Google announced several days ago that it will start allowing users to collaborate and edit its maps in order to improve details and keep up with new construction. Although there are several restrictions in place such as the regions available for editing (you can only edit in the small Caribbean Islands) and size (you can only edit in a high zoom mode so that people don’t change the shape of countries), this is a major step in collaboration online.
Google is considered an Internet giant in search, advertising, mapping, email and a slew of other things. But this latest step reinforces Google’s appreciation for collaboration and open source. Inspired by the likes of Wikiepdia it’s increasingly clear that collaboration can come from anyone — not just a panel of experts. Does this move make open source, collaborative efforts more legitimate? We think so. Even though there will be teams of people ‘overseeing’ or fact checking this experiment Google’s latest move validates in the power inherent in the web as a platform enabling collective intelligence.
Is it now fair to say we have reached the era where collaborative software is an essential part of life and business? As a current college student, I can affirmatively state that Wikipedia is engrained into my life, as it is for most of my friends. Even top college professors look to it for “dumbed down” explanations and visual aids.
Based on my experience with Workstreamer, we fit right into this trend. I truly believe that tools like Workstreamer that encourage social collaboration will enhance the fantastic information exposure we’ve come to expect from the likes of Wikipedia. I love the idea of allowing people to share, edit and learn what they want, when they want, and how they want.