New technologies for cooperation and a better understanding of cooperative strategies may create a new capacity for rapid, ad hoc, and distributed decision making.

Within 10 years, a range of nascent technologies and practices may come together in a way that enhances our ability to cooperate in both established and ad hoc groups. Examples of these tools for collective action include:

Self-organization mesh networks, which support new ways of creating and managing stocks and flows of information
Community computing grids, which model efficient use of resources and solve complex problems
Peer production networks, which provide a framework for rapid problem solving
Social mobile computing, which builds contextual understanding of problems and dilemmas and fosters trust and group identity in ad hoc situations
Social software, which builds trusted networks and networked knowledge bases to enhance sense making, trust, and emergent leadership
Social accounting methods, which take advantage of rating, ranking, and referral mechanisms to build trust and provide important management and control levers for leaders
Knowledge collectives, which demonstrate structures, rules and practices for managing knowledge as a collectively created common-pool resource

These new technological tools could support the emergence of new markets and spaces for creation of economic value by helping to overcome classic social and psychological obstacles to cooperative action. This could potentially lead to the emergence of new capitalist structures, akin to the development of limited-liability corporations during the early days of capitalism. By eliminating middlemen, and placing creative power in hands of consumers, these tools could facilitate new kinds of trade and commerce."

This will be enabled by:

Increasing broadband penetration
Development of advanced mobile devices and wireless data networks
Continuing development of software agents

Early indicators include:

The advent and rapid spread of wikis and blogs
Appropriation of art and media through mash-ups and remixing
Formation of clans in massively multiplayer online games

What to watch:

The first Nobel prize in economics is awarded for the study of cooperation in the (online) economy.
Fraud levels approach zero in trust-based online trading spaces.
New intellectual property regimes based on distributed co-creation gain traction.