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Mass Collaboration Transforms Business, Education
In the early days of the World Wide Web, it was often difficult to convince business organizations that an online presence was a necessity. Today, it is just as difficult to get businesses to move from the early days to the new era of Web 2.0.
HICKORY, NC, May 14, 2009 /Post Graduate PR News/ -- In the early days of the World Wide Web, it was often difficult to convince business organizations that an online presence was a necessity. Today, it is just as difficult to get businesses to move from the early days to the new era of Web 2.0.
Today, static content and single-ownership sites are making way for social networks and mass collaboration. While most of us are still playing catch-up, smart organizations have embraced the new technology, moved beyond the "fluff," and are revolutionizing the business and education worlds with this new technology.
In their 2006 book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams cite examples of how this is happening. For example:
IBM collaborated with open source communities to develop Linux. The company estimates it saves about $900 million per year in creation and maintenance costs as a result.
What's more closely guarded than gold? Or the geological data about where to find it? Answer: Hardly anything on the planet. Yet, that's exactly what Rob McEwen, CEO of Canada's Goldcorp, shared with the world. When the company's mineral deposits were drying up and their staff geologists failed to find new supplies, McEwen offered $575,000 in prize money to anyone on the Internet who could find new deposits. More than 1000 people in 50 countries responded to the call. That geologists became involved was not surprising; that graduate students, consultants, mathematicians, and military officers played a role definitely was. More than 50% of the deposits were previously unidentified, and more than 80% of them provided "substantial quantities" of gold. Using (extra)ordinary people around the world, Goldcorp catapulted itself to greater profits than ever.
In 2001, Eli Lilly, a large pharmaceutical company in the USA, launched InnoCentive to tap the talents of scientists around the world. Today, more than 90,000 scientists in 175 countries are registered participants in the system. These scientists can gain huge cash rewards for solving R&D problems of numerous companies.
At MIT, where college courses are posted to the Internet for free consumption, scientists have established Science 2.0 to share information and expertise about biology. Twenty institutional labs are using the wiki to enhance research, swap data, standardize protocols, and essentially revolutionize the evaluation and publication of scientific work around the world.
Intel has established a new open university network. It is establishing exploratory research labs adjacent to universities, where company and university researchers are working side-by-side to discover new ideas. By working with multiple universities, Intel fosters an atmosphere of both competition and collaboration among seasoned researchers. Result? The best of their collaborative ideas are adopted quickly.
In California, the Department of Education has initiated the California Open Source Textbook Project. Using its public school teachers, as well as partners like IBM, Sun, and top universities, the Department is developing high-quality, open source textbooks that can be used to improve public education everywhere. The estimated savings of this method is projected to be $400 million per year.
Sound too distant and far removed from Western North Carolina? Don't bet on it. Melanie Honeycutt, NW Regional Instructional Technology Consultant for the NC Department of Public Instruction provides this insight: "Our greatest mandate is to educate students who can be globally competitive. The K-12 environment struggles to find the correct mix of these tools, while still meeting the ethical standards and age-appropriateness for students. We want to use them, but we are still defining the 'how.' Some districts are using the tools in a protected environment, aligned with classroom instruction. By using the new tools of Web 2.0, we are exposing students to other cultures, lifestyles, points of view, and environments. These districts are carefully evaluating the outcomes and how they can benefit globally-competitive students."
As these students grow into the labor force in the coming years, they will expect this kind of interaction with their peers, their managers, and the world at-large. Is your organization ready? Contact Appalachian State University Center at Hickory, a college for working adults offering business education classes, at (828) 324-6966, or visit the website.
About the Author:
Karen Summey is the Business Programs & Conference Manager at HMHEC. She can be reached at 828-324-6966 ext. 2008.
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