Some scientists have told Carnes that as they prepared their presentations for the symposium, they wished they could have called Gray to check their facts. The proceedings will be published in a 88-page special issue of the SIGMOD Record, a publication about data management by the Assn. for Computing Machinery.
The following day, those who searched for Gray will hold a colloquium with the Coast Guard to discuss how technology could better help in search and rescue, and whether a dedicated nonprofit organization could help.
One idea is to create software and other technology so that family and friends can quickly assemble an amateur operation, including tools to help put together a quick chain of command and resources for analyzing data. Over the weekend, the Coast Guard will take some of the searchers out on cutters to show how it does its work.
"Jim was trying to make technology more accessible," said Joseph Hellerstein, a UC Berkeley computer science professor. "He saw data access as a leveler. That's the spirit of this meeting: How do we make this kind of search possible for people who don't have access to the same resources?"
Carnes refers to herself now as "probably a widow in the making." She has repainted some rooms in her home, taken down all but one of the 25 paintings of sailboats from the walls and hung one, of a winter landscape in Wisconsin, near her bed.
People seem less nervous talking to her about Gray in the past tense, she said. And she's found some ease too. Now she marvels at how she is sometimes able to respond to inquiries by calmly saying, "My husband disappeared without a trace."
As Carnes prepares for the gathering, Gray seems more present. "I dreamed he was at the tribute," she said, "talking to me on his cellphone."
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michelle.quinn@latimes.com
