Have you heard of the portal "Peace on Facebook"? The social networking group seeks to start global conversations by asking, among other things, "Do you think we will achieve world peace within 50 years?" (In the U.S., an optimistic 9% believe it is possible.)

The group, in partnership with The Persuasive Technology Lab of Stanford University, seeks to foster peace between people of different, often opposing, countries (India-Pakistan; Turkey-Greece; Israel-Palestine), religions (Sunni-Shiite; Muslim-Christian; Christian-Atheist), and political affiliations (Conservative-Liberal). Their hub features thousands of online friendships between users from regions in geographic or intellectual conflict. Graphs chart the electronic connections between historical antagonists. For example, over 900 Muslim-Jewish friendships formed on just November 10th alone, despite the present bleak situation in the Middle East peace process.

The portal, part of the The Peace Dot initiative, launched late last month. Its goals have been attracting serious online criticism for being too idealistic. Still, the goal -- peace, understanding between organizations and ideas in conflict -- is profoundly worthy. As always, it is valuable to give peace (even if it's just on Facebook) a chance.

[Image: ICT4Peace]