Tech-in-Kind!

Hey people!

This post wouldn’t actually come under the WANDeRiNG MiND category, but then I thought it was something worth writing about.

After the “renovation” of my page and the troubleshooting session, I was just browsing through the millions of blogs and write-ups online, at random. And here is something interesting I noticed while doing it.

There are hundreds of people out there who are trying to help the needy and many more doing it for the victims of the hurricane Katrina! Every other site I came across had a Red Cross banner requesting surfers to help them help the victims. I was curious. So I started browsing more specifically and was really surprised to see how the online community and even some software giants have come forward to help.

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America has been associated with many catastrophes in the past many years, some caused by them, some unto them. Hurricane Katrina was the latest which has left the city of New Orleans almost unrecognizable. Another hurricane (Rita) followed, but didn’t do much damage, but it still affected many. However, Katrina still rules the web. Last year, when the tsunami struck, thousands of lives were lost and thousands more were left homeless. They are still suffering and still living in the shock, while most of the world has already forgotten about it. Many of us had helped by donating a day’s salary and sending food and clothes and medicines to the victims. Many others from around the world helped in a different way. They networked the world through their blogs and websites and helped bring in the aid. Now, the online community has once again come to the forefront, to help the victims of the hurricane.

Check out the few examples of “Tech-in-Kind”
(Courtesy: the many websites and articles online)

Thanks to the many blogs and websites, right from Michael Barnett (The Interdictor) and his LiveJournal to the Times-Picayune Breaking News Blog, dedicating their time and effort to this, web surfers around the globe have access to unfiltered information coming out of New Orleans. Many sites and news stations used Google Earth to provide status updates of specific locations affected by the hurricane. With many netizens coming forward to offer assistance, the volume of information about and for the Katrina victims increased so much that someone had to come up with a way to manage them and put them to good use. And guess who led the way??? Microsoft, with its .NET framework! It developed a system to help locate people displaced or missing since the hurricane through KatrinaSafe.

In between all this, there was a villain too. And it happens to be one of the most trusted names in online payments. PayPal. They had to block some relief funds raised by the humor site Something Awful. The site had raised a whooping $28,000 in less than 9hr, until PayPal froze the funds. The reason? PayPal’s customer support was closed for the night!!!

Maybe they should consider outsourcing it, eh???

Anyways, Rich Kyanka, the founder of the site Something Awful, couldn’t figure out why the nearly $28,000 in Red Cross relief was locked. PayPal’s automated system reportedly explained that it had received more than one report of suspicious behaviour from his buyers. Mr.Kyanka was then asked by PayPal executives to fax in his driver’s license, bank records, credit card record and a written request to unlock the account. He was also told that it would take 3-5 business days to process the documents.

Now, that…I know is really painful. When I had to call my bank to find out about a missing 300 bucks (from my account), they asked me for a secret code which they never gave me in the first place. On that, they made me tell them my complete life history ending with the last 3 transactions I made from my account!!! All that, to get my money back.

Back to the villain: In the end, due to some arrangements PayPal had with another NGO, the money could not be donated to Red Cross and all of it had to be refunded.

The media says, “It’s really sad that the facilitating medium itself acted up and proved to be a villain. PayPal probably chose the worst time to play truant”. The ever-attacked, ever-so-evil Microsoft and the new am-everywhere Google (who also happens to be the new rival for Microsoft, even for its “evil” status) on the other hand actually are doing something wonderful. On the whole, the online community, especially the bloggers, has something to be proud of. And perhaps, like they rightly say, this is one of the more reliable mediums we could all turn to in the future.

A silent prayer goes out for the victims of the fury of Mother Nature.

NB: Have you tried Google’s Earth yet?? If not, you are missing out something really interesting. Recently Google thrilled me by showing a satellite image of…MG Road, and with that, my office too; in such detail that one could see the vehicles on the road! Man, I could have been out there and that could have made me famous..
the man on the moon-itor ;)

Ok, dumb joke, but seriously, you should try it. You can get it for free at http://earth.google.com/. NASA has a similar one too…but a much MUCH bigger download. It’s called World Wind.
Oh, and that’s free too.
Cool Tools!!