From Collective to Collaborative
The web, since inception, has always been a very collective body. Myriad of connections between private and public interests had built it into its present form.
After a period of latency (circa early to mid 90’s), companies have since flocked the web up to the point where its commercialization is a growing concern for many (60s-style idealists?).
Yet today, the rapid dissemination of word-of-mouth in wikis, forums, blogs, etc. is empowering individuals to the detriment of organisations.
One excellent graph of such is Ross Mayfield’s graph
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross/171420476/)
Opinion leaders are emerging as the new firestarters that threaten the formal entities with what is now coined as “no-control PR”.
More, all of this is happening in a communal ecosystem based on hard to assess (therefore hard to fake) qualitative metrics as reputation and karisma. This time, cash alone cannot buy a way out as the old-economy leaders were accustomed to. Consequenses for businesses have huge long-term implications. The balance of power is shifting.
Last stats to date: 80 million MySpace pages, 40 million bloggers and nearly a million amateur encyclopedians. Call it the Age of Peer Production as Wired did in its 14.07 issue.
The collective mind becomes a collaborative one. Are you in-sync?