Joi to the world
: Joi Ito writes the perfect Christmas greeting to the world for this year: A call for remembering the need to use this new medium of ours to build bridges with global voices. Joi reprints the latest version of the Global Voices Convenant (formerly a manifesto; thanks for changing it to covenant, folks). Says Joi:
…at our fingertips, we have the ability to reach out and speak to, build bridges with and interact with those people we have been “wishing well” to in the abstract for all of these years. We have a long way to go before we are able to hear the voices of everyone on earth, but I believe that providing voices and building bridges is essential for the World Peace we all wish for.
Amen.
Others are wondering what the year ahead holds for blogging and media. Others are saying that blogs will get respect or advertising or big-media attention.
My fondest hope is that blogs grow ever-more international. I’ve now met bloggers from Iraq, Iran, Kenya, Malyasia, China, the Phillipines, India, Germany, England, Australia, Canada, France… Blogs have allowed me to build or cross bridges that would not have been possible before: person to person, around boundaries, around governments, around censorship, around prejudice, creating understanding and friendships. It’s a small process, a link at a time. But that is how our world works now. It’s not about masses. It’s about masses of individuals. Every link we build to someone in another land, every bit of understanding we share, every friendship we form is a link to world peace.
So Joi could not have written a more appriate message for Christmas: It’s about people. It’s about peace.
: And thanks to Doc for the headline.
: The Global Voices covenant is already being translated into other languages. The start:
We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak — and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech.
Wir glauben an Meinungsfreiheit: Schutz des Rechtes, seine Meinung zu
