Taking it a step further, we have felt strongly, particularly over the last decade, that the most important way we can make a contribution to the communities in which we live and work is through our technology. We believe we have something unique to contribute in that regard. And we also believe that when we focus our technological expertise and our problem solving skills on a social or educational issue, the bottom line is significantly greater than any dollar amount we might attach to that effort.

PND: How has the widespread adoption of the Web and Web-based technologies changed the way IBM pursues its philanthropy?

RW: Well, for starters, it's given us new tools to do that work. For example, when IBM was first getting interested in improving elementary and secondary education twenty years ago, we didn't have a basket of technologies that were particularly relevant to that objective. We were all about huge mainframe computers, and, other than hosting data for large city school districts, what did they have to do with elementary and secondary education? Today, in contrast, we've created dozens of Web and PC-based tools that are designed to help teachers collaborate and sharpen their teaching skills. We've developed tools that help youngsters learn how to read. The Web itself is an incredible tool and can make a huge difference in solving some of these issues. Because we do business in more than a hundred countries, the Web also gives us — and this is relevant to disaster relief — more capacity to mobilize IBMers in response to emergencies around the globe than we've ever had before.

PND: An excellent example of that is the work you did in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Tell us a little bit about the role IBM played in the weeks and months following the attacks?

RW: Sure. Let me start by saying that while IBM is no longer headquartered in New York City, we have a long relationship with the city and think of it as one of our homes. In the case of 9/11, you probably remember that the September 11th Fund was established by the New York Community Trust and the United Way of New York City within twenty-four hours of the attacks. Even before the fund was actually launched, though, the folks at the Trust and the United Way, as well as at some of the major foundations in New York, started talking to each other about how they should respond, and IBM was part of those preliminary discussions. In fact, we made a commitment of $5 million in technology, services and cash to the September 11th Fund — one of the first, if not the first, commitment of support it received.

We also moved immediately to help foundations and other responders convene and plan their recovery effort. We had IBMers who are very experienced in disaster relief asking, How do we get this off the ground? How do we get everybody on the same page so that they can respond in a coordinated fashion? All the while, we were also working with thousands of customers to address their technology needs — work that eventually dovetailed with the recovery efforts to assure that the impact on jobs in the New York City region was as limited as possible.

Our next step was to mobilize our crisis-response team. In the weeks following the attacks, the team developed a building survey for the City of New York, helped to establish a secure wireless communications system at ground zero — the only one that was operational in those first few weeks — and put a team in place at the city's emergency management headquarters to consult on technology and infrastructure issues, including getting the technology infrastructure in the Wall Street area back up and running.

We also continued to work with the September 11th Fund and, later, with the 9/11 United Services Group, a partnership of thirteen of the major relief organizations that was formed in December of 2001 to coordinate the provision of social services to victims of the attacks. Among other things, we built a database of the victims and their families that was used by all the major charities and relief organizations to track the assistance delivered to the victims and their families. And while setting up a database is a fairly straightforward undertaking these days, in the case of 9/11 there were huge concerns around the issue of client confidentiality. So we not only had to develop the database, we had to create a mechanism for sharing that information securely among the various organizations involved in the effort and figure out a way to ease the concerns of and inspire confidence in the people who were using it.

We also developed a system that was used to track people who enrolled in a work-training and -placement program created by the September 11th Fund in the wake of the attacks. Both those systems — the one we created for the United Services Group and the work-training system — were in use until the last nickel earmarked for 9/11 was paid out. Ironically, I was invited to the final board meeting of the September 11th Fund this past December, which was just ten days before the tsunami hit.

PND: Well, let's talk about the tsunami and IBM's response to the disaster. How did you first learn that a huge underwater earthquake had triggered a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean?

