Compass and Map
I stumbled on the Internet in 1991 and started actively using and contributing to the World Wide Web in 1996. This stream has been the backbone of my life ever since.
Today the Internet is just one part of a way of thinking and communicating that includes other "digital" communication, expands our social networks and even plugs us into the Noosphere of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. We are mentally and often emotionally connected to more people while the physical separation involved changes the nature of those connections.
Last year I went to DrupalCon in San Francisco where I came face-to-face with people who'd I'd only known through Twitter, IRC or Facebook. Because of the contact we'd had already there was none of the shock that you might have had in the past when you first met your "cyber-buddy" for real. Nevertheless, our friendships changed for the better. And none of us missed the irony that we lived in the same country, some even the same city, but we had to cross the Pacific Ocean to finally meet up.
At this same DrupalCon, and the subsequent CiviCon, I had a chance to meet people from around the world who were interested in, active and excited by the same things. For 4 days we talked open source software, open government, social and political activism and the ways we could work together to bring people together. Not just online but, inspired by the astonishing success of recent political campaigns, reaching out online to get people to engage back with the "real" world.
And finally the connections made through this amazing medium made sense as the online streams joined the real world streams on their way to a great river.