Everyday technology is usually morally neutral. It is not inherently good or evil. In fact, until we flip the On switch, its most valuable contribution to humanity is probably provided as a paperweight. (In my case, that's a liability rather than a benefit, since the haphazard mountains of paper that serve as my filing system already pose a significant toppling danger without the addition of more weight.) Rather than the technology itself, it is the choices that we humans make about its use that determine whether technology has a good or evil effect. The current tsunami-generated catastrophe proves that.

In the days following the tsunami, relief agencies saw an unprecedented influx of donations. Much of the cash arriving in the first hours and days came in over the Internet. According to a January 5 New York Times article, about half of the $92 million that the American Red Cross had received up to that point had come in over the Internet.

Other charities had similar tales to tell. Little more than one week after the tsunami, the Nobel Prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said that it had already received more money than it had the resources to spend in that region in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. A January 4 press release that I saw on the MSF Canada Web site stated that the worldwide MSF organization had already received more than $65 million for tsunami relief. After donations exceeded its regional spending capabilities, MSF asked people to contribute to its general emergency fund because there are still great needs elsewhere in the world and because the requirements in South Asia will continue well beyond the immediate needs.

I don't think that it is an exaggeration to say that the unparalleled magnitude and speed of donations would not have been possible without the Internet. Most charities fully staffed their call centers almost immediately and many kept donation lines open 24 hours a day. There was likely no way for them to increase phone capabilities any further in the short term. Of course, donations also come in by mail, but checks have to work their way through the postal system before being processed manually. Without a doubt, traditional donation channels cannot come close to the speed and capacity of the Internet. In fact, even that wasn't enough. The Web server of at least one major charity crashed for an hour under the load.

The force for good made possible by computers and the Internet was not limited to funds transfer. Emails, Web sites, and blogs were quickly pressed into the service of finding the missing. There were cases where, probably because of overloaded or downed phone lines, the first news that a loved one was OK came in the form of an email message.

In the blink of an eye, pictures of missing vacationers from Europe, North America, and elsewhere were transmitted over the Internet. The pictures were sent in the hope that someone would find the missing alive in a hospital, unable to communicate. Unfortunately, in many cases, the pictures identify the dead, not the living, but I suspect that even so, knowing is more consoling than not knowing.

In short, some tremendous good has already come out of this horrible disaster. It has provided the means for people around the world to tangibly demonstrate their exceptional capacity for compassion. Computers and the Internet helped them to translate that compassion into action.

With all of this good for which technology is a conduit, you might ask, where's the tirade? It starts here. Why is it that whenever technology has the potential for both good and evil, there will always be some so-called human beings who feel the need to choose the latter?

In Britain, someone skimmed email addresses off postings on a Web site that Sky News set up for people to place notices requesting information about loved ones. The person, if you can call him a person, sent at least 40 very distraught people hoax messages, purporting to come from the "Foreign Office Bureau in Thailand," saying that their loved ones were dead. What kind of sick mind would do such a thing at such a time? There was no financial benefit for him. It was just how he got his jollies. The man was caught and charged, but I don't see how he can be convicted if he's tried in any country that recognizes the insanity defense. I refuse to believe that there is any possibility that this could come out of a human mind that anyone could call sane.

There are also people setting up Web sites falsely purporting to collect money to help out in the region. Some use phishing techniques to make themselves look reputable, but instead direct people to bogus Web sites that carry the logos of legitimate charities in order to scam well-intentioned people out of their money. All fraud is reprehensible. When it is done in the name of people who are suffering horrors that are completely unimaginable for most of us, it is an unspeakable evil. (It's unspeakable in a respectable publication such as this. Corner me in private, and I will spew forth a wild torrent of expletives. There are no curses that could possibly come anywhere close to describing the depths of these people, but I would sure give it my best shot.)

Regular readers of this column know that I am no fan of cell phone text messaging. In the past, my complaints have been exclusively about the cumbersomeness of this form of communication. I never thought about its potential to serve evil purposes. But, of course, it has done exactly that.

Hoax text messages were distributed in the tsunami-affected region claiming that seafood there was spreading a very dangerous virus. As a result, people near starvation were shunning an available source of sustenance and local fishermen were being deprived of their only source of income.

The evil doesn't stop there. A Kuala Lumpur-based colleague of some UNICEF officers received a text message offering to sell children orphaned by the disaster. The seller was willing to provide any age and gender of child that the buyer wanted. Technology could have been used, without charge, to seek out extended family of these sudden orphans, but, no, it had to be used to make a buck by preying on other people's suffering. Sick. Sick. Sick.

I prefer to end these columns on a somewhat amusing note. The editor particularly likes it when I use self-deprecating humor here. But I'm having trouble being upbeat. To keep from becoming too depressed, I have to remind myself that, in addition to all of this malevolence, an unbelievable amount of good is also flowing through our electronic conduits. I promise that I'll get back to my normal tirades, with ample doses of self-deprecation, in the coming weeks.

Joel Klebanoff is a consultant, a writer, and president of Klebanoff Associates, Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based marketing communications firm. Joel has 25 years experience working in IT, first as a programmer/analyst and then as a marketer. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and an MBA, both from the University of Toronto. Contact Joel at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Speaking in the third person, he usually says something humorous about himself here. This week, at the risk of being labeled a bleeding heart liberal, he would like to use this space to encourage us all to seek ways to use our technology for the betterment of humanity.

Joel Klebanoff is a consultant, writer, and formerly president of Klebanoff Associates, Inc., a Toronto-based marketing communications firm. He has 30 years' experience in various IT capacities and now specializes in writing articles, white papers, and case studies for IT vendors and publications across North America. Joel is also the author of BYTE-ing Satire, a compilation of a year's worth of his columns. He holds a BS in computer science and an MBA, both from the University of Toronto.

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