Environmental disruptions such as natural disasters or war are not new. What is new is that we are now living in an age where video and audio sharing, podcasts, email, blogs, wikis, Internet forums, Internet telephony, IM, cell phones, and other communication and data-sharing technologies are nearly ubiquitous for many people in many parts of the world. Whereas less than a decade ago people still relied primarily on radio or television broadcasting or newspaper reports to hear news about an environmental disruption or to receive instructions, information about disruptions is now nearly real time and ubiquitious. Anyone with an Internet connection and a modest amount of software can broadcast or access information in real time about the event. Ordinary citizens now have the capacity to control information about the disruption as opposed to primarily "official" commercial or government news sources.

In Project REACT, we are investigating how information technology can be used to support resilience among people living in disrupted environments. In an era of global competition there are not only social and psychological reasons for continuing to work and to socialize but also far-reaching economic reasons for residents to be resilient when their environment is disrupted. If the local environment affects people's ability to deliver, customers and clients will go elsewhere in the global arena.

We are examining the following research questions:

How can mobile and Internet technologies help people in repairing their work and social lives when the environment is disrupted?

What requirements can we identify that can be used to develop technologies that can support collaboration resilience when the environment is disrupted?

To date we have been conducting investigations with residents of Iraq who have experienced the current Gulf war and with residents of Israel who have experienced the Israeli-Lebanon war in 2006. We invite you to read our papers.