.

NTEN Member Online Round-Up: Post-NTC Style

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:

The New Orleans Renaissance

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.

2008 NTC Session Materials

Google Analytics tells us a lot of you are looking around for the session materials from the 2008 NTC -- and finding only 2007.  How dated!

So, where can you look? 

Not all of the session designers have turned in their final drafts yet, and even when they do, it's going to take us some time to get them all organized, uploaded, and linked up. The short answer, then, is come back soon.  We expect we'll be able to make the bulk of the materials available by the second week in April. We'll get the word out when everything's good to go.

In the meantime, we have uploaded the contents of the conference thumb drive to our web site, giving you access to most of what we've received so far. 

> View 2008 NTC Session Materials 

The final versions will be much more cleanly organized, we promise.