Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Is "mass collaboration" the way to a new model of warfare?

I've been reading the new book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams entitled "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything". Here is a brief extract from their online sample chapter:

“Call them the “weapons of mass collaboration.” New low-cost collaborative infrastructures—from free Internet telephony to open-source software to global outsourcing platforms—allow thousands upon thousands of individuals and small producers to cocreate products, access markets, and delight customers in ways that only large corporations could manage in the past. This is giving rise to new collaborative capabilities and business models that will empower the prepared firm and destroy those that fail to adjust.” Source: Sample chapter.


Can the “weapons of mass collaboration” be adapted to fighting the new “war on terrorism” or perhaps more accurately, the war on those who wish to establish a global Islamic caliphate based upon a fundamentalist form of Islam (i.e. a Taliban-like theocracy)? In this way may evolve a bottom-up strategy to combat non-state-based foes. This may be the appropriate adaptation to Web 2.0 pioneered by such sites as MySpace.com and YouTube.com. This may be the best way to involve the Muslim population whose input may be critical to ensuring an inclusive approach. The present UN, NATO and other ultimately state-based conventional warfare models seem only to exacerbate the situation by fomenting internecine warfare as is occurring in Iraq.

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