In the links below some articles point us to the science of sharing.
Hierarchies vs collaboration.
The internet enables some of these new ways to become real.
Thus a new paradigm of sharing (eg Metcalfe's Law. A network of 2 allows for 2 transactions (back and forth buying and selling), a network of 3 allows for 8 transactions, a network of 4 allows for 16 transactions) show us that we are heading into a highly organised but distributed power structure and that managing the transition to a new society that is sustainable means we will see old power structures fade and new ones emerge that will look completely different.
Read more at this Wikipedia article
Small World Networks
New language such as 'small world networks' inform us about how many connections we can manage in a shared social program such as Transition Towns Read more at this Wikipedia article
Network Theory
To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, we shape our networks and then our networks shape us.
Read more at this CNET artcile on Network Theory
Karen Stephenson states:
“Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge. Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge. ‘I store my knowledge in my friends’ is an axiom for collecting knowledge through collecting people (undated).”
Read more at elearnspace on collectivism