(2012-01-08) Miemis How Will We Collaborate If We Can't Trust Each Other

Venessa Miemis: How Will We Collaborate if We Can’t Trust Each Other? A few years ago, I had a big snowcrash moment about the power of networks and the web, envisioning the amazing potential that could be unleashed if we could just build our networks and weave them all together.

Fast forward 18 months or so, and I find myself embedded within overlapping networks of networks…. and yet I still don’t see the magic happening that had appeared so clearly in my mind.

I’m reminded of something Stowe Boyd said when I interviewed him for the Future of Facebook Project:
"There’s no natural reason that we’re all gonna come together and sing kumbaya just because we’re using the same social tools.""

The connection phase was great. It has transformed me.
But now we’re moving into the collaboration phase, and there are some different requirements.

If we’re going to go beyond just sharing links with each other to actually helping each other, working together, experimenting, prototyping, and adapting to changing circumstances, we have to first change in order to make that possible.

Each of us is a free agent, delicately riding the edge of chaos and uncertainty as we try to pave our own path

Each of us sees the promise of a new way of working, living, and Being.
And yet there is still fear.
Are you gonna steal my idea? Are you gonna follow through with your commitments? Are you gonna take the credit? Am I gonna get screwed — yet again?

For me, it all comes down to trust.

Lead by example and see who wants to come with me. Become aware of who I’m connected to and choosing carefully with whom I want to build things. Take small risks together.