Connection and Collaboration

When we truly become effective at the gathering of intention, natural collaboration will ensue. Unfortunately, we can’t get there until we get past some initial resistance. Once people begin to see the positive effects of their intentions being exposed, I believe we’ll see widespread acceptance. At that point, we can deal with other obstacles and risks, such as people not knowing what they want or changing their minds.

Once we can develop a unifying force that either consolidates (simplifies and cross-references) data or creates fixed data points (such as an interest in product X, at cost Y, within Z weeks) to express intention, we can then match effectively and aggregate intention among individuals to do things like group buys or matching people to causes – whether it’s for a charity walk or for building a company.

In fact, we are already seeing non-profits benefiting from badges on Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Given the number of people within my network who match some aspect of my digital fingerprint, it isn’t surprising that quite a few of them have charities that are of interest to me.

I don’t mean to make it sound like we’re on a path to socialism when it comes to collaboration. Have faith that the motivated forces of commerce within our networks and communities will always be looking for ways to profit. Furthermore, increasingly sophisticated algorithms will allow those willing to expend greater effort to take a bigger share of the pie. This could lead to a more pure and efficient form of capitalism, essentially shifting the value of relationships to the value the relationship produces.

I do think that collaboration will be the next great frontier on the web. The amount of collective power that can be harnessed by social networks to achieve goals is astonishing. Think about saving money with group buys, cloud computing to solve medical problems, conducting joint product development or even simply finding a way to pass on a lineage of storytelling. Wikis and other tools have given us the ability to crowd-source all types of information as well as new opportunities to work together toward a common good.

At first we saw groups of individuals who were already connected in the offline world embracing online tools as a way to collaborate on a business presentation, a school project or community initiative. But soon it was clear that simply having the means to collaborate could itself create connection and community.

For years, intent existed in our own minds but generally went unspoken, except perhaps with close friends and spouses. On the web we find that by expressing our intent we are fulfilled. We’re able to connect with products or services or communities that meet our needs. This gratification probably explains why early technology investments focused so heavily on search results. But imagine a world where people express their desires proactively prior to making a decision. Although we’re still in an early stage, it’s exciting.