NetGuard Proposal Under DebateNetGuard Proposal Under Debate

The Senate subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space held a hearing last week to discuss the high-tech sector's ability to provide aid during national emergencies, like the crisis of Sept. 11. Up for debate was a proposal championed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the subcommittee, to create a national volunteer corps of skilled IT workers to aid in future rescue and recovery efforts, as well as help restore and repair damaged communications infrastructure.

Speakers at the hearing were divided on what kind of services the proposed National Emergency Technology Guard, or NetGuard, should provide--and whether such a group is needed at all. John Marburger, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, says that a "virtual science corps" is already available through the coordination of existing organizations, such as the American Association of Universities and the National Coordination Office for Information Technology R&D. Marburger recommends encouraging voluntary preparedness among organizations, including implementing IT disaster-recovery procedures as well as promoting standards for coordinating disaster-recovery responses.

One proponent of the proposed NetGuard concept is Intel chairman Andy Grove. Intel sent a team of 15 people to Ground Zero to provide technical assistance and computers to the New York National Reserve and a few businesses. Two dozen computers with Internet access lent to the effort provided search and rescue workers with E-mail and access to online news. The experience convinced Julie Coppernoll, a technical assistant to Grove who spent a month at the site and spoke at the hearing, that the IT community should play a role in responding to national disasters. "There's no question that technology could have done more to assist in the aftermath of the disaster by providing quicker access to information as well as supporting more families, more businesses, and the rescue teams," she says.

The details of how NetGuard would be organized have yet to be decided. But Andrew Rasiej, president, CEO, and co-founder of online music company Digital Club Network, who worked with Wyden on the proposal, envisions a volunteer corps of up to 100,000 IT workers drawn from top high-tech companies. NetGuard would have a federal budget, maintain a reserve of computer equipment, and could call upon "reservists" at the request of state and federal agencies. "If leaders of the IT community really believe information technology is a fundamental part of our economy and society, they need to answer the country's call for relief and recovery," Rasiej says.

Not everyone agrees that modeling technology assistance after the National Guard will work. Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, an IT industry trade association, says repairs to critical infrastructure are best made by the companies with the expertise to build that infrastructure, not by a hodgepodge of volunteers from "hither and yon." Volunteers may be well-intentioned and well-educated, Miller says, "but that doesn't mean they're the best ones to bring up a critical piece of infrastructure. Companies with the expertise in that field are the ones you want."