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I hear a shout. "Get off my intellectual property!" This person's eyes become narrow with distrust as he or she fires a virtual warning shot into the cyber sky.
Before I continue with this post, I will be specific, using myself as an example. I am a free-lance reporter. I use this site for many reasons. The ones that come to mind as I write this sentence are : (1) to further develop my own ideas, (2) to get a sense of what other people in the community care about, and (3) to take action with people to address some of the things we talk about on this site.
Am I being a lazy reporter by doing this sort of crowd-sourcing on Columbus Underground ? (Shouldn't this approach be welcome given the absence of public discourse in much of our local media? )
Someone's input is voluntary. If he or she wants credit for an idea, I can give it them, attributing it to their CU name, or they can disclose their real names. Doing the latter makes it more likely that people beyond the Columbus Underground forum community may contact them for professional, personal, or community involvement reasons. That's the approach I take if someone's ideas make their way into one of my stories (which, by the way, hasn't happened yet). What's wrong with that?
Countless times I have joked with a particularly talkative person sharing her or his knowledge, "Wow, that's really interesting, but if you keep telling me more, I'll have to pay you a fee."
But that's a joke, right? Or do some of us relate to the person who, figuratively speaking, is ready to shoot anyone intruding upon her or his intellectual property ?
My own guess is that the internet and social media have been changing our perspective on whether and how and with whom to use and share knowledge.
Imagine, if each of us refused to say anything about whatever it is we
know, unless we were guaranteed upfront some sort of material compensation or some other type of reward.
The idea that knowledge should have a high price and that it otherwise should be hard to access seems akin to the general philosophy that everything should have a monetary value or otherwise be tied to material worth.
To what extent does this idea play out regarding access to (1) healthcare, (2) safe drinking water, (3) quality education, or (4) healthful food ?
But about crowd-sourcing on Columbus Underground, I venture that all of us are getting, or trying to get, some material or psychological benefit from interacting with other people.
That's the case, whether we're using this amazing forum (which by the way, many other cities don't have), or whether we're talking with someone at a party or on a bus or plane or at the grocery.
Further, my guess is that human innovation, whether it's technological or social, tends to thrive on people sharing ideas with one another, as opposed to just bouncing them around in our own heads.
Launched in August 2010, TheMetropreneur.com is a local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Its aim is to tell the stories of Central Ohio's business community, foster regional economic development and assist entrepreneurs with its resource-heavy focus.