Hi MaryVery interesting distinctions, which I will ponder more. Network or Team. I think I was blurring them together, somewhat deliberately, but at least partly accidentally.
I think a network is also a team but less rigorous and structured and perhaps somewhat unconcious of its team nature (I am aware the internet and many other networks are not a team but people did make them and it requires many teams of people to maintain them.) You have made some very good points, and I will be thinking about them more. Thanks for your input.
The Dalai Lama wrote and here I am paraphrasing, "The richest person is the most dependent person. They depend on everyone for everything." This has had a profound effect on me. It is easy enough to see. A very poor person might make their own house, their own clothes, their own walkway, even their own road, a rich person generally depends on others for all that they own.
You could call that a network, certainly it is a network, but maybe calling it that dehumanizes people a bit, and allows us not to feel the interdependence and debt we owe everyone. The word team always implies people, and perhaps that is why I prefer it.
Nowadays music companies and software companies, for example, no matter how profitable feel justified in obtaining a royalty for each and every copy forever no matter how many they sell, or how much profit they have made. The concepts of royalties and patents were originally conceived to protect artists and inventors not corporations.
Perhaps if individuals received a royalty on the work they have done forever, for all work they have done that is still being used or benefitted from, the wealth of modern society would be more equalized.
There is much more I could say about this but I have already wandered considerably off topic in what is a technical forum.
I was leaning towards team strategies where everyone benefits but I will have to consider your imput that networks have been more effective or beneficial.
Thanks