Here Comes Everybody Reading Response #1

After reading this part of the book, "Here Comes Everybody", I am left wondering what they would have done if our technology today was not so advanced as to allow a person to start a personal webpage with links and dicussion boards. Because Ivanna was able to find out what the girls e-mail address was, I wonder if it would have been smarter for her to go directly to the police and deal with the situation that way. Ivanna is lucky that she has a friend as great as Evan that he would invest so much time and money into a project such as this. After reading, I was intrigued by the story and decided to actually look into the "StolenSidekick" webpage. The page was so full of updates and he accepts donations to make up for the money he spent keeping the webpage running. Because Ivanna already purchased a new Sidekick, they decided to auction off the cell phone on eBay and it sold for something like $2000 dollars which they divided and sent a portion of to charity. They also had a segment on 20/20 following the whole incident. It is amazing how in our society word can spread so fast regarding a simple lost cell phone. Without the technology that is present, nothing ever would have happened about the lost cell phone and Ivanna probably would have just had to move on with her life and accept the fact that an undeserving girl was running around with her Sidekick. Because Evan worked so hard to get the word out there and to get people involved, his plan to get the cell phone back, simply for the sake of gaining justice, was extremely successful. Thanks to the internet and the many people using it, Evan and Ivanna were able to convince the police to change the claim from a "lost" to a "stolen" property. Sasha was arrested for stealing the phone but Ivanna did not press charges because she felt that she had gotten exactly what she was looking for and everyone had already been through enough stress from the situation. Maybe their story will make someone think twice about stealing a phone that they found in a taxi.