Internet was a novelty concept for GenXers, but for Millennials, it represents unlimited potential just waiting to be uncovered.
What the internet offeres is access.
It breaks down financial barriers by allowing anyone to easily raise funds from anyone who believe in them. With website such as Indiegogo, creators are no longer restricted to convincing the bankers and high-interest creditors to lend them money. It allows for diverse projects that serves the interests of many to grow and flourish.
It breaks down social barriers by allowing every niche groupe to find people who share the same interests as them across the world. People are coming together under the things that they have in common. There are countless forums with thousands of active users for any topics imaginable. Whatever your strange interest is, the one that no one else likes in your school, town, city or country, there are probably many others who worship it as much as you online.
It breaks down information barriers. Wikileaks is the most recent and prevalent proof that democratization of media is inevitable and those in political power no longer hold information power.
But what about language barriers?
Machine translation is still very very veryyyyyy far away from being a substitute for human translators. For English speakers, it might seem like the internet already gives us more than we could ever process in ten lifetimes, but there are still so much knowledge hidden in the millions of pages in foreigner languages. Also, for instance, the Spanish Wikipedia page has 900,000 pages compare to 4,000,000 pages in English.
These are the two reason that set off a dream for Luis Von Ahn, who wanted to translate the internet. Every single page. in every language possible. Ambitious? Definitely. Impossible? Definitely NOT.
Take a look at Duolingo:
The website was launched in 2011 and has been successfully running for a year.
I do not wish to learn a new language, but I feel a desperate urge to join the team, using the two language that I am fluent with to help translate the web. Sounds crazy, but I believe him. Do you?
For more information, check out his Ted talk: