Dwindling
land for farming? Meet the ‘freight farm’: a reused freight container that
grows all sorts of veg in a tiny space. Or check out Mosaic, which hooks small-time investors to clean energy projects, a bit like a facebook for solar panels. Or Bina, where Big Data is put
to work to find a cure for cancer.

A lot of these are crowd-funded, or germinated in an internetty-type environment. They beg the question: why the rise in world-saving? What's with all the online do-gooding?

Well, you
could make a vague link between techno-altruism and the ascent of
Silicon Valley, which always seemed to be at the nicer end of American capitalism
(see, for example, Google’s famous ‘Don’t be Evil’ policy).

Or you could point out that the web is all about helping people link up with other people. Webby projects might just have a tendency to altruism built in to them if they're gestated in an amniotic soup of connectivity, rather than, say, warfare. 

Maybe its simpler. Increasing connections with other like-minded types makes it easier for nice people to realise nice
ideas. Food for thought, especially in the wake of TED and SXSW. 

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(Thoughts courtesy of Planning Placement newbie James.)