By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 31 weeks ago.

This New York Times profile of Martin Nowak is not new, but it seems like a good place to start the reawakening of this blog. We've taken some time to move to a Drupal platform and are now recruiting bloggers. If you are interested in cooperation theory and want to blog, contact me via howard at rheingold dot com and I'll sign you up for our Google Group and/or grant blogging privileges here.

In recent papers, Dr. Nowak has argued that cooperation is one of the three basic principles of evolution. The other two are mutation and selection. On their own, mutation and selection can transform a species, giving rise to new traits like limbs and eyes. But cooperation is essential for life to evolve to a new level of organization. Single-celled protozoa had to cooperate to give rise to the first multicellular animals. Humans had to cooperate for complex societies to emerge.

“We see this principle everywhere in evolution where interesting things are happening,” Dr. Nowak said.

While cooperation may be central to evolution, however, it poses questions that are not easy to answer. How can competing individuals start to cooperate for the greater good? And how do they continue to cooperate in the face of exploitation? To answer these questions, Dr. Nowak plays games.

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

Social Silicon Valleys: Social Innovation Manifesto

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

(Via Doors of Perception)

Social Innovation has published a "manifesto for social innovation," Social Silicon Valleys (PDF), that's definitely worth reading:

• Read more

Seminar on Benkler's Wealth of Networks

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

(Via boingboing)

I'm about 85% through the book. It's important. This seminar adds value:

• Read more

Ripple monetary system -- trust based, social network mediated lending system

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

Browsing the cooperation tag on del.icio.us often yields juicy goodies like Ripple, a sharing economy service enabled by online technologies of cooperation. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for Ripple monetary system

• Read more

Resource center for cooperation-related material (bilingual, Francais/English)

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

Jérôme Delacroix has started a resource center for cooperation-related materials:

Centre de ressources

Sur cette page, listées en vrac avant meilleure classification, quelques ressources recommandées par Coopératique :

• Read more

Research on Wikipedia authorship

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

(Via boingboing)

• Read more

Pledgebank: global mentoring challenge

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

Pledgebank is a great example of a technology of cooperation -- you can pledge to do something (usually, some kind of contribution to public goods) if and only if a specified number of other people agree to join you. Lucy Hooberman asked for 250 people to join her in mentoring people in the developing world. At last count, she had been joined by 350 others. It's not too late to join!

• Read more

Pledgebank, an online cooperation enabler

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

Pledgebank is a technology of cooperation that leverages the Internet's capability of connecting like-minded strangers: people can organize any kind of activity by pledging to do something if and only if a specified number of people join them:

• Read more

P2P Foundation podcasts and webcasts

By Howard Rheingold, 2 years 43 weeks ago.

• Read more

1234567next ›last »