Collaborative Information Technology(CIT) Applications in Post-Disaster Public-Private Partnerships

Collaborative Information Technology(CIT) Applications in Post-Disaster Public-Private Partnerships

The last several years of the Atlantic Hurricane Season have been some of the busiest and most destructive in history. Although paling in human terms in comparison to the Asian Tsunami with its sobering loss of life, a series of Atlantic Hurricanes from 2004 – 2008 have generated some of the largest response and recovery efforts in U.S. history with damage estimates exceeding $100 billion. This paper will discuss two unique public-private partnerships, which operating as computer supported virtual organizations helped redefine state and federal response relating to post disaster construction and temporary housing issues in a disaster. In doing so, the paper will expand collaborative information technology (CIT). The term CIT is used to denote asynchronous technology that provides support for coordination and collaboration through computer supported communication. Although CIT, closely related Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) are usually associated with constructing or managing interorganizational communication, this paper will explore how web based technology bridged the information gap between government, the private sector, and victims left homeless by a series of catastrophic hurricanes.