The NetSquared community selected 21 projects to 'feature' in the year ahead with a remarkably democratic process of nominating and voting.

I spent some time trolling through the candidates and was thoroughly impressed with the diversity of the participants in this non-profit community. The featured projects list can also tell us a lot about the trends rising to the surface where technology and social change intersect.

First and foremost, there's a focus on individual human contact, versus the big institutional characteristics of many aid and development organizations. (See NABUUR, mykenyanspace.net, Kabissa and Yankana.org.)

Local farming -- educating and connecting -- was popular. (See FamilyFarmed.org and Farmer2Farmer.)

Open source, scalable technology was also a hit. (See TakingITGlobal and Participatory Culture Institute.)

None of these trends are surprising, of course, but it is worth watching the entire list of featured projects for exciting things in the future.