RW: I first learned about it on Sunday, just like everybody else, from the news. But within hours I was beginning to get first-hand accounts from some of our people in the region. IBM employs a huge number of people throughout Asia, one of whom, Louise Davis, oversees the company's charitable giving and volunteer activities in Asia Pacific from her base in Sydney, Australia. As you might expect, it being the day after Christmas, Louise's entire family was visiting her that day. Well, her son's fiancée just happened to be from Thailand, and he received a call from her family, which was probably the first information of any kind about the tsunami received by a member of our Corporate Community Relations group. As soon he got off the phone, of course, Louise began to make calls to our community relations staff in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India.

By Monday morning, I had heard from Louise and Brent Wentworth, the head of IBM's crisis-response team. IBM is unique, I think, in that, as part of our consulting business, we have a permanent crisis-response group, which, when not responding actively to a disaster, works with public agencies and government at all levels — city, state, and federal — to think about and develop disaster-planning procedures. And when there's a natural disaster anywhere in the world, they are among the first to grab their passports and head out the door. I mean, this is a team of people who are incredibly experienced, incredibly skilled, and have relationships with governments around the globe, and because of that they're able to make an immediate impact as soon as they get to a stricken area.

PND: Did you continue to monitor the situation in South Asia throughout the day on Monday and into Tuesday? And did your response to the disaster change as the scope of the disaster became apparent?

RW: IBM's CEO, Sam Palmisano, was involved in the response from the first news reports on Sunday evening. He directed us to gather information on IBMers, IBM customers, and the communities that had been affected by the tsunami and to respond immediately in whatever ways we could. So, we mobilized the crisis-response team and began to authorize the release of resources late on Monday. By Tuesday, however, it was clear that the scope of this disaster was much greater than anything we had dealt with since 9/11. Generally, our process in a disaster is first to decide whether to engage the crisis-response team, which was done almost immediately in this case. Once that decision is made, the team heads to the scene of the disaster, usually for two weeks, to assess local needs, the state of the infrastructure, and so on. The team also makes the initial recommendation with regard to immediate cash assistance. In the case of the tsunami, the team completed its initial assessment on Tuesday, and by midweek, Stanley Litow, our vice president for corporate community relations, had reviewed the situation with Mr. Palmisano, who then authorized the release of $1 million in technology and IBM services. That was eventually increased to $3 million, once more complete information and action proposals were received from all the countries that had suffered damage.

PND: Which countries did the team visit? And what exactly was their job once they were on the ground?

RW: Members of the team visited Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. We were lucky in the case of India, because we had worked with folks there following the earthquake that struck the province of Gujurat in January 2001. We don't go into a country until we get a formal invitation from that country's government. Once we receive that invitation, we reach out to the government in question, explain the crisis-response services we're able to provide, and offer our assistance. We do not believe it's helpful for people to simply get on a plane and descend on a place that has been devastated by a natural disaster. In fact, we tell our own people, "Please, sit still. We have people who are very experienced in this kind of thing and we are mobilizing them. If you want to do something, make a donation." Over the years, we've learned that countries have their own protocols and procedures, and the last thing we want to do is to second-guess local officials who know their own people and countries better than we could ever hope to. We're there to work within the existing structure to make sure things are done as efficiently and effectively as possible.

So, as I mentioned, members of the team were mobilized to India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and once on the ground immediately began their assessment of the situation. Typically, they try to learn what they can about the capabilities of the local government and what resources it can bring to bear on the situation. They want to know what NGOs are already there and which ones are coming. They want to know what the Red Cross has done and is doing, what CARE has done and is doing, and what else needs to be done. All the while, they work very hard to be collaborative and to be sensitive to the local culture. There are always cultural issues that come into play. In the case of the tsunami, for example, the government of India, which sees itself, and rightly so, as a rising global power, declined assistance from other governments as they responded through their own relief and emergency systems. And we had to respect that.

