This post is about James Gray, a computer scientist and former Microsoft researcher, who went missing a week ago Sunday. When Gray 40ft sailboat didn’t return to port Sunday night his wife alerted the Coast Guard, but it turns out the Coast Guard are not the only ones looking for the missing sailor. Gray’s ties to the Silicon Valley community resulted in a massive collaborative effort involving Amazon, Microsoft, Google and even NASA. The New York Times had a well done piece this weekend that outlines the whole situation.

I find it amazing how critical situations bring out the most innovative solutions. The search for James Gray is now being waged on two fronts, in the physical world by the Coast Guard and in the digital world by friends, family and the technology community. If you would like to help you can do so by viewing satellite images on the Amazon Mechanical Turk service.