Sybase donates software for SARS battle in China

Computerworld - When the Chinese Embassy in Washington sent out hundreds of e-mails early last month asking the world for ideas and information on how to control the wildfire-like spread of SARS, hopes were high for valuable contributions.
Among those offering a quick response was Sybase Inc., which donated some $300,000 worth of database management software that will be used to help monitor and track existing and new cases of the potentially fatal respiratory disease.
Larry Wu, second secretary for science and technology at the Chinese Embassy, said he sent out the e-mails at the suggestion of his boss, Jin Xiaoming, the minister counselor of the embassy. Hundreds of replies came back from technology companies, business associations, consultants and others, mostly in the U.S.
One of the e-mail recipients was the nonprofit Computerworld Honors Program, which recognizes IT users around the world who take technology in new and innovative directions to benefit mankind. (Computerworld is on the board of the Honors Program and is a co-founder of the group, which was established in 1988.) One of the program's main goals is to bring together people who might be able to help each other using technology throughout the world, said Dan Morrow, executive director of the program in Herndon, Va. For the group, the SARS problem was a perfect issue.
Wu's e-mail was forwarded by Morrow and his staff to members of the Honors Program board, including a representative at Sybase's offices in China.
John Chen, CEO and chairman of Sybase, said his company's manager in China quickly e-mailed Chen and other executives inside the company, suggesting that they assist the Chinese health authorities. "We all immediately, within minutes, said 'great idea,'" Chen said. "They asked for help, and we were just qualified in this case to help them."
Wu said the e-mail mass mailing brought in many suggestions.
"This was a huge chain, and we really don't know how many received it," Wu said. Some respondents offered products or medicines and some offered other types of assistance.
But Sybase made a specific offer to send an assortment of software products free of charge -- including Sybase IQ, Enterprise Application Server, Adaptive Server Enterprise, PowerBuilder and PowerDesigner -- to create critically needed databases to track and monitor SARS cases in hospitals, emergency rooms and other health centers across the country.
Dublin, Calif.-based Sybase made the donation to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) to establish a data analysis system across the country's medical departments and institutes. "It was very