Collaboration for Meaning Making

Every activity results in some form of meaning. In using collaboration, the activity enriches all participants. Howard Rheingold (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html) discusses how the paradigm has shiften away from older views like the prisoner's dilemma and sharing even Steven or "50 -50" into a new way of thinking. Businesses no longer require that the traditional model is followed in creation of new ideas, products and methods. The internet has allowed individuals to transcend boundaries and to collaborate in ways that have made a new era. The question as to whether people's basic instincts to work together is part of the internet phenomena is a good one because there also the idea that the quickest or fittest will win or that realism predicts that anything held in common will become fodder for conflict and eventually despoiled. In my opinion, the internet can be a tool for useful and productive work amongst men, however, it will be vulnerable to attacks and the forces of evil as well. Why do men eventually have to sadden themselves and why are there societies that have no name for war? These are some of the deeper questions of man's soul. For now, we must continue to hope that the internet is used as an instrument of peace, productivity and prosperity. Men can work together to achieve wonderful understandings, expressions of themselves, creations and explorations of the world using the internet. Using blogs, web groups, virtual worlds, to name just a few, the possibilities exist for linking to others to accomplish one's goals in a constructivist sense.