This special issue contains a collection of personal stories and reflective commentaries about living, working,learning, developing and achieving in a world in which personal and social technologies are used to connectpeople and their needs, purposes and ambitions to the help, resources and opportunities they need to achievewhat they value. Such technologies play an ever increasing role in our everyday learning, personaldevelopment and achievement and create new opportunities for communicating, sharing, connecting, relating, collaborating, creating, serving, giving, valuing and recording what emerges and is achieved in our daily life.