Contactlovedones.org helps displaced Katrina victims get in touch

One VoIP-related project that is helping Katrina victims right now is contactlovedones.org. The project involves a free voicemail system set up to help displaced New Orleanians receive voicemails from concerned friends and family. Dialing the number 866-78-CONTACT connects callers to an automated prompt, where people can leave voice mail messages for displaced friends or family, based on the person's New Orleans telephone number. New Orleans residents can retrieve messages by dialing the 866 number, then entering their old phone number at the prompt.

The system is based on the open-source Asterisk IP PBX system, which includes automated attendant and voicemail management applications. Five Linux boxes run the Asterisk servers along with Apache Web server and a MySQL database, which creates and organizes the voicemail boxes according to phone numbers. Voicemails are stored as compressed WAV files, and can also be accessed via the Web.

More VON 2005 news

"This system would have cost well over $50,000 and taken many months to set up," if traditional telephone hardware and software were used, says Yaakov Menken, one of the site's creators, and CEO of Capalon Internet Solutions, a Baltimore-based Web hosting company. Instead, VoIP and open-source technology allowed the site to go up in weeks. 

Always connected: virtue or vice?

VON being a diverse show with attendees from all over the world, a group of orthodox Jewish men at the show managed to find a quite place on the exhibit floor to form a minyan, or orthodox prayer group. As the men bowed and prayed, one person in the group appeared to be thumbing a hand-held mobile communications device. One observer noted: "If you're going to make time in your schedule for prayers, just put the Treo away."

Editor's Note: On Sept. 26, we received this feedback from a reader: "Regarding your article about my using my Treo during our Jewish prayer service. You will be happy to know that I was not checking e-mail, Rather I was using my Palm Hebrew prayer book that I keep on my Treo during the services!! I keep it there specifically for times when I need to pray and no prayer books are available. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify."