Crowd Accelerated Innovation

There was an interesting piece by Chris Anderson not long ago in Wired on the concept of "Crowd Accelerated Innovation." He uses specific examples of how video can speed up innovation by "creating new global communities, granting their members both the means and the motivation to step up their skills and broaden their imaginations." He goes on to write how things like videos are

... unleasing an unprecedented wave of innovation in thousands of different disciplines: some trivial, some niche in the extreme, some central to solving humnanity's problems. In short, it is boosting the net sum of global talent. It is helping the world get smarter.

A tall order perhaps -- but the idea is intriguing, particularly as we look at the role of students today in creating new content. What impact will that have on the future of course materials and learning? Will today's students turn tomorrow's learning models (and the key players) on their heads by redefining what could be? Perhaps it is a trend to be dismissed, but remember, radical change typically comes from a quarter that no one expects, and we are still in the early stages of thinking about how video and other multimedia technologies can really change things. Maybe there is another reason to watch the growth of the video movement than just pure entertainment.