Networks Matter

Do you remember when Japan first introduced its vehicles in America? Small and cheap. For many in the US, it was "interesting" and "cute", but they were no where close to the size and scale of the domestic automakers. Now some 30 years later, look how the industry has changed and look what started out as "small" ended up being "big."

Moreover, think about how that shift has changed the way we work and the very fabric of community in which we live.

So as I recover from jet lag at 1:50 am, my mind travels to what I think is a similar, yet more powerful shift in the society. The reclaiming and the power of social networks.

What got me going was listening to the proceeding taking place at the Wikimania Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts this past weekend. I happened to have my brother and sister-in-law there blogging away about the sessions. I would in turn listen to a session via the web.

I have often said that the most powerful asset of United Way is its relationships. Not the money it raises. Don't get me wrong, the money raised is critical and important. But without the relationships in the private, public and non profit sectors --- progress would not be possible.

So after I listen to speakers from across the globe talking about how society, networks, technology, communities, and behaviors are changing, I get a headache. It literally leaves my mind spinning --- wondering what comes next and how in the world do I (or we) relate/interact/shape to it.

For just a stroll, think about these next few topics and what it means for how a community works together on improving the human condition:

• Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia (world's largest encyclopedia in over 100 languages ---over 1.3 million articles in English), opens Wikimania by reminding everyone that the mission of Wikipedia is "to imagine a world that every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge." The Wiki movement across the world is done by volunteers. Jimmy Wales and his staff of five are the total that work for the Wiki Foundation.
• Larry Lessig, Professor at Stanford University and founder of the Creative Commons, describes how we are moving from a "Read Only" culture to a "Read Write" culture. That is, "Read Only" is more of a top-down distribution of creativity and knowledge. Whereas, "Read Write" is a two way exchange ---much more a horizontal distribution.
• The Wiki platform is now being used by communities, companies and groups to manage knowledge and communication between those who share a common interest.
• New tools like Wikihow have emerged to garner the worlds knowledge on "how to do things." For example, how to fix a faucet. How to survive a hurricane. How to make a goldfish survive for decades. Might there be in the future sections: "How to volunteer" "How to organize a neighborhood group" "How to influence public policy".
• Yochai Benkler, Professor at Yale Law school, wrote a key book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. He has given us the observation that the industrial production of information by traditional newspapers and TV companies is very capital intensive and as such requires a large investments to get your voice heard. Today with the price of a cellphone you can begin publishing your voice for the whole world to hear/read. This is causing a major shift in the production of knowledge as Henry Ford cause in the production of an automobile with his idea of the assembly line...breaking the building of a vehicle into small steps.
• Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, editor of First Monday, the most widely read peer-reviewed on-line journal of the Internet, talked about the value of collaborative efforts (http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:RG1). The concept of collaborative knowledge isn't new, what's new is the scale and the tech.
• Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive), and his goal is to provide universal access to all knowledge - how's that for a small task? He was very hopeful that all books, all audio, all video, all web can be captured and preserved within the next ten years.
• Also available to you is Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Meta-Wiki, Commons, WikiTravel, Wikimedia and soon to be coming is Wikiversity. All of these are to provide universal access of knowledge to help people come together to learn.

The above is a little like seeing the new Japanese car driving down the road for the first time in the 1970's. Never seen it before and not sure what it meant to the future.

The above topics give us just a small glimpse that tells us there is now a different vehicle driving down the road that people, networks and organizations all over the world are beginning to use to get work done. To improve learning. To share knowledge and assets. To strengthen an organization. To organize a community of shared interest. To affect social change.

How do you see the ideas and tools above being used now or in the future?