Politics have been changed forever because of people. The Internet is one of the tools that has helped. And it isn't just politics. The new networked dynamics that are now possible with these new forms of communication are also changing the way people engage as consumers that demand more social value from corporations.

Building up an organisation is like starting a social movement. At the center of everything is the core team. I have the honor of working with some phenomenal people at Purpose who are at the top of their fields. That energy and common purpose among the team is what inspires me and where the magic happens.

I am the CEO and co-founder of Purpose - a social movement incubator and agency. We work on ways to help millions of people combine their power as citizens, consumers and cultural agents.

Before we had the Internet, I organized a fax campaign against the first Iraq war. We blasted faxes to the hotel where James Baker and Tariq Aziz were having their final meeting before the two sides went to war. Much more recently, I co-founded Avaaz and Get Up, which inspired the creation of Purpose.

Our culture is more shaped by the arts and humanities than it often is by politics.

I think there's something unfortunate about the attention that performers get in our media, but the weight of government propaganda is so heavy that anyone with a different point of view who has access to the media has a responsibility to use it.

Be assured, fellow citizens, that in a democracy it is the laws that guard the person of the citizen and the constitution of the state, whereas the despot and the oligarch find their protection in suspicion and in armed guards.

Politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion.