A Ray of Light in a Day of Darkness

We at Wirelessreport.net were among several thousand wireless technology professionals from all over the world who were in San Diego at the Cellular Telephone and Internet Association's (CTIA) Wireless IT 2001 convention when those unspeakably—and until September 11, unimaginably—cruel acts of terror struck New York and Washington, D.C. As things turned out, it was the only convention in America not canceled as a result of the carnage and our communal heartbreak.

There, stranded thousands of miles from home, we turned to our colleagues and fellow conference attendees for support, to talk, cry, and share our feelings about the terrible events of that day. CTIA, recognizing that thousands of people were already there and unable to return home, made the decision not to cancel the conference. At first, some attendees were surprised - but as the week continued, we all realized that having our community of peers and colleagues all together made it somehow easier to make sense of September 11th's seeming senselessness.

The exhibition hall, in the cavernous San Diego Convention Center stretching many blocks in length, felt so uncrowded, but almost all of the exhibitors were there—more often providing a listening ear and hug than a product or service promotion. It was a very different kind of convention, for a very different kind of week. Instead of wanting to talk about technology, we wanted to talk about our feelings, our fears and anger, our sympathy for the thousands of families who experienced tragic losses. The President and CEO of CTIA, Tom Wheeler, began the conference with a moment of silence to remember the victims—and a pledge that we would not, as an industry and as a country, be defeated by the forces of darkness and terror.

Because of the ubiquity of wireless technology, particularly cell phones, we were all provided with a unique and intimate perspective on last week's tragic events—transporting us right onboard those doomed flights, where we were privy to the farewell messages to loved ones by those brave passengers, whose very calmness, and remarkable lack of panic, helped us to heal, and whose eloquent farewell messages helped bring us and their loved ones a sense of closure. On United Airlines Flight 93, wireless technology helped to inspire heroic action, bringing news to those passengers of the World Trade Center attacks, and informing them of the peril that they faced—motivating them to action and quite possibly saving the White House—or Capital Building—from destruction. Were it not for their decisive and bold action to retake their aircraft—and to ensure it did not complete its cruel mission—America may well have lost one more symbol of its freedom, and many thousands more innocent civilians may have been harmed.

During the ongoing search and rescue efforts, cell phone records have helped to identify who was in the vicinity of the World Trade Center, identifying some of those whose voices were suddenly silenced, and others, who by a quirk of fortune, were not. Stories emanated from the rubble of survivors calling loved ones who were as far away as Israel; and those, less fortunate, who called to say goodbye—trapped above the fiery remains of those crashed planes, unable to descend to safety. A startled President Bush was reported to have asked the traveling press corps aboard Air Force One to turn off their cell phones, afraid that the terrorists would turn our wireless technology against us as they had our aircraft—cutting off what he feared could be a beacon, leading terror directly to the airborne presidential jet.

Wireless technology thus provided us with much more than a window. It provided such a close and intimate connection, that it enabled us to become very much more than observers, helping us to shape the outcome of events and lessen their ferocity. It enabled so many deeply moving messages of farewell and love, helping surviving loved ones with closure, and to find meaning instead of meaninglessness in this tragedy. And that events were influenced by the knowledge of the other attacks, delivered by cell phones to airborne passengers—allowing them to transform from victims into heroes, from hostages to freedom fighters—suggests something more powerful: an ability to alter and sometimes even prevent evil, thanks to the ubiquitous nature of the medium.