Like Sharing, but not in Preschool!

Sharing your stuff has certainly grown up since it was drilled into us by underpaid elementary school employees. While at the time we learned it was good to share (well, many of us learned anyway), we were supposed to grow up, and learn a bigger truth: we aren't supposed to share everything we have. Information isn't like toys, we aren't supposed to pass it around with one another so everyone gets a taste. Because that's wrong, and makes you a bunch of dirty pirates.

Or does it? It seems hypocritical to be told at one point that no, you can't hit little Timmy for wanting to play with your toy trucks, but you can slap him with a lawsuit over sharing a file with a friend.

It's especially daunting to consider, when one thinks about what a piece of information can become when shared with others.

Take a look at open-sourced programs. They might start off as little, just barely above useful things. But leave the code open, a programmer here can take it and add his own spin to it, it grows. It then gets passed to someone else, who takes it, edits some things, adds some things, and it grows. This continues until it is no longer the same program it was, but something much better, peer created to continue to evolve with each person who adds a new spin to it.

The new collective possible through the internet can do more then add to a creation. They can comment on it, to help make it better. Take, for example, a site like Deviantart. People post artwork, and people leave comments, good or bad. An artist can then take their criticisms, and put them to work to make their artwork better. Instead of a culture of creators having their work stolen, as terms such as "pirating" would have you believe, but work evolving through community involvement.