Use technology and collaborate YOUR knowledge!

The Internet has allowed us the ability to expand our knowledge by working together, sharing information, and producing new knowledge. I believe we all take for granted the ability to obtain information at any time, quickly, and at the click of a button. The beauty of the Internet is that one individual can be in Japan while working with another individual that is in Indiana and they are able to collaborate their ideas and share knowledge with one another. Another aspect about technology and collaboration is that it has become a way of life.

We send emails, instant messages, host a video conference, along with many of forms of communication and it has become a way of life, not just using technology. When you send an email to your co-worker to see what time the meeting is, you are subconsciously working together to make sure that you get to the meeting at the right time and your co-worker is working with you to make sure you know what time to arrive at the meeting. Highly intelligent technology is usually only available to a few individuals that can afford it, but now the way that businesses and people communicate is becoming mainstream and like I said before, a way of life.

With the power of the Internet it makes it possible for more people to have access to more knowledge and also allows more individuals to work collaboratively on various projects. Sunstein claims that this is known as Infotopia; obtaining collective knowledge via collaboration. There are many aspects of collaboration that we participate in without even realizing it. For example, when you are video conferencing with another individual you are able to brainstorm, and pick out the strong ideas while throwing out the weak ones in order to come to a solution; you are producing knowledge. Deliberation, also known as talking as a group, can occur through an email, an instant message, a memo, among many other forms of technology. Often enough we are more concerned with the knowledge being shared than the technology that is allowing us to share that knowledge. Technology makes it possible for us to collaborate and come up with the best ideas in the most efficient manner. I wonder, if technology was not as advanced as what it is today, would we be limited to the knowledge that we have, and the knowledge that we could share? Next time you use technology to collaborate your knowledge, take a second to think how you would communicate without technology.