The world has over a trillion hours a year of free time to commit to shared projects," says professor Clay Shirky. But what motivates dozens, thousands, even millions of people to come together on the Internet and commit their time to a project for free? What is the key to making a successful collaboration work? In this hour, TED speakers unravel ideas behind the mystery of mass collaborations that build a better world.

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Tags:  wikipedia,  crowdsourcing,  book digitization,  decentralized technologies,  web-based collaboration tools,  cognitive surplus,  self-editing,  encyclopaedia,  productivity,  open-source development,  power users,  digital government,  apps