While in Seattle for Gnomedex, we all expect to be talking about geeky things, blogging, sending a crapload of tweets on Twitter, etc. One thing you don’t expect to do is send a Cambodian girl to college. A girl who would not have been able to do so were it for not those of us in that conference room. We raised about $3,700 for this woman using nothing but the power of social media (mainly Twitter), and we did so in less than 90 minutes.

Beth Kanter gave an inspiring talk at the conference, and I will embed the video here for your viewing:

Being that most everybody in that room had a network of contacts via their blogs, Twitter and other sites, we could collectively reach quite a few people. And it came together quite nicely when used as a sum total. Jeremy Wright, of B5 Media, turned it into a game with this social network, vowing to chip in additional amounts of money himself once his followers got to a certain dollar value.

What it did was turn it into a game. And when people are playing a game, they are at their best.

Kanter is a blogger. She uses social networks to connect with people. She gets the people on her network to then turn around and use their own networks to rally around a cause. And it obviously works.

The power of sites like Facebook, Twitter and blogs goes beyond fundraising, however. To you, these things may seem like things that kids do. It may seem like a waste of time to post on Twitter, to write a blog, etc. But these things represent a paradigm shift that has a ripple effect across society.

Let’s imagine a world where people are fundamentally out of touch. Governments don’t talk to each other, and this leads to conflicts which escalate into wars. History is full of them. But, when you look at the individual level, there are rarely such conflicts. Not long ago, the United States was in a Cold War with Russia. However, today, I am married to a Russian woman who migrated to the United States when she was a teenager. I have traveled to Russia. The people there have never had problems with Americans. So, while our governments were screwing around causing trouble, the people were just going about their business and we have the same goals, regardless of where we are from.

Now, introduce the Internet. Social media sites connect people and let them share stories and ideas. It allows people to protest the Communist state in China. It allows the Iranian people to protest the regime in power. It allows the untold stories to be told. Communication is the universal solvent.

I know this article is far more philosophical than what we usually post, but in my post-conference wrap up, it is useful to look up from my computer screen and see that what we do on the Internet represents a much bigger picture than mere entertainment.

Something to think about. These computers we use are gateways to a lot of things.

One message that came across Twitter from the conference was this:

a #Gnomedex that raises $2500 to send a Cambodian girl to college is better than one where Winer/Calacanis argue about Mahalo.

Well said.