Dell Inc. and Intel Corp. partnered to create the petition to encourage the government of Canada to introduce National IT Day. Aside from the petition, there is also a contest for IT heroes, in which the winning candidate can win $10,000 in Dell and Intel products personally, and another $10,000 for their office. The IT hero contest entrant has to describe how they or the person they are nominating, used their IT skills to better their company. The entrant with the most votes will win the grand prize. Each month an additional prize of a Dell Inspiron duo tablet is given out to two people chosen at random, one IT hero nominee and one voter of an IT Hero.
The March winners of the tablets are IT hero nominee entrant #45, Tamara S. of Vancouver, and voter Gary Y. of Etobicoke, Ont.
Tamara S. has 304 votes so far. In her entry, she describes tracking down a client’s computer using remote control tools after someone stole it, allowing her access to client computers remotely. To get the laptops back she waited for the thief to come online so she could lock the administrative controls, retrieve her client’s data, and installed a program to record what the thief did on the laptop.
“I provided an IP address and screen shots of what the thief was doing on the computer to the authorities (and included) a picture of the thief,” she said. “This enabled them to obtain a warrant and recover all the stolen property.”
Another new addition to the Website is a superhero-parody video about how IT heroes save the day on a daily basis.
Entrant #179, Barbara Jeanne K. nominated Danny S., an IT person from another company, who saved important files from her laptop when it crashed after she came back from an important conference.
“I’d just returned from L.A., computer full of contacts. The next day I turned my computer on and, “poof,” that scary blue screen, then nothing,” she said. “Panic set in, I had not backed anything up or made a copy anywhere else except for on my laptop.”
Danny S. was able to recover all her documents by the next morning.
Entrant #189, Emanuel, said in his IT Hero entry said that he doesn’t get sleep working as an IT professional and he hopes having a national day of recognition will lead to a day-off for IT professionals.
Entrant #185, Edward Z., also works at many different hours of the day and he said the appreciation will motivate him and other IT workers better than just getting paid for the work.
“Many of my clients beg me to fix their problems at all hours of the day, yet have no other means to show their appreciation but by cash,” he said. “While money keeps the world go ’round, appreciation is a better motivator.”