Unfortunately, Yong Lee was not able to give his presentation as scheduled due to illness, but allowed Andi Narvaez to present his information through the lecture of Howard Rheingold.
Rheingold starts off with the history of mankind and how collaboration has evolved the growth of the human civilization. Throughout history, collaboration has allowed for groups of people to accomplish far more than what the individual can possibly do by oneself. Whether it be the hunting of mastodon, establishing of cities and governments, or creating upstanding financial exchanges, collaboration improves on the current condition of human society.
However, with the benefits of social collaboration comes a fear: a fear of the risk of theft of plagiarism. Rheingold goes on to explain game theory and the prisoner's dilemma. He also go on to explain how research has shown that tit for tat is the best strategy to use in collaboration. Another social dilemma discussed was the tragedy of the commons. However, tragedy of the commons can be overcome by creating institutions that prevent the spoiling of common resources.
Rheingold goes further and cites examples of collaboration in the field of technology, such as Wikipedia or Linux. This all goes to show, that while the sharing of private information has its hazards, its benefits far outweigh its risks. On another note, human civilization itself cannot advance to its potential without collaboration. In the current day and age where companies are obsessed about keeping its production private and its information enclosed, collaboration is the key for the next big evolution in humanity. In fact, in the early years of the internet, the protocols and code were released to college universities. As a result, students at the University of California, Berkeley analyzed and improved upon the existing code. Their improvements eventually became part of the internet itself. With tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and LinkedIn revolutionizing social networking, they have also allowed for professional networking and the exchanging of information in the modern age. Rheingold's final statement is to help him start the collaboration movement, for it is the best way to human society to advance towards the future.
I found it interesting the Rheingold examined these collaborations through the broad scope of history. It showed how humans have always collaborated to solve problems. Now though, we are able to collaborate much faster through the use of these new social mediums.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Concise and well developed.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to include hyperlinks and to label it appropriately!