Social Networking in Post-Katrina New Orleans

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How social networking saved New Orleans

Powered by community, New Orleans residents exposed city hall and the power of social software

By John Fontana , Network World , 06/27/2008

If there is any doubt to the power of social media, social networking and social software, then nonbelievers may need to Think New Orleans.

In a powerful presentation on the marriage of software tools and crowds of people in desperate need of organization around a cause, Alan Gutierrez of the nonprofit group Think New Orleans detailed an inspiring post-Hurricane Katrina story of how a crash course in social networking helped people emerge from the rubble; find their voice; fight the government; solicit help; and save their neighborhoods, schools and each other.

At the annual Burton Group conference, Gutierrez, a self-described underemployed programmer looking to lend his considerable talent to nonprofit causes, told a story he entitled “Innovating Your Way Out of Total System Failure” to highlight how residents in a handful of the hardest-hit neighborhoods used ingenuity, creativity, digital cameras, Flickr, WordPress, Google Maps and Yahoo Groups to bend rebuilding efforts to the will of the people and away from the wrecking balls swung by city government.

"We had to find a way to divide and conquer," Gutierrez says. "Citizens became our knowledge workers. We were able to collect experts and to use their viewpoint as a home owner to help do the job that the government was supposed to do. People reached out to these tools because they were compelled to."