If only Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber suspect accused of blowing up those he believes responsible for polluting America with high technology, had gotten out of his wooden shack in Montana, he would have discovered good people doing good things with technology.
The Personal Communications Industry Association has a wonderful LifePage program that enables organ donor recipients to be contacted immediately when a match is found.
During National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, April 21-27, PCIA announced that requests for pagers jumped 66 percent, from 5,676 in 1994 to 9,385 last year.
Lee Sampson, overseer of the 13-year-old program, said LifePage makes “such an incredible difference in how people lead their lives. Their whole mental attitude seems to change just knowing they don’t have to be tied to a telephone while waiting for a transplant.”
“We’re proud of our efforts,” said Jay Kitchen, president of PCIA, “but there are still more than 40,000 people waiting for transplants in this country. We’d like to help raise the donor awareness level so that more lives can be saved. The paging industry will do its part.”
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, meanwhile, has brought wireless technology to schools and connected students to the Internet through an inspired program called ClassLink.
ClassLink is in 22 schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
“ClassLink’s benefits are limited only by the imagination,” says the association. “With ClassLink, the CTIA Foundation is ensuring that all children get an equal place at the cyberspace starting line as the nation races forward into the Information Age.”
Vice President Al Gore is singularly responsible for giving high-tech’s social benefits a high profile.
Policymakers are following his lead.
Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Me.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), James Exon (D-Neb.) and Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) championed a provision in the telecom act to foster advanced telecommunications at affordable rates to elementary and secondary schools, libraries and rural healthcare providers.
“The real power of technology and communications is the power to build upon and expand the strengths of our institutions. The ability to communicate and disseminate information enables us to take what is best and share it widely and effectively,” said FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, a former teacher.
…Congrats to Jerry Vaughan, deputy chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, for receiving the Distinguished Executive Award, a presidential citation that goes to only one percent of the federal executives.
