The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas knowledge and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and test but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place even among niche interests. An example of this is the free software movement in software development which produced GNU and Linux from scratch and has taken over development of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org formerly known as Netscape Communicator and StarOffice. Films such as Zeitgeist Loose Change and Endgame have had extensive coverage on the Internet while being virtually ignored in the mainstream media.
Internet chat whether in the form of IRC chat rooms or channels or via instant messaging systems allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be sent and viewed even more quickly and conveniently than via email. Extension to these systems may allow files to be exchanged whiteboard drawings to be shared as well as voice and video contact between team members.
Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each others work or having members wait until they get sent documents to be able to add their thoughts and changes.
File sharing
For more details on this topic see File sharing.
A computer file can be emailed to customers colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a shared location or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of mirror servers or peertopeer networks.
In any of these cases access to the file may be controlled by user authentication the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption and money may change hands before or after access to the file is given. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from for example a cr card whose details are also passed—hopefully fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD or other message digests.
These simple features of the Internet over a worldwide basis are changing the basis for the production sale and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications software products news music film video photography graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.
