In a TED Conference presentation given by Jonathan Zittrain, the topic of the Internet and Social Collaboration is discussed. The recurring theme in Jonathan’s presentation is the concept of trust, and how over the years even though our trust in people around us has decreased, the Internet exists on a foundation of trust. Before you watch the presentation and read my notes on it, let me introduce you to who Jonathan Zittrain is in case you don’t know who he is.

Jonathan Zittrain is a Harvard Law Professor, an investigator for the OpenNet Innitiative and Co-Founder of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. His initiatives include projects to fight malware (StopBadware) and ChillingEffects, a site designed to support open content by tracking legal threats to individual users.

It’s Amazing What Open Source Has Become

Open Source projects are a perfect example of what Jonathan Zittrain is talking about. Even though he doesn’t mention open source in his presentation, Open Source projects are in my opinion the biggest examples of this idea of online trust and collaboration.

What is it about the internet that has so much data being shared and distributed daily? It can’t all be about business. So much of the content that is distributed and shared on the web has nothing to do with people making money. So much of it has to do with different needs people have. The need to share. The need to create. The need to communicate.

What we have seen is that Open Source and the Internet as a whole balance on a very thin thread of kindness and trust. Open Source projects and the Internet as a whole seem to always be hours away from being destroyed. But somehow, because of the “good will” of Internet users around the world, it continues on. Open Source thrives on the good will of “geeky strangers”.

Open Source and The Web Allow Us To Trust Each Other More!

In a day in age where we feel that we cannot trust each other, the Internet has somehow allowed us humans to trust each other more. We trust reviews. We trust products being sold. We trust recommendations that we read. We trust sources that are cited. We trust listings on ebay and craigslist. We trust meeting new people that we meet in social networks.

It’s amazing what some open source code has done for the world. Let’s keep this open source thing going. Contribute in anyway you can. If you are an IT professional, start contributing code and intelligence. If you are just a user and not a developer of these open source applications, start contributing your experiences, bugs you find, and recommendations you have.

Let’s see what we can turn this Internet thing into the next couple of years!