Clif Guy involved in building traffic-explosive Find Kelsey Smith website

Out of the terrible tragedy of the murdered Kelsey Smith ^[1] in Kansas, Clif Guy over at The Appian Way (host of this fall’s Church IT Roundtable ^[2]) has an extremely interesting post ^[3] that gives a behind the scenes peek at how they built the findkelsey.com ^[4] website (inaccessible to me as I write this, but it’s in the Google Cache ^[5]) in the midst of being bombarded with enough hits to cause a heavyweight slashdot effect, with major news outlets linking to them and their main terms all over the top ten Google searches for at least a day.

The news is tragic, but there’s always been a passion sparked in me when I hear of people stepping up and using technology in heroic efforts to assist with emergency situations. Ranging from listening in to the Amateur (Ham) Radio ^[6] “severe weather net” on my handheld ham radio during thunderstorms, hailstorms, and tornadoes to the scramble to get everything in place for to handle a high-volume website in real time for something like this, it causes an itch I haven’t been able to personally scratch, but I enjoy living through the experiences vicariously. Part of me wonders if someday I’ll be in the wrong place at the right time to lend a hand — something that both excites and terrifies me. Fortunately, as Christians if we take a step back, we should realize that even in a high-stress situation, whether it’s our life in danger or someone else’s, God is in control and all we can do is the best we can do. Keep up the good work in all its forms. And at the least, pray for Kelsey Smith’s family, friends and community in the meantime.