How Managing Collaboration in Social Media Is like Conducting

Hamburg.
The final presenter at next09 is conductor (as in, music) Itay Talgam. He begins by describing the way an orchestra tunes up - everyone doing their own thing; this is noise, not yet music. But when the conductor steps up to the podium, attention is focussed, and music begins. Whose creation is this music? Who is responsible? Who contributed to the success of the performance?

This is a question of ownership, of course - and it applies just as much to collaborative online environments as it does to an orchestra. The conductor of the orchestra provides the leadership, controls the process, and the musicians follow - but in the process, the musicians also lose some of their independence, their ability to introduce their own personality into the performance.

This, then, is the challenge for the conductor - not to control the orchestra to the point that they are alienated from the collaborative process of creating music, but to allow them a space within the piece, an opportunity to insert their emotion into the music, and even to step back for a while while (for example) a soloist takes the spotlight. This is about changing the conditions of the world in which the player operates.

Of course what is created does not necessarily come out in the best form possible; this, too, is a permanent beta, which also requires participation from the audience.

Brilliant presentation - and that's the end for next09!

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