Web 2.0 and community: a commentary

Soapbox warning.
Spent "class time" checking up on the News and Observer's efforts at local web community building at Triangle.com
I can't help but get the feeling that Web 2.0 development mirrors society now. In high schools, every student seems to be president of their own separate club. In business, companies slow their technical progress by failing to share and borrow from the technology of others. Few seem to live by the BBC's principles that Serena Fenton posted on Jan. 25 at Fresh New World.
On the issue of homeless panhandlers in Chapel Hill, Triangle.com should link to The Daily Tar Heel archived editorials and columns here. Both should link to Flickr photos of homeless in Chapel Hill. Students should use Facebook and Flickr to build groups focusing on this problem. The mayor should ask students to help, and students should stop calling for action and actually do something.
Back to class focus: If passion is strong enough, users will accept odd bright green colors and post their ideas despite design and speed issues. Perhaps that's why many participants in forums and blogs at mainstream media seem so rabid. But competitors will arise, as they have for Triangle.com at Free Forum. Kudos to Triangle.com for leaving that competitive link on a posting at their site; some others might have deleted it.
Interesting to note that blogging functions at Triangle.com are not very advanced, and the users seem trained to prefer not-so-visual forums, while the Greensboro community has been into blogs for a long time. It goes back to that community thing: It takes a long time for communities to learn new technology from each other.
Soapbox over.