Tiffany Schlam thinks of the internet when she thinks of her favorite quote of the naturalist

John Muir that when you tug at a single thing in the universe you find it's attached to

everything else.

She is an internet pioneer and a filmmaker committed to reframing technology as an expression

of the best of what humanity is capable with all the complexity that entails.

She founded the Webby Awards, the Oscars of the internet, which is celebrating its 20th

anniversary this year.

And for over six years she and her young family have held to a technology Sabbath or Shabbat,

24 unplugged hours each week.

Her perspective on our technology enhanced lives is ultimately a purposeful and enriching

one.

The internet is our global brain.

Towards which we can apply all the wisdom we are gaining about the brains in our heads

and the character in our lives.

There's a point in the development of a child's brain where all the different parts of the

brain are connected that they can have their first insight.

And extrapolating that out to the internet, the moment that we can truly get everyone

on the internet connected, imagine the insight that will be able to happen when we have that

many different perspectives coming together in one network.

And I think the challenge is going to be to create enough collaborative tools to make

that happen.

And that makes me incredibly hopeful.

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