Global Wiring

Thanks to social media, says British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, "foreign policy can never be the same again." In remarks delivered at TED Global 2009 this past week in Oxford, Brown said the Web is offering the world an historic chance for grassroots, collaborative problem-solving. Political and governmental institutions, he says, can no longer be run only by elites.

"Take what modern technology is capable of: the power of our moral sense allied to the power of modern communications and our ability to organize internationally. That, in my view, gives us the first opportunity as a [global] community to fundamentally change the world.
Foreign policy can never be the same again. It cannot be run by elites. It's got to be run by listening to the public opinions of people who are blogging, communicating with each other around the world."