The power for us to connect

I’ve always known that the Internet has the power to bring people together. It’s changed social dynamics and inter-personal communication. Recent events proved that point and more to me once again. It’s a very powerful reminder to live in a very inter-connected world.

Back in December a “friend” on Facebook proposed to me to give his EMBA class a lecture on social media marketing. I actually never met him in real life and couldn’t even remember if I had added him first or he added me. In any case, I accepted the offer and conducted the lecture in Shanghai a week ago. I had spent some time putting together the material and I was pleased with how the lecture went. Afterwards I shared the presentation on SlideShare.net, which if you don’t know is a web service that allows people to share presentation documents online on all kinds of topics.

Then today on my way to a Twitter user meet-up (or a tweet-up) I got an e-mail (on my iPhone) from a professor in the US saying that he saw my presentation online and would like my permission to use it in his class. I quickly wrote back and said yes. Of course I would. I believe in the spirit of sharing, not to mention it’d be for a class. Plus, if anyone really wanted to use the content, it’s not that hard to re-create it from scratch – the original file really isn’t necessary.

First I got the opportunity to give that lecture from an online contact. Then the presentation will be seen by a class all the way across the world in a university in Wisconsin, because the professor saw it online. I find this pretty amazing.

The Internet is quickly changing the world and changing the way we live our lives. I’m really glad to be part of this change!