Smartphone app memorializes 9/11 victims
The app, called the 9/11 Memorial Guide and available for free on iTunes, allows users to search a victim's name and points them to the panel where the name is located. (Aug. 24, 2011) Credit: Newsday
An iPad and iPhone app introduced Wednesday by 9/11 memorial officials will preserve victims' legacies for the smartphone generation, officials said.
"We wanted the names on the memorial to be more than just names on the memorial," said Sean Anderson, chief technology officer for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. "You can learn more about the people as individuals and learn how they potentially relate to one another."
The app, called the 9/11 Memorial Guide and available for free on iTunes, allows users to search a victim's name and points them to the panel where the name is located.
More importantly, developers said, the app offers biographical information such as a photo, birthplace, hometown, agency and first-responder rank -- painting a more complete portrait of the lives lost.
The names on the plaques surrounding the two reflecting pools in the footprints of the World Trade Center towers aren't arranged alphabetically.
They're in nine groups, such as first responders, workers killed in the north tower and those in the south. The names are further organized by "requested adjacency," through which next-of-kin placed family or coworkers together. Each of the nine groups includes an audio remembrance from the family of a victim memorialized. The app also includes a memorial map.
Windows- and Android-compatible versions will be released before the memorial's public opening on Sept. 12, Anderson said. Those without smartphones can use the 10 electronic directories at the 8-acre commemorative plaza or visit the memorial website, he said.
Jan Vigiano, 71, of Deer Park, whose sons, firefighter John Jr. and police detective Joseph, died on Sept. 11, and whose husband, John Sr., 72, can be heard talking about their sons on one of the app's audio remembrances, said she'd "rather be in a quiet place remembering them. . . . I don't think I would listen to that while I was there. But it's a personal decision, so it might be good for other people."
