Community Responds to Katrina

The tech community is playing a role in the massive Katrina relief effort.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 19, 2005]

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the ISP industry stepped up to help. Some offers may seem like promotions, but we believe that every dollar that actually goes to relief efforts should be put to good use.

The FCC has posted a web page on Katrina here.

Several groups went directly to the disaster area:

• Sascha Meinrath's operation can be tracked from the web site of the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network. The Community Wireless Response Team's equipment needs and mailing address are posted here.
  
  
• PART-15.org, which recently closed a lawsuit with the parent company of this website, is organizing a relief effort here.

Here are some other things ISPs have done:

• San Diego, Calif.-based webhost Aplus.net committed to donating $1 of every sale in September to relief efforts.
  
  
• Pleasanton, Calif.-based Pronto networks helped Intel, MCI's SkyTel, and Tropos enable broadband wireless connectivity in New Orleans, Biloxi, and Baton Rouge.
  
  
• Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Affinity Internet is donating an unspecified amount to the Red Cross and is matching employee donations.
  
  
• Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Go Daddy announced [.pdf] a $250,000 donation to relief agency AmeriCares.
  
  
• Phoenix, Ariz.-based IPOWER announced that it is collecting goods for the 500 evacuees in Phoenix and is matching employee donations to the Red Cross.
  
  
• San Antonio, Tex.-based Rackspace Managed Hosting announced that it is hosting missing persons web sites for free and that the company and its employees are making an unspecified donation to the San Antonio Food Bank.
  
  
• Atlanta, Ga.-based Interland is operating the Katrina Survivor-Connector List and is encouraging visitors to its website to make donations.
  
  
• Atlanta, Ga.-based EarthLink's Katrina website encourages visitors to donate to the Red Cross and is helping people find each other.
  
  
• Google has created a Katrina Resources page.

Unfortunately, some are taking advantage of the catastrophe to further their own agendas. Anti-virus firms are warning that the latest scams take advantage of people's thirst for information to infect them with viruses, as this note from Sophos shows.

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