Information Technology in a Global Society

“Peering succeeds because it leverages self-organization–a style of production that works more effectively than hierarchical management for certain tasks. Its greatest impact today is in the production of information goods–and its initial effects are visible in the production of software, media, entertainment, and culture–but there are few reasons for peer production to stop there (Tapscott, 25).” Tappscott, Don. “Wikinomics | About the Book.” Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. 31 March 2008 <[[http://wikinomics.com/book/%3E.|http://wikinomics.com/book/>.]] 

 Rumination: I have recently been privileged with an invitation into the new and exciting world of Horizon Project 2008 and will be collaborating with students world wide that I have never met face to face. We will be creating a product together and crossing borders that without the development of web 2.0 would otherwise go uncrossed. This product will be a wiki regarding social networking sites as they impact education. In the passage above, Don Tappscott discusses the implications of open source information and online productions. According to him, peering is a way for people that will never see each other to impact one another’s thoughts, ideas and the content that they publish online. By peering via the internet, web content publishers are able to divide work thus allowing for more productivity. Also, there is usually a diversity of influences on the content when people from different walks of life work together. Since, disregarding moderators and administrators, people involved in editing the information on a wiki have equal power, there is not as much of a hierarchy in peering as there was before web 2.0. When everyone is free to contribute without their rank mattering, disregarding of course inappropriate or inaccurate contributions that must be censored or removed by administrators and moderators, there is more room for development and growth since what everyone says matters.