Digital media is an ideal tool to facilitate spontaneous collaborations. The internet instantaneously connects people with various skills, knowledge and perspectives all interested in similar discourses. Though people have always had means to find one and other, in the past, it was not as easy as typing something in to Google or catching the right re-tweet or sending a message through a contact page. Digital media has created a space where collaborations can be spontaneous and where it can be acted on immediately. Of course, spontaneous collaborations isn’t a term I created. I grabbed it from the quote below:

“I’m intrigued by spontaneous collaborations. Of course, HASTAC has coined the term “collaboration by difference” to mark a particular kind of collaboration that can happen online, where the partners may not share disciplines, resources, spaces, backgrounds, or levels of official credentialing and authority (yes! a doctoral student shall lead us!), but do share a desire to read a certain goal, even if all parties are aware that the goal itself may morph as it develops collaboratively.”

Source: http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/thatcamp-rtp-oct-16-hold-date

I am in love with the idea of spontaneous collaborations in spaces of knowledge. In case I haven’t made it clear before, let me say it explicitly; in my opinion, knowledge created and stuck in a vacuum loses some of its worth. Digital media is a space for vetting ideas, conversing about them. It is a place where we get to step outside of the vacuum we often put ourselves in as we research. I know that at times it might be scary to let ideas have a life of their own, especially in a space without many controls. However, watching ideas grow organically and finding people that can show you different perspectives is worth it.

So, my goal is to continue to create and facilitate spontaneous collaborations whenever I have the opportunity to do so. I admit, it is a highly selfish goal as I simply want to be a part of these spaces. However, I hope that others who are involved in them will find them just as beneficial as I do.