I know I'm preaching to the choir here on this issue, but the extraordinary interesting special report on social networking in the latest issue of The Economist ends with the following paragraph (after dealing with privacy and "waste-of-time" concerns):
But arguably the most important contribution that the sites have made is to offer a free and immensely powerful set of communication and collaboration tools to everyone on Earth who has access to a broadband internet connection. This democratisation of technology is driving the socialisation of the web and fundamentally changing the way that people interact with one another, as well as with businesses and governments.It has also made it easy for anyone to form a globe-spanning discussion group of their own with just a few clicks of a mouse. Not so long ago that would have been the preserve of an elite group of companies and institutions which had the necessary financial and technical clout to perform such feats. Now, thanks to the technology created by Facebook and its peers, millions of these conversations can take place simultaneously with the greatest of ease. The world is better off for it.
I believe CISV is profitting increadibly from these technological developments. People who share the same area code with most of their friends and co-workers might never grasp this.
(My post on Google Wave goes in a similar direction...)
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