Social Media and Collaboration's Affects on Business

All would agree that it is regrettable that today's scheduled guest speaker, Yong C. Lee, could not give his speech on social media and collaboration, Andi and Howard Rheingold (by way of video) did a good job of filling in for him and I believe they effectively communicated the message Mr. Lee would like to have conveyed.

Rheingold began with the point that corporations and politicians are self-centered in their practices, and really only care about the bottom line. He then went on to slowly show us that via social media, teamwork, and a need to accomplish greater goals that humans achieve their greatest works when working together, not tearing each other apart. It all started with three huge happenings: the consolidation of the hunter gatherers to track down greater game for consumption, the subsequent innovation of the city and agriculture, and possibly most important the invention of the alphabet. The alphabet gave mankind an effective way to communicate and invented new forms of wealth.

He moves on to display games that are designed to show mankind's sense of self preservation and his greed. While it may seem apparent that through these games, one can see that man is only interested in himself, which actually leads him to a fate worse than if he had considered others, Rheingold shows us that this is not necessarily true. He points out that by way of a biological study, we can conclude that cooperative arrangements are what humans strive for and what leads to the best outcome. He points out that "rational self-interest is not always the dominating factor" and that people actually seek to punish these people and even further that this altruistic justice may be the glue that holds society together.

With this rationalization Rheingold moves onto his main point: that social media and collaboration has improved the business environment. He claims that some of the most successful industries in the IT world have achieved this success because they have released their company secrets to the public, so they can themselves improve upon it. After all, the every day users of their products have to deal with its flaws most regularly. He says that these companies do not do this to improve their competitors, but to improve themselves. He brings to the table wikipedia and eBay as examples of this. Through their working with the community, they have innovated a cooperative community that is good for both sides.