By the People

In her November 14 post, Elaine Eschenbacher asks whether new technology creates barriers that further isolate us from each other or whether it can be a tool to draw us closer together. Below is a story about a young man who used the social networking web site MySpace to find and connect people who share an interest in doing work for the common good. Do you think MySpace - and Facebook, Yahoo Groups and other online networks - are the future of organizing? Or do we need some amount of face-to-face interaction in order to do real, sustainable work together?

In this October 29 story in the New York Times, 23-year-old independent filmmaker Chaim Lazaros says he found several people on MySpace who are serious about making their communities cleaner, safer and kinder places. He "knew [he] had to tell the story�? of these "everyday superheroes," and invited as many of them as he could to New York for interviews and to record them for a documentary he is making about a movement he calls Superheroes Anonymous. One of the Superheroes, who fixes faucets and does electrical work for people in need, said he started his work after a friend was hurt by debris that had fallen from scaffolding. “I said to myself, if we have to wait around for the city or the mayor to fix everything wrong or dangerous in this city, it’ll never get done.�? Most of the Superheroes interviewed for the story were from New York; their work includes picking up trash, protecting prostitutes, and helping tourists and others who are lost.