Players not Spectators – Collaborate with Purpose
Mass collaboration, crowdsourcing, modularity, coauthoring, wikinomics, collective action, open source, open government, inter-connected world, orbital perspective, collective vision, etc… Whatever you want to call it, mass collaboration occurs when a bunch of people work together on a single project to produce a most favored output. Metcalfe’s Law states that network value is proportional to the number of users squared, which has been validated on a number of occasions to include the creation of computer operating systems, state government constitutions, and online encyclopedias. So all we need to do is to create a project and make it available for everyone to participate in order to increase network value and a most favorable product. The world will come to contribute and greatness will be created through collective brain power. Right? Well not really. According to research conducted by Anthony Bradley at Gartner, 90% of collaborations fail to deliver value when they lack a well-defined and compelling purpose to drive community creation and to motivate people to contribute. So unless there is a really good reason, social networkers will not contribute. But what motivates people to contribute their time, talent, and resources to a collaboration?
Wikibooks states that mass collaboration depends on self-sustaining momentum established through a compounding value proposition. More people participate in the project because the collaboration is creating something useful which in turn creates a sense of social connectedness and belonging. Mass collaboration projects that exhibit these qualities exponentially grow in number of contributors, which fuels speed, quality, and momentum of the project. Other critical requirements for mass collaboration include connection technologies, individual empowerment, competence and influence, and self-sustaining governance.
Dittyverse is the first lightweight social collaboration platform that facilitates the sharing of ideas under a common project. Dittyverse projects start with the project description called a Ditty. The Ditty establishes clear purpose detailing for who, what, when, why, benefits, charity or financial incentives. Users (called Dittiers) then contribute lightweight content called Dittles that are similar in size to other social networking platforms that share status, insights, wisdom, activities and opinions. Dittles are combined into finished products called Ditlists (or playlist). These playlists combine sound, text, pictures, or video files into a finished product that can be professionally produced or used as recorded. Dittiers can build off of Dittles created by other Dittiers. Dittyverse provides governance in the form of likes/dislike tracking, favoriting and commenting. Also Dittiers can follow their favorite Ditties and Playlists as well as establish connections with other Dittiers. Dittyverse is the first lightweight social creation platform to provide all the necessary components for mass collaboration. You can become a Dittier that watches, contributes, or comments on direction. In the Dittyverse you can collaborate with the world to create music, poetry, stories, movies, and collages of world events, as well as family reunions, wedding receptions, special occasions, friends having fun, commercials, laws or other digital creations. Basically, Dittyverse provides the means for anything to be produced through cooperation between individuals around the world. Great things are created by great people collaborating to create something special.
