Confidence and empowerment are cousins in my opinion. Empowerment comes from within and typically it's stemmed and fostered by self-assurance. To feel empowered is to feel free and that's when people do their best work. You can't fake confidence or empowerment.

Governments can no longer control 100 percent of the story. Time and geographical boundaries disappear. In places like China and all over the Middle East, social-media outlets are being used to expose and hold accountable public officials that don't want to be held accountable for corruption and human rights abuses.

Some people say they have a thirst for life. They're excited about every day and they're prepared to look the bad and the good straight in the face and greet it all with a smile. I like to think I'm one of those people.

I've been known to do lunges down hotel hallways. I also like to use the ice bucket in the hotel room as a medicine ball.

I am in favor of complete freedom of information and of free access to the new communication tools, in particular the Internet.

The library, with its Daedalian labyrinth, mysterious hush, and faintly ominous aroma of knowledge, has been replaced by the computer's cheap glow, pesky chirp, and data spillage.

We know in our hearts that technology at its best should make us feel even more human than we currently feel. Sometimes it makes us feel less human.

We are great believers in the idea that the Internet can help bring justice, but justice varies from place to place across the world.