So China's internet restrictions have been crippling to my ability to access this blog! From internet cafes in Beijing, the current capital, Xi'an, the ancient capital silk road market center, and Pingyao, a walled-in small city with hundreds of beautifully lighted hanging red chinese lanterns, none could offer Social Edge access! 20 hours train ride in standing room later, though, and Hong Kong's historically distinct development finally gives respite to the govt. controlled net censorship I've experienced and allows the conversation to continue.

Along the journey, we have bicycled through a corn field to an ancient Shaolin Temple, bargained with haggling street vendors, climbed 5,000 steps along the Great Wall, and witnessed some of the most stunningingly rapid urban development on earth. The development seems somehow stunted, though, by the lack of it in rural areas. This massive disparity is questionably apparent, though, and so in my frustrations with the internet, I wanted to pose a question to any of you readers who may have had your own experiences traveling, especially in China or Asia, about the future of democratization of technology in the far east. For countries that lack popular literacy, but are increasingly coming into contact with travelers and foreigners, and yet are stymied by their own government's cyber restrictions, how can digitally-minded social entrepreneurs make change happen abroad?

Close friends of mine are putting video cameras in the hands of children in India through their Modern Story project(www.themodernstory.wordpress.com), and the committed efforts of Room to Read by John Wood is teaching children to read in many of these countries, often building technologically advanced language labs. What stories and approaches do you know of that may work to bridge the digital divide? Rodrigo Baggio's CDI programs in Brazil is certainly a great model. How can initiatives like his be replicated?

The hiatus in our blog is a halftime in the series, poised between characterizations of our writing process and after the launch that released Tactics of Hope to an audience worldwide. This pause in correspondence, for which I hope you accept our apologies, has been for good cause: 6 weeks of local and on-the-road speaking engagements for a book tour.

As you can see from TacticsofHope.org, our book talks have taken us from San Francisco to Berkeley, Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, among others. On a shoestring budget self-funded, I flew home from the East Coast while Wilford continued on to speak at Boston, New Haven, Camden (Maine), and other places in New England.

Together from late May upon release of the book to the public, and late June when we parted ways and Wilford kept on traveling with his incredible wife, Carole (who is a beautiful and accomplished social entrepreneur in her own right), we conducted nearly 8 "book talks". With social entrepreneurs featured in the book including Priya Haji (World of Good) at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, Book Passage Marin, and Mrs. Dalloway's independent bookstore in Berkeley, Van Jones (Ella Baker Center and Green for All) at the Books Inc. in the SF Civic Center, Matt Flannery (Kiva) at Virgin Megastore, Sasha Chanoff (Mapendo) at East West Books in Manhattan, and Nina Smith (Rugmark) at the Meridian International Center in Washington DC, we have had some fantastic opportunities so far.

This has been an incredibly steep learning curve for me, personally, though, as public speaking with Wilford and social entrepreneurs is a deeply humbling experience.

Meanwhile, due to the limited budget and resources I have had to work with, our marketing and PR of the book has entered me into a whole new set of challenges with respect to "getting the word out there". If any of you readers know a bit about marketing a book, we sure could use your help!

I am now traveling in South East Asia, writing this during my transit layover in Tokyo, about to spend 7 weeks actively looking for social entrepreneurs throughout China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Talk to you all soon, I hope. And since there have been few comments, throw a line out there and let's begin to engage. Until next week!!!