The 10 lenses of collaboration

Tom Haskins offers only nine, leaving one for us to imagine.

Interesting is that he also mentions each visions’ dark side.

Tom Haskins:

“This morning I’ve been making connections in my mind (cognitive network) between the many different ways that increased collaboration is emerging globally. I then pondered the possibility that each of these different ways of collaborating are the same thing, looked at though different lenses. Here’s how that possibility played out for me.

1. When we think about labor and production, we see peers who are sharing files, contributing to projects, responding to requests. We worry about exploitation of workers and the capitalization of labor.

2. When we think about property and ownership, we see commons getting shared, maintained and protected, We worry about any encroachment on, enclosure of or privatization of the commons.

3. When we think about archives, creative works and publications, we see open source and open access models of dissemination. We worry about destroying incentives to continue creating and investing in the infrastructure for advanced research and productions.

4. When we think about gatherings benefiting from inclusiveness, diversity and mutual support systems, we see communities and cooperatives. We worry about debilitating conflicts, ego trips and abuses of power.

5. When we think about individuals expressing themselves through writing, pics, recordings, video, tags, comments, tweets, and texts, we see social networking platforms. We worry about echo chambers and evil spammers.

6. When we think about the authority to administer governance over collectives, we see collaborative networks comprised of constituencies. We worry about over-representing special interests and charismatic leaders abusing their power.

7. When we think about innovative services and breakout value propositions, we see customers co-creating value with providers. We worry about hackers and inventors selling out to corporate greed.

8. When we think about how individuals mediate the messages they receive and uniquely transform common information into subjective comprehension, we see connections being formed, maintained and strengthened. We worry about isolation and disconnects missing out on the available complexity.

9. When we think about social evolution and disruptive changes in the status quo, we see incumbents getting replaced by new entrants. We worry about the startups building a following, generating revenue and enduring the lull after the initial excitement.”

1 Comment The 10 lenses of collaboration

  1. AvatarTom Haskins

    Thanks for highlighting this, Michel. After viewing some of the videos from Internet as Playground and Factory , you spoke at I got an idea for a tenth lens:

    When we think about playing together in shared spaces, we see flash mobs, unconferences and ritualized gatherings. We worry about the fun and theatrics as mere thrill seeking and escapes from boredom that is doomed to fizzle out.

    Happy 2010!

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