I’ve seen plenty of IMAX movies and Discovery Channel specials that explore our earth in comparison to the entire universe. I’m not a science person, so these movies never seem to interest me in any in-depth scientific manner. However, I’m a people person. I enjoy thinking about relationships and societal norms. Globalization also fascinates me, especially when I consider how much we all influence each other, even people who live on opposite sides of the earth. When I watch movies about earth and the universe, I can’t help but feel miniscule. I think about everything that is happening on this planet and on this universe, and I suddenly feel smaller than a single piece of sand or dust. These movies have always made me feel fairly insignificant. However, a TED Talk by Nick Skytland , a rocket scientist at NASA, changed my perspective and helped me to regain feelings of significance and efficacy.
In a commentary of this TED Talk, NASA described how mass collaboration is changing our approach to problem solving in government. At first thought, these topics seem to not relate to each other at all. However, after considering the broad perspective of the earth that astronauts are so lucky to see from space, it becomes apparent that our world is more interconnected and dependent than ever before. Modern technology has the power to put this perspective in the hands of all humans, not just those lucky 500 or so who have the opportunity to go to space. After considering the technology that we have at our disposal, as well as the potential to harness mass collaboration, the following becomes clear: “Although government has always been a platform for collective action, the problem is that it’s never really been an efficient one at connecting people together and scaling their participation in a focused and useful way. For the first time in history, this is changing” (nasa.gov).
Due to new technology we can experience this orbital perspective on our own, and this perspective enables us to effectively demand more personal participation in government affairs. Instead of sitting back and observing the problems in government, we now have the opportunity to get our hands dirty and fix them. Technology is helping us to seek greater participation in government instead of simply demanding more transparency. This is where mass collaboration really comes into play. As NASA exclaims, “Thanks to technology, connecting people to what we do inside government does not have to be complex. It is not rocket science. The formula is simple” (nasa.gov). The formula is mass collaboration.
The government has begun to use a few interesting methods in mass collaboration. First, NASA created a way to engage citizens in 2012 through the first International Space Apps Challenge . This app challenge encouraged active participation from average people in innovation that used to primarily happen only in large institutions, behind closed doors. The apps that were created are fascinating. One of them, called the #creatorsproject shows, through geolocation, how a specific place has been modified by human action.
Although the Space Apps Challenge caters primarily to scientists and those literate in complicated technology, another mass collaboration event called the National Day of Civic Hacking applies to all of us. This event will happen during the first week of June this year, and it sounds incredibly interesting. According to the website, this event will “bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs across the nation to collaboratively create, build and invent using publicly-released date, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country” (hackforchange.org). All participants, known as civic hackers, will use a minimum of resources and a maximum of brainpower and ingenuity to create, enhance or fix something. Instead of complaining about what is happening in government, this mass collaboration event will allow people to be an integral part of creating change that will personally affect their lives.
Utilizing technology can help us to share an orbital perspective, and this perspective influences us to use mass collaboration to reform our cities, economy, and government at all levels. The government cannot reach its true potential without tapping into the intelligence of all of its constituents. Use mass collaboration to its full ability: it can increase your personal efficacy and create change that will be helpful to each and ever citizen of our world. There are simply no negative aspects of government sponsored mass collaboration, because every voice counts. As the NASA scientists claim, “After all, once you see Earth from space, you realize we are all in this together.”
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