Change Happens by Granting Access

Today's posts both span a great distance to illustrate change in our time. In 1519 Martin Luther printed several sections of the Bible, and against the wishes of the Church, made the Bible available to anyone that wanted to read it. Knowledge and access for all. No more middleman to beseech. In that time it was pretty powerful, mankind changing stuff.

Now, in 2005, we are getting close to redistributing knowledge and access on an equal scale, maybe bigger. The means? Computers, communications, and access to a heretofore financially guarded world.

Say hello to MIT colleagues Seymour Papert and Mitch Resnick and their idea to put computers in the hands of 1.8 billion children. Besides the pure chaos of online growth of that magnitude, the idea could be the largest social equalizer since Martin Luther opened the Bible to public consumption. There are a lot of things that influence the course of mankind. I would argue that knowledge will always remain the largest catalyst of change.