"With rough approximation, it's like before the Internet era we were single cells swimming alone in the ocean of life. Online communication fused us together into the first multi-cellular social organisms. Or maybe it's more than that: by, connection, sharing and real time synchronization of people, the Internet gave us the first conscious social organisms: the social networks, and after that, by further evolution, the smarter mobs. And it's clear to me that this is a two-way process: from individual to the group and vice-versa. The individual adds value – intellectual and emotional – to the group and the group infuses the individual with the collective sum of values brought by the other participants upon a pattern of organic mutual growth."

--Howard Rheingold, writing at Smart Mobs about the power of the individual within the network as the value and impact of one person becomes much clearer.