This will be bigger than the sum our eachnesses.
Tim Berners-Lee remarks on how fast this stuff is happening (accelerating acceleration will do that for you!) and he's very young. To me it's almost a blur (I was born in 1926).
The "problem" with communities will be solved by communities and their current shortfall is their exclusion. Those of us who elitely are able to use this medium permit the retention of barriers (albeit not consciously-formed ones) to participation by people unable (ever?) to grok "HTTP/HTML/FTP" in order to *really* take part. Too much emphasis has been placed on "participation" as being modeled after audience rather than performer. You don't take part until you have your own Web presence.
http://www.webeweb.org/ is a start towards an Automatic Website Generator which, coupled with ambient accessibility, will bring the billions into a consultative function.
http://uwimp.com/tap/ is what we must work towards.
There is an important step towards full inclusivity at http://www.web-maps.com/index.html
I also make drums http://uwimp.com/boobam.htm
Love.
Hey Bill nice to see you here. -- Adam.