Huddled with my wife in our Tokyo apartment during the post-quake swarm of tremors, we felt a deep kinship via the Internet with many friends throughout the world.

FORBES: The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Social Networking in Japan

Today, on the internet, an idea can spread throughout the world in days.

FORBES: How Things Spread

While the Internet started in the U.S. and quickly expanded throughout North American and Europe, it now covers the world withexplosive growth, especially in emerging economies and geographic centers of innovation.

FORBES: Net Threat: The Dangers From Global Web Regulation

Building on its relationships throughout the developing world, Water for People partnered with Akvo to develop an Internet-based system for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data on water and sanitation projects.

FORBES: Connect

And this discovery was made not by professionals, but by a network of amateur astronomers spread throughout the world, using back-garden telescopes and swapping their data via the internet.

ECONOMIST: Astronomers may have found their first Saturn lookalike