As mentioned in my first post, I'm intrigued by the idea of how through the digital age, greater success seems to come from collaboration and making personal connections with others. I want to compare this to Ahab's crew, and the "collaboration" that exists onboard.
A few examples of this that I've thought of so far:
-The monkey-rope's holding them together as they clean the whale
"So strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then, that while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of two; that my free will had received a mortal wound; and that another’s mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited disaster and death."
-The smaller groups that set out to kill the whales
-Ishmael & Queequegs strage relationship
"How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg – a cosy, loving pair."
-Ahab's relationship with Pip, and his dependence upon him
”Now, then, Pip, we’ll talk this over; I do suck most wondrous philosophies from thee!”
“Thou touchest my inmost centre, boy; thou art tied to me by cords woven of my heartstrings”
The larger question I need to consider is, what then is to be learned from this "collaboration"? It ended in death and destruction for all but Ishmael, so what does that teach us about how online collaboration should be done? Is there a proper, or better, way?
I know this is a bit scatterbrained, but any feedback would be very helpful!
Well, from what I've observed of the novel, Ahab used crowdsourcing/collaboration to hire a crew to help him kill Moby-Dick. They signed on for the voyage on the pretext that it would be an otherwise normal whaling voyage from which they could earn wages. However, I think what went wrong was that Ahab forgot the reason the crew was sailing with him and bent their services entirely to his own ends, and that meant he risked their lives without regard for the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI think this sounds interesting and it would be interesting to see how you develop it. I think the crew is the exception to the bad effects of crowdsourcing rather than what generally happens. As with all crowdsourcing, modern and otherwise, I think there is a general etiquette that is followed even though it isn't written in stone.
ReplyDeleteI think that crowdsourcing and collaboration are two very different ideas. To me, crowdsourcing involves one person or organization being in charge and the crowd helping out. Collaboration, on the other hand, requires input and ideas from each member. I see collaboration more as equals working together towards a common goal, sharing responsibility equally. Looking at it that way, perhaps the reason that collaboration in Moby Dick failed was that Ahab ignored input and advice from others (most notably Starbuck,) thus defeating the purpose of collaboration. I hope this helps!
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