Cooperation and Collaboration
Stephen Downes, May 26, 2014, International Workshop on Mass Collaboration and Education, Tübingen, Germany

In this presentation I revisit some of my work on 'groups and networks' to draw out the distinction between cooperation and collaboration for this mass collaboration workshop. I argue that mass collaboration may be impossible to achieve, and show how we employed a principle of mass cooperation to support massive open online courses (MOOCs). I also introduced new terminology, using the term 'collective' to describe what I have been calling 'groups', and 'connectives' to describe what I have been calling networks.

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Let's Stop Confusing Cooperation and Teamwork with Collaboration
Jesse Lyn Stoner, Seapoint Center, May 20, 2014

Short article with clear useful definitions and which looks at the impact of distance on cooperation and collaboration. The impact on cooperation is clear, from this study: "virtual distance had significant influences on trust, goal clarity and OCB and indirectly influenced innovation and success." But simply moving people to the same place will not impact collaboration (contra Marissa Mayer). More...

Towards Better Group Work: Seeing the Difference between Cooperation and Collaboration
Olga Kozar, English Teaching Forum, May 19, 2014

"Cooperation can be achieved if all participants do their assigned parts separately and bring their results to the table; collaboration, in contrast, implies direct interaction among individuals to produce a product and involves negotiations, discussions, and accommodating others’ perspectives." Olga Kozar, English Teaching Forum (2010). More...

The Evolution of Cooperation
Robert Axelrod, May 19, 2014

From the perspective of game theory, Robert Axelrod asks, "Under what conditions will cooperation emerge in a world of egoists without central authority?" Cooperation can develop even among people with competing agendas (as in, for example, a war). "Cooperation can get started, evolve, and prove stable in situations which otherwise appear extraordinarily unpromising." Axelrod suggests (and I disagree) that cooperation requires conditions of reciprocity among people likely to meet again. More...