Just now I logged onto the semantic web IRC chat channel after many months away and immediately saw: <libby> teefal! long time no see Having met Libby a few times on various islands in the Atlantic, I know her as very friendly, so it doesn't surprise me that she'd say hi so quickly. What surprised me is how welcomed I felt by it. This got me thinking about the humanness that interconnects our fragile web communities. Scrolling through nicknames on #swig, I was able to quickly recall faces, voices, and conversations. The fact that these people live all over the...

Lehigh Valley Storymill is our "act local" effort to make our backyard better. Tonight, after a town meeting, I wrote this: -- Finding time to make the effort. That's the key. In recent years we've seen our valley invaded by developers intent on carving up and selling our daily views and vistas as half-acre luxury homes for New York and Philly expatriates. I've seen this happen twice in my life: first, in northeast New Jersey, as the woods around my house were razed to make a commuter town instead. Next, in southwest Florida, as developers rushed in like locusts to...