Vancouver

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - What if the Miracle on Ice players had Twitter accounts? Or if the sprinters who raised their gloved fists on the medal stand could have shared their thoughts on Facebook? Thanks to laptops, cell phones and other new technology, social networking could be the route the next transformative Olympian uses to get the word out.

An online search of any major North American city will yield a flood of blogs, advertisements, and diarists' musings.

VANCOUVER - The Dalai Lama joined Bishop Desmond Tutu, eBay founder Pierre Omidyan, "Power of Now" author Eckhart Tolle, Nobel laureates and other spiritual leaders here to call for change in the world through compassion.