Ok, so the title is a little over the top.  But I’ve been thinking about how the services which are collectively called “Web 2.0″ work, and what they do to people, and perhaps it’s not hyperbole after all.

This all began with a game I played with friends called the Poll Game.  The idea is that one persons asks a question, and everyone tries to predict how many people will answer “yes” to the question.  It’s a step above Scruples (shudder), but can be a way to kill 20 minutes.  Anyway, the question in question (hah!  made a funny!) was, “Do you think that we will have established a working colony – no families, just astronauts and scientists – on the surface of another planet or moon within 100 years?”

This seemed like a ridiculous question to me.  After all, you should ask questions where the answers of the other players is not obvious.  I immediately pulled the “10″ out of my hand, indicating that I thought all of us would say “yes.”

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About a year ago, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC had a rant about G.W. Bush that made me cheer. He’s done it again. Please enjoy.

Keith Olberman discusses President Bush’s Golf Sacrifice

Today my school invited Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea) to speak to the community as the Harold Hines Fellow. Unfortunately, he was delayed in flight and did not make his afternoon appearance. So to make productive use of the time, we held a Morning Exercise and allowed the students to speak about the service learning that had been put in place as a result of this book. It was a very meaningful event, in spite of losing the services of our keynote speaker.

Before you scream, “but you said you’d never blog about work!” keep your shirt on. This isn’t really about work, but rather about the video that comprised part of our assembly. This video was produced for Pennies for Peace, Mr. Mortenson’s student-focused service and fund-raising organization. It stars his daughter, and is extremely well done and worth a watch.

You hear the “but” coming, don’t you?

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