Two years after the storm, the Digital Story Quilt for Hurricane Katrina Survivors and Family still exists as a memorial to the nation's upheaval over Hurricane Katrina.

I've argued that the media is the first cut at history. Through the confusion of Katrina, the world found out how often the media can get the story wrong. One story on the Katrina site counters the prevailing media story that New Orleans residents were lawless, violent criminals out to steal and pillage while they could: "those young men with guns were protecting us. if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had the little water and food they had found."

Or this commentary on the politics of Hurricane Katrina "It makes me think of what my friend Rev. Goat just told me: Let me say this before it goes any further; New Orleans didn't die of natural causes, she was murdered." Bluesman Dr. John.

The lack of publicity of the site's availability, particularly among those affected by the storm, hampered the development of more patches on the site. The disciplining of the media technology was at work, blocking stories not deemed to be newsworthy.

However, blogs and other social network technologies filled in to offer alternate opinions of what was happening in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast. Few sites offered a place like my Katrina site that allowed survivors and their families to remember, reflect and tell their story in their own words. The Katrina site, even with its limited reach, stands as a cultural memory of this historic event.

Likewise, the Digital Story Quilt has expanded beyond its original audience to include students in classrooms, teachers, and people from all over the world. That telling of a story, when used as a pedagogical tool, allows one to see oneself as part of a larger community. Students move beyond the descriptive "here I am" and are disarmed into writing of the intimate, everyday stories. Connection happens accidentally, virally as students and users caress other people's patches in the community quilt.

Each of the four quilting tactics incorporated into the digital story quilt technology defines a unique way of working with what one is given in life to create a narrative, a story that contributes to the self and to others. As my quilting skills develop, the technology will be enriched by this intimate, experiential connection to quilters past and present.