A meta-web is forming that connects the bits and bytes of our online social actions in new and startling ways. The social search start-up Aardvark shows us how five years from now the 2010 Web will appear quaint.

Audio: Compared to Iran, Twitter was not especially useful in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. Joshua Keating of Foreign Policy and Andy Carvin of NPR’s social media desk discuss why some tools prove useful in crisis situations and not in others.

Four quick links to with information about how and where non-profits and NGO’s are using social media and what their return on investment is.

A Dane turns himself into the police saying he illegally made legal copies of his private DVD collection.

A walk down memory lane shows how monopoly control of America’s first network led to corruption and censorship.

What is the best way to leverage the branding, marketing and communications possibilities provided by social networking tools? Faris Yakob has a surprisingly simple answer.

Getting our ideas into the public sphere isn’t much of a problem. Start a blog and start typing. But how do we make them take hold in the collective imagination and develop a life of their own.

How do we engage online audiences so that they advocate our cause? What do we do if they steer off message? And what do carrotmobs have to do with any of this.

Each morning, Alfred Sirleaf combs through the day’s news and writes headlines and stories on a giant chalkboard. It’s the world’s least likely, most popular blog.

How a 12-character message — “Jia Junpeng, your mother wants you to go home to eat” — became a Chinese Internet sensation, attracting 300,000 comments in a day.