But the Web 2.0 tools that can potentially liberate people in western democracies can do just the opposite in totalitarian societies. Zuckerman, for example, helps produce handbooks that teach bloggers how to disguise their online identities, although even that’s not always enough: two of his Global Voices bloggers are currently behind bars in their countries.

Patrick Ball of Benetech has created software for human rights abuse workers that automatically encrypts their evidence-gathering and sends it out of the country onto servers for safekeeping.

Dan McQuillan, from Amnesty International, points out that “the way we’re tying up so much of our information online could have unintended surveillance consequences.” Already, he says, MSN, Yahoo and Google aren’t complying with human rights guidelines. “The way you build technology has human rights implications that must be considered right at the start.”

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Paul Saffo from the Institute for the Future struck a similar cautionary note. “It’s never a safe bet that technology will serve our best dreams.” He offered an example: in the years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, optimists predicted that since people couldn’t see national borders from aircraft, nationalism would disappear. World War I, of course, proved that aircraft would do nothing of the sort. “In the early 50’s,” Saffo added, “writers predicted that television would be a powerful source for social good, but in 1962, Newt Minow gave his ‘vast wasteland’ speech. The danger now is that all this potential on the Web will just become a vaster wasteland.”

And that’s certainly a real fear. “Kids automatically teach each other how to use technology,” says Howard Rheingold, author of the influential Smart Mobs and long-time Web observer, “but they’re not going to teach each other about the history of democracy, or the importance of taking their voices into the public sphere to create social change.”

But education and organization is exactly what the NetSquared attendees hope to achieve with the new tools — and reaching a younger audience may prove to be one of the most important pieces.

“We have an aging, Western-based demographic,” says McQuillan of Amnesty International. “This is our opportunity to build a true global architecture of participation.”

Or as Rheingold says: “While it’s important to be realistic about utopian hopes in new technology, this is definitely one time to be very optimistic.”

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