The world wide web is "still in its infancy" says the Web's inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee ...15 years old...."What's exciting is that people are building new social systems, new systems of review, new systems of governance. "My hope is that those will produce... new ways of working together effectively and fairly which we can use globally to manage ourselves as a planet."
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BBC News talks to some of the leading figures in the web community about their hopes for the future of the web.

There are now 165 million different websites around the world, according to internet research firm Netcraft.

Few States Allow Overseas Troops to Vote By E- mail
(AP) U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan can speak to their families by Web camera and fight insurgents using sophisticated electronic warfare. Yet when it comes to voting, most troops are stuck in the past. Communities in 13 states will send overseas troops presidential election ballots by e-mail this year, and districts in at least seven states will also let them return completed ballots over the Internet, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the Overseas Vote Foundation.
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Online Interest Groups Slam McCain
(The Washington Post) Liberal political action group MoveOn.org began showing a new television ad tying John McCain to President Bush on Wednesday, the five-year anniversary of President Bush's "Mission accomplished" remark about Iraq.
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User-Generated Censorship
(San Frankcisco Bay Guardian) There's a new kind of censorship online, and it's coming from the grassroots. Thanks to new, collaborative, social media networks, it's easier than ever for people to get together and destroy freedom of expression. They're going DIY from the bottom up - instead of the way old- school censors used to do it, from the top down. Call it user-generated censorship.
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Insiders debate social media's influence on Election '08
(CNet) How are Twitter and Facebook changing the game for the 2008 presidential frontrunners? Online media executives say the answer will be pivotal to future campaigns, but that it won't come until November.
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As President and Vice President of the College Democrats of America, Lauren Wolfe and Awais Khaleel are both superdelegates at the Democratic Convention in Denver. They are both undecided and want to know how college students feel they should vote! Contact them and let them know how you feel.

Brave Cubans Take to the Web
(AP) Only a month has passed since ordinary Cubans won the right to own computers, and the government still keeps a rigid grip on Internet access. But that hasn't stopped thousands from finding their way into cyberspace. And a daring few post candid blogs about life in the communist-run country that have garnered international audiences.
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Computers Sold to Cuban Public for First Time

Saudi Activist Blogger Freed After 4 Months in Jail Without Charge
(The Washington Post) Saudi Arabia's most popular blogger was released Saturday after serving four months in prison without charge. Fouad al- Farhan, 33, was detained Dec. 10 after authorities warned him about his online support of an activist group. At the time of his arrest, the Interior Ministry said only that his violations were not related to state security.
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Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle
(GlobalVoices) After little less than a month following the April 6 strike in support of the textile workers in Mahalla City, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Hosni Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet.
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A Free Press Gets Mixed Reviews
(Reuters) People in Argentina, Mexico, Egypt and China are more likely than those in the United States to say it is very important for the news media to be free from government control, a survey published Thursday found. The survey of 20 countries by World Public Opinion.org, a project at the University of Maryland, found strong support worldwide for a free press and opposition to government restrictions on access to the Internet.
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Mayoral candidates talk IT ahead of polls
(Computing.co.uk) As Londoners go to the polls today, Computing has examined the technology policies of the three mayoral candidates. Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick all have different views on how technology can be used.
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Luminaries Look to the Future Web
(BBC) Exactly 15 years ago the directors at the lab where the web was first developed signed a document which said the technology could be used by anyone free of charge. That decision was instrumental in making the web truly world wide. BBC News talks to some of the leading figures in the web community about their hopes for the future of the web.
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Location: Central London
Date: May 14, 2008
Event Details: The European Union's INSPIRE Directive, which paves the way for all geospatial data to be shared by public bodies across the EU, is set to come into full force in the UK in May 2009, but the countdown begins now. The directive is the focus for Headstar's fourth annual conference and exhibition on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in the Public Sector, supported by the Association for Geographical Information (AGI), on 14 May 2008 in central London. Plenary speakers will include representatives from the Local Government Association; the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA); and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Our event promises to be essential day for anyone involved in the collection, management or use of geospatial data, from policymakers looking at statistics across a region to those charged with putting user-friendly map content onto a website. Places cost 295 Pounds plus VAT for public sector and 395 plus VAT for private sector. Register today!

Location: Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center
Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Event Details: The AAPC will be hosting a training event for political consultants, public affairs pros, issue advocates, lobbyists, and youth activists. The nation's leading strategists will reveal the secrets of online advertising, micro-targeting, mobile marketing, and other emerging technologies. Got a question? Here's your chance to ask the experts. Please visit www.aapc.org for program details and sponsorship opportunities.

The focus of the Weekly Netpulse is to report on how technology is affecting politics, but since one of our local boys, Chris Lamb in Charleston SC, came out with his new book, I'll be Sober in the Morning, filled with political putdowns, comebacks and ripostes, we haven't been able to put it down.

Someone asked Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, "What would you do if you woke up and found yourself in the White House?" "I would go to the President's wife," Mrs. Smith said, "apologize and then leave at once."

Buy it on Amazon.com for 15 bucks.