Week 5: Groups vs, Networks: Collectives and Connectives

Well, as usual I'm a week behind. But last week I finally got the Daily. And I found a post from someone in Heidelberg, Germany,( far away from my rainy Bogotá) Mathias Melcher, and I felt identified with some of his ideas about "Reflecting ? So I posted a comment in his blog http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2008/10/08/cck08-week-5-reflections/#comments.
I guess it is more important to find this opportunity to make a connection, to share some feelings and ideas than to be on schedule, sit down and post a reflection. We exchanged 2 or three mails and he sent me the first Daily information about RSS... Hope my blog finally appears on Stephen's site.

About the topic of week 5 , I could say that there are two points of view based on the readings. Stephen considers networks are very different from groups and establish their characteristics http://flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/252157734/. He foresees the network as the basis for a new type of society and human beings, a more philosophical vision. On the other hand, George sees groups as networks, he didn't believe in clear cut diferences and I would say that he has a broader perspective of "the network" as the underlying structure that provides the foundation for interaction and achievement of goals. I feel that he has a more pragmatic approach. His perspective reminded me in some way of Barry Wellman's article (1996)An electronic group is virtually a social network,
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/netlab/PUBLICATIONS/_frames.html,

Another aspect to take into account is the need to establish a structure of trust and solidarity and a delicate balance to acknowledge the human nature and the individual need for recognition.
The type of network that we designed depends on three aspects: level of autonomy, complexity of tasks and task specialization.