Bruce Sterling is WorldChanging Ally #1, and an inspiration for many of us here at WorldChanging Central. He has given us terrific support from the outset, and remains a good friend. In October of 2004, in celebration of our one year anniversary, Bruce (along with many others) agreed to write a piece for us. The result (which we published under the less-than-descriptive title, Bruce Sterling is WorldChanging) proved rather controversial: he suggested that the World Summit for the Information Society -- the WSIS -- could be seen as a marriage between the Internet and the United Nations, bringing together the strengths of both in a worldchanging way. As you'll see in the comments, not everyone agreed.

Logically, there ought to be some inventive way to cross-breed the grass-rootsy cheapness, energy and immediacy of the Net with the magisterial though cumbersome, crotchety, crooked and opaque United Nations. Then bride and groom would unite their virtues and overcome those gloomy vices gnawing at their vitals. The global worldchanging multitudes could beat back the darkness of the gathering New World Disorder while swiftly improving the cramped lives of the planet's majority in a beneficent orgy of networked interdependence! Wow!