How to Save the World

I joined the discussion in the comments section of Dave Pollard's review of James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds.

My second comment:

"Dave: I agree that technology does not make community in itself—it's a tool that could be shaped to facilitate community building. So Global Generation, the NGO I'm working with to set up a blog network, is already faciliating groups of kids in Britain, Africa and the Caribbean to work together with each other and the natural world. Trusting and caring is a big part of that process. We hope that the blog network will help the various groups of kids share their experiences, common in terms of environmental and creative focus, diverse in terms of culture and place, to cross fertilise G.G.'s ongoing work—to give the kids themselves a voice in determining our direction.

My vision is the virtual and the physical aspects of community existing in a mutually beneficial dialectic: the online providing models of transparency, clarity of boundaries, emergent leadership and organic connectivity for the offline; the offline rooting the online in real situations with real people in real relationships and communities."