Clarice's Biz Talk posts

Looking for examples for an article I'm writing

I plan to write an article on the power of collaboration, self-organization and intrinsic motivation in problem-solving, and I am looking for real-life examples of these processes and people to interview.

The article will focus on the following questions: What happens when people come together to solve a problem that interests and challenges them? When they can express themselves creatively in the act of problem-solving—without being ranked, graded and assessed? What happens when people become so enthralled that they spontaneously arrange themselves according to whatever they are best suited for? And how do the rigid roles and impermeable boundaries between divisions and departments in typical companies thwart this process?

I have one great example of this now. The developer of a product that enables software programmers to work with each other in real time on the same piece of code ran a contest to prove the power of collaboration. He devised a fiendishly difficult problem/contest that no one person could solve alone and advertised it on Craigslist. Online social networks picked up the problem within hours, and soon people all over the world were working in self-organized teams to solve it. My contact expected the problem would take at least 2 weeks to solve, but people got so involved in the process that it was solved in just 24 hours!

If any of you know of a similar example, I would really appreciate hearing about it. Thank you.