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Last week I found a comment posted on a June, 2006 entry titled: “World Party.” In the initial post, we described an innovative international school in Seattle that promotes global citizenship through a wide range of activities, including participation in “World Party Day.” In his comment, Gerry Owens directed readers to a Wikipedia article on “World Party Day.” I was fascinated to learn about this event described by Wikipedia as “a synchronized global mass celebration of a better world and the creation of desirable reality.” As Gerry points out, World Party Day, first held in April 1996, was inspired by the 1995 novel Flight, A Quantum Fiction Novel by Vanna Bonta, which described a “world party” to take place in the year 2000. The actual 1996 event was facilitated through communication over the internet, and has continued in the 10+ years since as an annual tradition. In effect, a fictional event from a novel was made real through the shared enthusiasm of its readers. What an intriguing concept and testament to the internet’s power as a tool for communication and mass mobilization.

Indeed, this process of relatively minor--or even fictional--events gaining attention, and ultimately becoming newsworthy through grassroots, viral communication over the internet seems to reflect a growing trend. Just yesterday afternoon I attended a lecture at National Geographic headquarters in which a 'trends' expert presented research related to online social networking, the online video ‘craze’ and other topics of the Pew Foundation’s “Internet and American Life Project.” 

What should we make of these trends? Many praise the internet, blogs, and You Tube as ‘democratizing’ forces that allow anyone with computer access to interact with others around the globe and spread ideas to even further reaches. But does open access to people, resources, and ideas across the world actually lead internet users to think and act globally, as the organization of World Party Day would seem to suggest? Or are these effects overshadowed by other aspects of internet use?

Tell Us: Do you feel more globally connected as a result of using the internet? How do you use the internet to learn about and interact with people around the world?

This question is of critical interest to My Wonderful World, where internet and social networking technologies can fuel our efforts to connect people with their world and others in it.

 

Sarah for My Wonderful World

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