Web 2.0 Training

Have you ever experienced an act of kindness on the web? Let us know!

The internet led to the birth of couchsurfing in 2003. It has ballooned ever since. Couchsurfers are matched up online with hosts around the world who are willing to provide a free place to stay. Today, there are roughly 1.7-million registered couchsurfers… and growing.

Data source: www.couchsurfing.org

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Looks like US residents do the most couch surfing, according to the organization that keeps track of the cross cultural encounters:

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Planting potatoes in his garden a few years ago, and watching bees harvest nectar from the blossoms of a nearby apple tree, author Michael Pollan had a revelation. It wasn’t the bees calling the shots with the tree, nor him with the potatoes. Both insect and human had, in fact, been manipulated by the plants to do their bidding — in other words, seduced into spreading their genes.

Pollan books on food, such as the Omnivore’s Dilemma, have made him a one-man crusader for rethinking the connections between plants, humans and ecosystems. And as recounted his garden revelation in a 2008 talk at the reknowned annual TED conference (video above and at TED site; length 17:29), he outlined the broader implications of seeing human and other animal actors from the plant’s point of view. Watch the video and share your thoughts below.

Plus, see a word cloud of Michael Pollan’s 2008 TED speech: