Photo at left by RubyJi;  photo at right by SteveGarfield

Ever since I first heard of the Gentilly Project, about a year ago at the Berkman Sunlight meeting, I've been wanting to do something to contribute.  What's not to love?  They are using geographic information systems to facilitate the rebuilding of a New Orleans neighborhood that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Here's a quick description from the Gentilly Project's homebase at Dartmouth:

"Senior research fellow Quintus Jett has partnered with Xun Shi of the Geography Department at Dartmouth College to invent a prototype mapping system designed to deploy after neighborhood devastation, follow progress, and pinpoint what aid is needed where. By using this new public mapping system, everyone—researchers, developers, politicians, and local citizens—will be able to see what's done, and what needs to be done, with the sole purpose being to accelerate rebuilding.

"The first application of this mapping system is the mapping of the entire district of Gentilly, a severely flood-damaged area in New Orleans, home to over 40,000 residents pre-Katrina. The project's public mapping of over 12,000 homes is the most current, and comprehensive look at the rebuilding progress in the city....

"Jett's research employs organizational science and digital technologies to create an organizational framework that allows for an "open" participation in disaster recovery. Developing these tools and applying organizational models may help advance the understanding of how to manage network-based community participation, in conditions where strict bureaucratic and market controls are absent or infeasible...."

At the Berkman Sunlight meeting, I had the great good fortune to meet and sit next to the project's founder, Quintus Jett.  (Not only did he have fascinating information to impart, but he turned out to have the most beautiful manners I've seen in quite some time.  I'm not very well-behaved myself, but I deeply appreciate those who are.)  The Katrina PeopleFinder Project team and its fans in the nonprofit sector were not the only ones speculating about the future of the internet as a social welfare delivery system.  Au contraire!  Quintus and his colleagues, denizens of the Tuck School of Business, were both deploying their digital strategy chops and getting feet on the street in New Orleans. Volunteers walk from house to house in the district, assessing the status of damage and repair of each building, and feeding this data into the mapping system.

Some time in the last month or so, it dawned on me that I was headed to New Orleans for NTC, and might be able to make myself useful to the Gentilly Project.  I therefore petitioned my new friend Quintus to make use of my humble services, and it turned out that the timing coincided well with his needs.  I connected him up with a member of the team that is coordinating the NTEN Day Of Service in New Orleans on March 19th, and anticipate that that he can have a full complement of nonprofit techies for the asking.  My own day of service with the Gentilly Project will be deferred until March 22nd; on the 19th, I'm already committed to leading an affinity group and being at the NTENny event.

If you're interested in helping the Gentilly Project during the upcoming NTC, I suggest that you let the good folks at NTEN know.  If your availability falls outside of the third week of March 2008, your best bet is to email Quintus directly (qjett AT dartmouth DOT edu).




The photo at left shows Amanda Michel, me, Quintus Jett, Chad Lupkes, and Ethan Zuckerman at a plenary session of the Berkman Sunlight working group.  The one at right shows Dan Gillmor and Micah Sifry having their minds blown by Quintus and the Gentilly Project during one of the working group's speekgeeking sessions.