Blog Post 4

Collaboration

    I actually sat down and read the bloody chapter! I am shocked at how entertaining it was to read about the author's experiences with networking and collaboration over the web. We live in an era in which we are lucky to forge true friendships and fellowships with others across the globe with ease. Problems are not isolated, we can share our obstacles and eventually have someone give us the boost to hurdle over it. Modern networking is about more than just sharing pictures of your food and drunken stupors, it is about exploring and curating our interests with different kinds of people, and always discovering something new in the process.
    The whole talk about collective intelligence was very fascinating, since it is a concept that has not truly existed until recently. The internet has allowed everyone to chime in on any form of conversation across the world. High concept communications are not isolated to clubs and institutions, everyone can establish whatever group they so desire and address whatever concerns they might have. As it is expected from, we tend to focus on the negative; many individuals instantly associate internet groups with trolls and 4chan forum boards. Internet communities are not just that, as a group we can explore horizons that one person's narrow scope could never find.
    Crowd-sourcing was something that I never took that seriously, it was not until I saw Kickstarter single-handedly save PC videogame developers. Anyone with a developed vision can get help from others through the internet resonate with the idea. The DS106 site is a perfect example, this guy needed a server, he pitched it to others, he got funding way before he met the deadline.
    The one website that encompasses everything about internet collaboration is Wikipedia to me. It is a fountain of general knowledge about almost anything the average person can think of. It is funded solely through donations. The information is reviewed and revised constantly. It is truly remarkable to have resources like that available to us.