I haven’t read the book Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky yet, but from hearing conversations about it I do know that one of the points in the book is that technology now lets people on demand from ad hoc groups that join together and accomplish specific goals, which after accomplishing the goal disperse (If you’ve read the book or have examples of these sorts of groups leave a note in the comments).

There’s only one website I know of that enables groups to work together like this, which is Amazee. Based out of Switzerland Amazee it a social collaboration tool that lets activism groups form online out of the interests of individuals. Other people can then do things like join the group and contribute, or become a sponsor of the group. I’ll let the video explain it.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1688904&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Learn more about Amazee from Amazee on Vimeo.

Most big business people will tell you though that things like social enterprises, and businesses are a better and more sustainable conductor of social change by doing things like providing actual long term jobs and encouraging entrepreneurship and new businesses to form.

But then where is the Amazee of business collaboration? Something to help bring people together to form new businesses? I wonder if such an idea would work or if entrepreneurs could ever by into the idea of starting their businesses with a more collaborative attitude in mind. With activism, if someone forks your idea and builds something more successful, it’s a much different game than if your business depends on being entirely in stealth mode for 2 years.

If people can accomplish more through collaboration in activism, if they can do a better job of identifying problems to address, if they can do a better job or organizing and executing campaigns by using the tools of collaboration, is the same true of the profit & non-profit sector? One example of this idea of people moving around and bringing concrete value with them for the time they participate in a network is with Dex, a CRM system where users have persistent contacts connected to their individual accounts as they move from one company to another, bringing that value with them.

There are so many ideas involved with this including: Tribes, community, knowledge sharing, activism and entrepreneurship that make it intriguing….

Thoughts?
Do you know of other tools online that help bring groups together and work?