Pen Pals?

When I was a kid the idea of having a friend, far away, that you could correspond with was encouraged. While you probably would never meet it was a good chance to learn about other cultures and develop a relationship.

Today, it seems much harder to do that. The tools are there and easy to use -- the Internet -- but the perception is that the world is a scarier place. Maybe it is. Maybe being a 12 year old writing on the Internet exposes you to predators that didn't exist 30 or more years ago. In any case, that issue didn't mean the idea of a pen pal is bad.

I actually have an interest in finding out about a couple of other countries. Not the news reports or press releases but to actually chat with someone who lives there. Try, on a personal level, to understand what is the same and what is different. I have succeeded in doing this in a couple of places in the last 10 years but it was a lot of work.

I am interested in ideas of how this need can be addressed. Maybe it already has been and I have just missed it. Maybe we can do something here to address it. It seems like an obvious Social Networking application but each existing Social Network I look at is full of noise and really doesn't encourage real one-to-one communication.