Crowdsourcing revealed

I have written here on numerous occasions about the collaborative possibilities of social networking.  It allows us to communicate, almost instantly, with no regard to political or geographical separation. We can develop collaborative partnerships, exchange ideas, and even nurture discipleship across the miles. The numbers of those involved beggar belief, and there comes a point where it is impossible to imagine the numbers participating in social networking at any one time. In the timelessness of cyberspace the world is always awake, and the web is buzzing with activity.

What if you could actually see that, though?  A little while ago, Google Map Maker invited contributors around the world to add to their maps, making the best use of local knowledge. However, this morning I discovered that Google Pulse actually allows you to see that process in real time. In the few moments I spent there just now, a village in Uttar Pradesh was being outlined, a factory in Costa Rica identified, and an intersection in Baltimore corrected. If you have the Google Earth application its well worth a look.

Image: google.com/mapmaker/pulse

Whilst you are watching this fascinating process of human collaboration, think again about New Testament descriptions of a Gospel destined for the ‘ends of the earth’, and ask yourself whether we have yet scratched the surface of the collaborative possibilities for technology like this.