Chapter 6: The New Alexandrians

Sharing for Science and the Science of Sharing.

Wired Magazine's co-founder Kevin Kelly recently reported that,

"...humans have 'published' at least 32 million books; 750 million articles and essays; 25 million songs; 500 million images; 500,000 movies; 3 million videos, TV shows, and short films; and 100 billion Web pages—and most of this knowledge explosion took place in the last half century. Now add the constant stream of new knowledge created every day; so much, in fact, that the stock of human knowledge now doubles every five years (152)." 

The early Alexandrian Greeks attempted to collect all of the world's knowledge into one huge library. Google is attempting to digitize all books. (See http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/print_library.html). And, once digitized, information can be shared, cross-referenced, and repurposed like never before (154).

Scientific observers expect more change in the next fifty years of science than in the last four hundred years of inquiry. One of the biggest reason for all the changes in collaboration started with the Enlightenment in the 17th century. The Industrial Enlightenment that began in the 17th century formed new ways of thinking and collaborating with like-minded individuals. 

The authors show how the ideas in the Enlightenment have influenced todays quest to collaborate on everything, and make knowledge accessible to those who want it. "New Alexandrians understand that creating a shared foundation of knowledge on which large and diverse groups of collaborators can build, is a great way to enhance innovation and corporate success (178)." 

With all of this availability of knowledge and scientific collaboration, there is some information that remains in private ownership, which in the long run, may affect the direction of research.

How can there be "choice and balance" in education? Are we adequately preparing our students to be able to navigate successfully in a seemingly endless sea of information? How do our students learn and practice the art, and value, of collaboration of knowledge for the "greater good?" 

As a follow-up to this chapter, watch this 4-min video, "We Think." by Charles Leadbeater.



And, his TED Talk: "The Rise of the Amateur Professional"