In addition, there are all sorts of logistical issues that need to be addressed. We happen to be pretty good at those kinds of things. Our team knows how to set up relief centers; it knows how to set up temporary living arrangements. We know how to set up a database to track donations. We have a standard emergency assistance application form that, in the case of the tsunami, we were able to enhance and use to track displaced persons. Responding to a disaster like the tsunami essentially means setting up a huge business in as short a period of time as possible. There are huge technology needs, in terms of identifying needs, tracking donations, making sure people are getting the right services, reuniting families, even, unfortunately, identifying bodies. All those things rely on technology and the ability to manage technology, and that's what we bring to the table.

PND: Where does the coordination of your activities take place in a disaster like this? In-country? Here in New York? Both?

RW: In-country. We trust our crisis-response team and the local IBM teams to do that and make the right decisions. For example, IBM has a large presence in Thailand, and our country general manager there is very much a leader in her community. One of her jobs in a situation like this is to introduce the crisis-response team to local officials as soon as they arrive in country. It's that combination of local expertise and the specific experience of the crisis-response team that really allows us to make a difference. The same is true of the IBM general managers in India and Indonesia. Even Sri Lanka, where the IBM workforce is considerably smaller but no less visible.

PND: How would you characterize the coordination among the many different entities — NGOs, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, foundations, corporations — that responded to this disaster?

RW: It has been remarkable. In addition to working with the various governments in the countries I mentioned, IBM has provided technology to a number of NGOs, including the Red Cross, Oxfam, and CARE, and has worked closely with the United Nations. And from day one, I think, people have understood that this is not the time to fight over turf or to fundraise; this is a time to get things done. And they have, under conditions that truly have been harrowing.

I'll give you a small example. Immediately after the disaster, one of our researchers, Dr. Sanjiva, who happens to live in Sri Lanka, contacted me and said he had fifteen open-source software developers who were ready to do whatever we needed. So we asked them to create a data-management system that would be easy and inexpensive to customize and enhance. Which they did, in near-record time, and since then IBM has offered it to all the governments and NGOs involved in the relief effort. It's just one example among many of the spirit of cooperation that has animated the whole enterprise.

PND: To what do you attribute that spirit of cooperation? Did 9/11 have something to do with it?

RW: Well, I certainly think the organizations that worked in New York City after the September 11 attacks learned the importance of cooperation. That was one of the positive outcomes of 9/11. And I think in the more than three years since then, there has been a growing understanding of the roles and expertise that different agencies and organizations are able to bring to the table in a disaster-response situation.

PND: Were there other lessons you and your colleagues learned from 9/11 that you've been able to apply to this disaster?

PND: Absolutely. The first is, Take a deep breath; then listen. Find out what people need; don't tell them what you have. That's very, very important.

Second, make sure that nobody is left out or gets lost in the system. That's something that was problematic initially in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but it seems that everyone has been much more focused on it in South Asia. In fact, I would say it has become a hallmark of disaster relief. You go in and get your system set up quickly so that everybody gets assessed, everybody gets the help they need, and you don't lose track of anybody. It's also important to track the dollars so that you keep the faith of your donors. Those kinds of systems, open systems that everyone can use and contribute to, help bring organizations together and make the whole process more efficient.

The third thing to remember in this kind of work is to look to the future. We did that after 9/11, when we found we still had about $150,000 of our original commitment left over, even though we had done everything we had planned to do. So we decided to wrap up our commitment by donating special computers — we call them Kidsmart Early Learning Centers — designed to help teach young children basic skills to every kindergarten south of 14th Street that had been affected by the attacks. It was our way of saying it was time to think about how we help the children of New York City move forward and how we create a better world for them.

The same needs to happen in Indonesia and India and Sri Lanka, where so many people lost their lives, where tens of thousands of people will be living in temporary housing for months to come, where schools need to be rebuilt. In Indonesia, you have an entire province that needs infrastructure, that needs roads, that needs water, that needs electricity. You have adults and children who have experienced the unimaginable, and they're going to need support and counseling for years to come. Once again, we're providing our Kidsmart Early Learning Centers to new schools and sites where children will be receiving services. So, I think the fourth, and maybe the most important lesson, is to remember that just because the tsunami is no longer on the front page of your local newspaper or on the nightly news doesn't mean everything is back to normal. Far from it. I hope Americans understand that, and understand that we all need to continue to be generous and continue to look for ways to help the people affected by this terrible disaster.

