Employing mass collaboration information technologies to protect human lives and to reduce mass destruction of...

'A war against disease requires not only financial resources, sufficient technology, and political commitment, but also a strategy, operational lines of responsibility, and the capacity to learn along the way', according to J.D. Sachs. In our interdependent world, it is increasingly apparent that health is a global public good that requires collaboration across borders and generates transnational benefits. The same holds true for the information and knowledge necessary to uphold and defend it. It is only through collaboration that we can confront the complexity presented by host interactions and movement, genetic variability and environmental factors, ranging from chemical contamination to climate change. The Internet is an unprecedented tool for communication and collaboration which we need to use to best advantage for our purposes, be it to create value by combining data from various sources, harness mass reporting modalities, such as really simple syndication (RSS) feeds and blogs for surveillance and monitoring, participate in online ideas markets to spur research, use wikis to develop and share educational resources, or assemble virtual teams of experts as required. These are the skills for the 21st century which will facilitate disease prevention, early detection and rapid response to help protect human lives and livelihoods and to reduce the mass destruction of animals.