To paraphrase Jamie Zawinski, web 2.0 is about helping people get laid. Not about solving world hunger etc. (unless some "22 year old college student living in the dorms" gets laid along the way).

http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html

QUOTE: "How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).

...is to look into a mirror. Seems logical to me!

...will be AJAX and excessive use of gradients?

The ideals of helping others and leaving a legacy by actually doing something important (as opposed to leaving a legacy by coding flying penises in Sadville) are, sadly, the ideals of generations past. The same is true of honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility. Very few people my age (31) or younger care about these ideals.

However, if you'd like to return to those ideals, a good place to start would be to stop this "Web 2.0" crap. Simply put, disconnect. Actually leave the house and interact with the peoplearound you. Returning to active, friendly, and helpful communities would go a long way.

Having read this a few years ago, I seem to remember it was less about people 'being nice to each other' and more about how the bourgeoisie had better look out because the proletariat were in the ascendancy. Quite an entertaining rant.

Since programmers need to eat to, they generally do their programming for somebody with the money to pay them. One of your countrymen, Adam Smith by name, worked out how letting people alone to do that was a good way to increase productivity that would eventually benefit everyone.

Since eventually is a long time, effective forms of charity that help people get started, or things like disaster relief, are appealing enough that they can usually find donors. The chronic poverty that comes from too many people on not enough land, though, is another matter.