[MUSIC] Welcome back to the introduction to the overall perspective. Last week, I told you about my time earth gazing, where I would look back at our planet from the International Space Station. And I would ponder the question, why do we still have so many critical issues and problems in spite of the fact that we have all the resources, all the technology, to solve them. And we talked about how our lack of global collaboration, our lack of collaboration across borders, across industries, disciplines, etc has hampered our ability to solve these problems. Now, I've asked you all to take a look at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the SDGs. And these are critical to being able to progress our civilization to the point that we want to be in the future. Now, SDG 17, the last sustainable development goal is all about partnerships. And it's my contention that we are not going to be able to solve SDGs 1 through 16 if we don't get SDG 17 right. If we're not able to set aside our differences and work together, then we're not going to be able to accomplish those things. And so in this class, in this lesson, we're going to talk about collaboration. We're going to talk about what it means, what it doesn't mean, and how we can take a deep dive into being able to work together. Now, collaboration doesn't mean that we agree on all things. It means we are willing to seek out and find those things that we do agree on. And by doing that, hopefully relationships develop, hopefully a certain level of trust develops, and that then can become a platform that we jump off from to start to address the things that we don't agree on. And a good example as we've been talking about in this course, is the International Space Station. The Russians, the Americans, for instance, did not agree on all things. But we did agree on working together for space exploration. And we decided to do that. And so when we are able to do that, we have these platforms that develop that we can jump off from and hopefully address those things that we don't agree on. But what we tend to do is we tend to do the exact opposite, we tend to use those things that we do agree on as a leverage to try to force the things that we don't agree on it and that just never really works. And, when I think when we look back on the International Space Station equally important legacy that the space station will leave is the shining example of international cooperation. Although I think it's fairly easy to identify our lack of global collaboration as an impediment to a better society I don't want to give you the impression that I'm saying collaboration is easy, it's not. Whether we're talking about research teams, humanitarian efforts, or businesses, collaboration usually comes at the expense of building new capabilities in-house. Partnerships can incur high transaction costs and maintaining relationships takes work. There's also a great deal of confusion about what collaboration means. Collaboration doesn't mean that everybody in a group has to have an equal vote or that any solution has to include all inputs. True collaboration means that different individuals and groups bring together different pieces of the puzzle. Each of the members contribute something unique and adds value to the group by engaging stakeholders, whether they're colleagues, suppliers, other students, customers, or even competitors across stovepipes, departments, industries and markets. Solutions can be created that far exceed of those same solutions developed in vacuum. Open collaborations make solutions better, through the pooling of resources and information, working together multiples cost effectiveness, while reducing duplication of effort. And perhaps most importantly, collaboration encourages greater accountability, which fosters trust to take an orbital perspective of collaboration means rather than viewing society as an arena for self interested competition. We view it as a complex living system or an organic whole. Collaboration in this sense is characterized by diverse organizations working together systematically towards goals that benefit the entire social body. We need to find a way to all work together towards our common goals. They key challenge is demonstrating how vital and valuable collaboration tool is despite the real and perceived risks. In addition to its implications for research and many other beneficial activities, open, transparent collaboration, I believe, will be an engine that will fuel tremendous economic growth and help us overcome many of the problems facing our planet. Those individuals and organizations that engage in secretive dealings and corruptions, those that adhere to an exclusively proprietary mindset will see themselves being left behind. And will have to adapt, evolve and take on a much more open and collaborative mindset in order to keep up with the economic growth that collaboration will bring. Working together, we need to create incentives to share data and resources using the philosophy that a rising tide lifts all boats. The good news is never before in history has it been easier to incorporate the ideas and efforts from people all around the world, regardless of their political ideology, cultural biases, or geographical location. Up until recently, very recently, we did not have the technological tools to enable true global collaboration between governments, universities, industries, and citizen scientists. And when we zoom out to the orbital perspective we realize that the internet has become the nerve center of spaceship Earth, connecting and combining discrete points of creativity and progress into unified action. And once we connect to the internet, the five billion creative problem solving minds who are presently not part of the global conservation, I believe, we will find solutions we never dreamed of coming from places we've never heard of. And so next week, we're going to talk about that and we're going to take a slightly different perspective of our planet. We're going to look at some other images of our planet that have been taken over the years and look at what they tell towards the story of collaboration, how they can inspire collaboration. And I'm looking forward to speaking to you about that next week.
