During a live chat session, Tulane President Scott Cowen follows the flow of questions along with Debbie Grant, vice president for university communications.

The power of the Internet helped Tulane reconnect after the diaspora following Hurricane Katrina, and technology that was employed for the first time by the university in a crisis now is keeping the momentum going in the vital realm of recruitment and admissions.

LiveWorld Inc., a leading online community agency headquartered in San Jose, Calif., has been supporting Tulane University's program to maintain its community since Hurricane Katrina disrupted the usual lines of communication. Long before the university reopened for the spring 2006 semester, LiveWorld began producing weekly live, interactive webcasts on the Internet and providing a message board to communicate with and maintain relationships with the Tulane community of students, faculty, staff and alumni.

LiveWorld provided these services to Tulane at no charge and many LiveWorld employees donated their time to moderate the services. Jive Software, a strategic partner of LiveWorld, also waived its fees associated with these services. LiveWorld hosted eight live chats during the fall 2005 semester, live webstreaming of forums at New York University and Newcomb College, and message boards.

"Katrina compromised our technology infrastructure, including our website, and it was going to take some time to get it back up and running," explains Tulane President Scott Cowen. "We knew we needed a Web-based means of communicating with the Tulane community, which consisted of 13,000 students and 6,000 employees.

"LiveWorld played a major role in helping us reconnect the online Tulane community and we will always be grateful for their generosity."

Through live, interactive webcasts, Cowen was able to communicate vital information about university operations and the state of the campuses. The real-time, chat-based events allowed Tulanians to log on from remote locations, ask questions and receive immediate answers from the university president.

Cowen would sit in a room with a LiveWorld transcriptionist on speakerphone. The transcriptionist would read the questions to Cowen, while they simultaneously appeared on his computer screen. As he dictated his answers, he could read along on the screen as she typed in his responses in real-time, making sure his answer was clear.

The work with Tulane demonstrates the power of the Internet, says Peter Friedman, chairman and chief executive officer of LiveWorld.

"Like everyone, we wanted to support the victims of Katrina. We jumped at the chance and the privilege to help Tulane University," Friedman adds. "Further, this underscores how powerful and positive the Internet can be for our society at large: after decades of technology--as great as it is--isolating people, the Internet brings people back together, supporting them in ways that could never be done before."

Coincidentally, Friedman's nephew Andrew Jahier is a Tulane senior majoring in business management who served as director of Tulane Emergency Medical Services in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The live, online chats with Cowen received such a warm reception that the Tulane Office of Undergraduate Admission has enlisted the aid of LiveWorld. Incoming students can sign up on an admission web page to be invited to participate in weekly, live online chats with admission counselors.

On Sunday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. central (8 p.m. eastern), Cowen will be available to answer questions from prospective students and their parents during a live online chat--the first of a series of live chats Cowen will be hosting this academic year.

"The chats are a wonderful opportunity for our prospective students and their parents to voice any questions or concerns directly to the man in charge," says Earl Retif, vice president for enrollment management and university registrar. "Getting a direct answer from the president must be very reassuring that Tulane is a special place."

LiveWorld creates, operates and manages private-label online social networks and customer communities based on its unique community applications and moderation platform, which is available in more than 30 country/language combinations. This year, marking the company's 10th anniversary, LiveWorld announced that it has logged more than one million hours of online moderation services.