When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. ~ Paul Hawken, 2009

I am the Founding Collaborator of the Internet4Change Group, the founder of Life in Africa and a member of the Ned.com Board. Culturally, I am an American who has recently relocated (again) to Brussels, Belgium. My lifetime has included 46 countries traveled, worked in or lived in so far. After another 3-4 years in Brussels, Asia will be the next step on my international family's global expat journey. We're dreaming of Thailand.

One of my main passions during my 10+ years in E. Africa was finding ways to use the internet to create meaningful grassroots change in African communities. I became an Ashoka Fellow in 2001 after creating the first microfinance program in Africa driven by global online donor relationships. That work later evolved toward a focus on job creation, as well as community building - both online and off, including connections between the two. I have "experimented" alot, as a social alchemist. Occasionally there was magic. Always, there were lessons learned about how communities can and are using the Internet to collaborate for good. My dream is to participate in an important way in co-creating systems that can help us to do that better.

Since the Omidyar.net community closed it's doors in late 2007, I have been far less actively collaborating online than in previous years. In 2008 I handed Life in Africa over to Ugandan management, supported by a new non-profit (Life in Africa USA). As they continue to sort out their own new online strategy, I am now beginning to focus my social entrepreneur's mind on pursuing a larger global vision for the Internet4Change Uganda work that we started together. By the way, I personally need to find ways to be earning a salaried income from this collaborative work by no later than September 2010. I have some concrete ideas that could make that possible for other i4c system collaborators as well. Even our friends in places like Africa and Thailand.

My work will be done when the Internet4Change concept is offering training and reasonable income-earning opportunities to e-literate change agents who are collaborating with others in the West and in under-connected regions around the world to make local and global change happen. While the Internet4Change concept has been under mental development since early 2002, I deliberately began seeking collaborators online on 1 September 2009. Among the many other things I intend to do and experience in this life, I expect to work toward co-creating the various pillars of the Internet4Change vision for about 10 years.