Blogs have emerged from a humble beginning to become a highly networked mass of online knowledge and communication. All kinds of research, from searching for the best price of the latest mobile phone, to more rigorous forms, are conducted through the blog medium. The mechanisms that provide the possibility for blogs to link to each other provide possibilities for collaboration and knowledge sharing in a fast, public and convenient manner. This working paper discusses the lessons that can be learned from collaboration and research in the blogosphere with a view to how they can be applied to academic and commercial research.

The Internet has fostered an unconventional and powerful style of collaboration: “wiki” web sites, where every visitor has the power to become an editor. In this paper we investigate the dynamics of Wikipedia, a prominent, thriving wiki.

One important innovation in information and communication technology developed over the past decade was organizational rather than merely technological. Open source production is remarkable because it converts a private commodity (typically software) into a public good.

Lietaer is the author of nine books on money and finances, including "The Future of Money" (Random House, 2001), The Mystery of Money (Riemann Verlag, 2000) and a book for kids, called 'The World of Money' (Arena Verlag, 2001). Formerly professor of international finance at the University of Louvain, Lietaer is currently a fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Beginning this fall, he will be a professor at Naropa University. Here, Lietaer shares his views on the shortcomings of our conventional currency system, the benefits of creating a complementary currency, and ways to effect lasting social change.

The Internet is filled with junk and jerks. It is commonplace for inhabitant of the Internet to complain bitterly about the lack of cooperation, decorum, and useful information. The signal-to-noise ratio, it is said, is bad and getting worse.