In The Great Connecting is an appendix titled “How to Get Involved” which is reproduced here. In the comments section of this post feel free to add suggestions on this topic.

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We all can be observers of The Great Connecting. It is more rewarding, however, to participate, even a little bit. How can one contribute to this epic process of global connection?

Here are seven ideas that come to mind. If you have additional ideas, you can post a comment on the blog post with the title “How to Get Involved” at the Broadband Everywhere blog (http://www.broadbandeverywhere.org).

• Explore. Social media brings the world to our smartphones. It is possible to meet people, join conversations, and share photos, music, or ideas with individuals around the world in nearly every country. I was once, for example, looking into a project with my daughter involving Iran. It is astounding how many Iranians use Instagram.

• Travel. Taking a trip to a developing country greatly supports The Great Connecting. You will use online services to research, plan, schedule, and pay for your trip. You will use your phone to coordinate plans once you are in the country. You will spend money, rewarding those who are building the information infrastructure.

• Hire. The Great Connecting makes it possible to hire people directly in remote places. If you or your company needs to hire a designer, developer, data entry specialist, or other worker, you can use online services such as UpWork to find people. Language tutors are especially helpful. My family has had great luck hiring instructors in Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese for online lessons.”

• Volunteer. Many services allow you to volunteer online. You can tutor English, help with sister schools or sister cities programs, or be an international mentor.

• Study. Online education programs such as EdX and Udacity offer classes that are international. Any breakout groups you join are certain to have participants from all over the world.

• Donate. A number of large, credible organizations allow donations or loans to people in developing countries. GiveDirectly provides unconditional cash transfers to poor people in a number of countries in Africa. GlobalGiving supports grassroots charitable projects worldwide. Kiva provides microloans in eighty countries.

• Participate. New information about The Great Connecting is posted on the Broadband Everywhere blog (http://www.broadbandeverywhere.org). You can post and respond to comments there. Information will also be posted there about the best new information resources on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We can use the hashtag #BroadbandEverywhere.

Also feel free to write me with ideas and comments: cashel@ForumOne.com.