Pete Seeger's View on "Web 2.0"

Pete Seeger, folksinger, was interviewed recently by Bob Edwards for his weekend radio show.

Seeger, who is approaching 90 years old, always encouraged his audiences to sing along with him in concert. In the course of this interview, Seeger made the following comments that remind us that "participation" may not just be a blog thing or a Web 2.0 phenomenon, but something that is more deeply embedded in society. In response to Bob Edward's question about Seeger's encouraging his audiences to sing along, Seeger says,

"I think that participation is the saving of the human race. Participate in games, puzzles, fun, storytelling and when you're grown up participate in education. Learn to ask questions, the most important thing you can learn in the world is to ask questions. Next important thing is to learn how to give a report. You read a book and you don't just read it, you learn how to give a report in two minutes telling roughly what the book is about and you learn to work with other people, participate in politics, participate in work, all sorts of things. It's the key to the future of the human race-- participation. "

You probably couldn't write a clearer formula for Web 2.0. Hearing this from Seeger makes you think that if Seeger were in his youth today he would be a major contributor to the blogosphere, YouTube and the most popular guy on social networking sites.