A side effect of COVID-19 is a booming collaborative society

As I am writing these words on the first day of my daughter’s school lockdown, unable to see my family, including my 93-year old grandma back in Europe in person, and uncertain about the future, I really want to look for the light at the end of the tunnel and seek positives, unlikely as they may seem.

By Wing-Chi Poon — Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4503578

This is not to treat the situation lightly. The current pandemic is unprecedented in modern times, and it will likely wreak havoc for many of us and it has already taken or permanently impacted the lives and health of too many. COVID-19 will likely bankrupt more people than it will kill, and it will have a significant impact on businesses, the economy and the stock market.

Yet, while not diminishing these horrible outcomes, it may also be worthwhile to think about how we can unite, rise up to the challenge and return stronger. COVID-19’s strike has led to a rapid acceleration of peer collaboration online. We can observe:

An increasingly recurring phenomenon of emergent and enduring cooperative groups, whose members have developed particular patterns of relationships through technology-mediated cooperation.