The idea was simple: Job training centers should be as ubiquitous as gas stations, a man called 'freesouljah' said in a video on YouTube's Davos Question channel.
Seeing "gas stations on almost every corner," the Las Vegas resident decided to suggest that World Economic Forum participants see children as the world's "greatest natural resource". Nations should invest in kids and shift their focus away from commodities, he said in the video.
"The most important thing we can do in 2008, and every other year, is to make sure we invest in our children; really we invest in all human beings," replied US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in a video response at the forum.
"When people are educated and they have skills and abilities this world becomes a much better place," she added.
Off the main room in the sprawling Congress Center is a bank of computers, each with a webcam, where forum participants are adding to a "global dialog" that World Economic Forum spokesman Matthias Leufkens said launched in December.
The conversation began with a simple question: "What key action do you think countries, companies or individuals should take to make the world a better place in 2008?"
Interest has been strong, with more than 1 million hits registered on the YouTube site and hundreds of video replies. And as forum attendees – CEOs, academics or even astronauts – walk by, they are stopping to record quick messages or reply to questions left on the website.
Besides Spellings, they include Henry Kissinger and Rajendra Pachauri, the chief UN climate scientist who is chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Plus at least one attendee who is no stranger to multimedia or video.
"Hello! My name is Bono. I'm a rock star... sort of!" the U2 singer said. "In 2008, if we're able to get anywhere on the fight against extreme poverty or the climate crisis, we have to prove that we can keep the promises that we've already made."
Ed Sanders, who oversees international product marketing for YouTube in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, called the set-up a "tremendous means to get interaction going and to give people a voice – it's something we want to do long term."
Spellings said she replied because it was a quick way to communicate with those who asked the questions. "That's their world and that's how you can communicate with them," she said. "It's through a medium like YouTube and blogs and those sorts of things."
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