Sharing or Collaboration or ...?

User Generated Content and social media create the tendency for confusion between sharing and collaboration. Sharing of content alone does not directly lead to collaboration. Examples of this include blogging, micro-blogging, video and photo sharing, which effectively say: "This is who I am. This is what I did." The content is the social object, and the author is directly attributed with it. This work is a singularity, even if it is shared with the world via these platforms.

Social media platforms can become collaborative when they add an additional layer of coordination. This new social object then includes the metadata of each of its constituent objects; the most important metadata quite often being the authors name. This creates two layers of content. Each shared individual unit is included in a cluster of shared units. A single shared video is part of an aggregation of demonstration documentation. A single shared bookmark is included in an aggregation of the "inspiration" tag on delicious. A single blog post takes its place in a blogosphere discussion, and so on... 

What about participation, co-creation?