Virtual communities can learn from evolution
Stumble It!Evolutionary science has many lessons for our online communities
David Bollier offers a very interesting overview perspective of a workshop co-sponsored by the Berkman Centre and The Gruter Institute.The workshop, involving lawyers, biologists, social scientists, technologists and policy experts, focussed on what evolutionary science and "commons scholarship" can teach us about the social architecture of co-operative on-line communities ('on-line commons').
Topics such as:
- How people share real life "common resources"
- The importance and practicalities of "reputation systems" in reducing the risk of dealing we people we don't physically meet
- How we can learn from natural immune systems in the ways we can protect the online community against 'rogue outsiders'
- The experience of Open Source Software (OSS) as a victory of ST ("Social Technology") over IT and the innovative energy released through common ownership approaches
These are important topics for those of us trying to develop a more biological and evolutionary view of organisations, teams and networks
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Bioteams Books Reviews
Predictably Irrational teams
Teams, networks, groups and their members behave in an irrational way but quite predictably so. A good team leader will understand this and use it to everyone’s advantage. One key point is to knowing each team members motivations and whether they are operating in “social economy” or “market economy” mindsets.
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