Online Collaboration

Online collaboration in the collection of data is the way of the future, but doesn't always seem fair. It's the social media of information. Whether it be for family history, support forums, Wikipedia, or other data stores, online collaboration is taking hold of society. Sites often find ways of encouraging people to participate and provide ways of recognizing people for their hard work and contributions. More and more, when people spend a few hours finding a solution to a problem, they will find somewhere to post it, and if it is useful enough, relevant searches to that problem eventually work their way to the top of the Google search list. This has created somewhat of a open source approach to information, but in some cases, it is making people a lot of money. Popular information sites put up ads and are making quite a lot of cache off of the hard work of the community.