Maybe it's a part of the DC culture or maybe it's the overall direction that things are going - I don't know - what I do know is that there's one question that seems to be coming up repeatedly in a variety of circles:

How can we use technology for good?

Personally, I consider that there are two different "goods" out there:

First, there are the Little Goods. Helping out a friend, meeting a customer's needs, and holding a door for someone are all little things that just about anyone can do to make things better for someone. If you do them enough, I think you can change the world one person at a time.

But on a different level, there are Big Goods. These are things that require action from larger groups of people and they affect larger groups of people. The outpouring of support for the US after 9-11, the huge amount of private contributions to accountable organizations to help other people, and just about every blood drive I've ever seen.