PND: How long will IBM remain on the ground in the areas affected by the tsunami?

RW: The members of the crisis-response team will probably be home by the end of February. Our goal, when we set up these systems, is to train and transfer responsibility for them to local people as quickly as we can. For example, we set up a Web site in Thailand that's already been transferred over to another NGO. Same with several other projects. Again, our objective is to develop the system, bring in the equipment to host it, and train local folks to operate that equipment. I imagine we'll continue to provide technical assistance and advice for another two to three months. But our modus operandi in these situations is to come in, listen, be helpful, provide the local population with some new skills, tools, and equipment, and then leave.

PND: Will you be sending folks back to the region a year from now to assess the impact of your efforts?

RW: We have an ongoing community relations program in each of these countries, and I'm sure local IBM staff and the community relations manager in each of these countries will be monitoring the situation and making sure that things are proceeding according to plan.

PND: Obviously, the tsunami was a terrible, terrible disaster, and IBM is doing what it can to alleviate some of the suffering and help put the people of the region on the road to recovery. But in addition to your disaster-response efforts, you and your colleagues are busy thinking of ways to use technology to solve some of humanity's other problems. One of your recent initiatives is something called the World Community Grid. What is the grid, and how do you hope it will be used to address some of these larger issues?

RW: The grid is a way of leveraging peer-to-peer technology to solve some pretty big problems. Without going into too much detail, it's actually an infrastructure that allows us to aggregate the idle power of PCs and laptops all over the world. If you're like me, you have a laptop that has a lot of processing power, but that power sits idle most of the time because you only use the machine for e-mail or to write memos. Well, IBM wants that idle processing power.

The way it works is pretty simple. Anybody who wants to participate in the program is asked to download a small piece of software onto their laptop or PC. The software is totally secure; it doesn't look at your hard drive — we have absolutely no interest in what's on your PC. The only thing it's programmed to do is to detect excess processing power. The minute it does, it contacts a server connected to the network, which in turn farms out a computation to that particular computer. All this happens in the background. The minute you want to use your PC or laptop, you hit a key and, voila, you have full access to your computer's processing power. In the meantime, though, we're able to harvest your computer's idle capacity and aggregate it with the idle capacity of tens of thousands of other computers, creating, in effect, a powerful supercomputer. Actually, in the just over three months that the grid has been operational, we've managed to aggregate the equivalent of one ThinkPad running non-stop for 5,000 years!

What do we do with all that idle processing power? Well, right now we're applying it to a fascinating project involving the human proteome. Proteins are the main chemical drivers of the human body, and the more we know about how they function, the better our chances of curing diseases like diabetes and malaria. But we're also eager to identify new research projects that require vast amounts of processing power. There's no shortage of challenges facing humanity, and we'd like to use our technology to make sure that every single kilobyte of idle processing power is put to good use. Plus, it's a great way for individuals to give something back. It only takes five minutes to join, and once you do you'll be part of a growing worldwide community of more than 70,000 people.

PND: And the idea is also to share that harvested processing power with other people?

RW: Absolutely. The World Community Grid site has an entire request for proposals section where people can submit a project for consideration. There are some technical requirements about the kind of computations we can do, but the technology is the easiest part to resolve.

PND: Very interesting. Can we check back with you in a year to see how it's going?

RW: We'd love that.

PND: Well, thanks so much for speaking with us today, Robin.

RW: Thank you. I enjoyed it.

Mitch Nauffts, PND's editorial director, spoke with Robin Willner in February. For more information on the Newsmakers series, contact Mitch at mfn@fdncenter.org.