Rheingold, in this book, insists that if all of us can use collective intelligence, we can be smarter than any of us. If we want to deploy the collaboration skills, we understand four worth notions(149).

  • Attention is a fundamental building block of social cooperation, which requires paying attention to each other
  • Humans are supercooperators because we’ve learned how to devise new tools and methods to overcome social dilemmas.
  • Innovative social institutions continually coevolve together with communication media.
  • Reciprocating cooperation, punishing noncooperators, and signaling a willingness to cooperate are useful.

    Rheingold use the definition of Arthur Himmelman who detailed the differences between networking, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration(153).

  • Networking is the simplest, withe the least risk and commitment such as commenting on a blog.
  • Coordination means that all involved parties share information and agree to modify their activities for mutual benefit.
  • Cooperation is exchanging information, modifying activities, and sharing resources for mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose.
  • Collaboration is the most purposeful means of collective action. It uses networking, coordination, and cooperation as building blocks. Collaborators share common goals and responsibility.