You don’t even have to meet face to face to do amazing things.

Around the world, millions of people use the internet to collaborate every day.

They are organising important corporate meetings, liaising with their business suppliers and even planning baby showers!

To demonstrate how effective connectivity can be in the collaboration process, nbn is supporting an exciting project that will bring together three talented musicians who have never met.

Without ever being in the same room, these three are currently working on a song that is due for release in February 2017.

Mentored by renowned producer Darren ‘Harts’ Hart, singer songwriter Rowena Wise, guitarist and singer Lily Mills (aka Leo) and producer Jayden Rando are interacting with each other regularly on the internet, collaborating through creative jam sessions.

“We are collaborative in the sense that we’re always going to be checking in and bouncing around ideas on the internet, and we’ll be combining our recorded parts together in the final mix. At the same time, we can write our parts in solitude in the comfort of our own bedrooms,” says Rowena.

Access to fast broadband is opening up the possibilities with online collaboration. Take a look how creative minds from around the world are bringing their vision to life, digitally. 

Hollywood star’s collaboration vision 

Actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s online company HitRECord allows people to collaborate creatively on the internet.

The platform is used by artists, photographers, filmmakers and writers, who can upload their work in order for it to be featured in larger projects.

If these projects end up making a profit, all artists are paid according to their contributions.

Everything happens online and the ‘team’ behind each visual or musical project rarely meets face to face. So far, HitRECord has generated $2 million in payments for artists, writers and designers. 

Online resources for kids with diabetes 

Another interesting creative collaboration is between children’s stalwart Disney and Lilly Diabetes in the US.

Together, these two outlets have created a range of useful online content and programs with an aim to help families cope with and overcome each step of the diabetes journey.

Resources aimed at young children right up to tweens cover everything from staying at a friends’ place, to participating in sport when you have diabetes.

There is even a Disney-themed diabetes cookbook and a YouTube channel that families can access when looking for handy tips on managing the disease.

Combining literature and technology 

Pushing the creative boundaries is a recent project between Google, Russia’s Mikhail Bulgakov Museum and Mosfilm Studio. This ambitious project used technology to stage an online reading of the classic text The Master and Margarita.

The project started by allowing people to ‘chat’ online with the novel’s two main characters. From there, users were invited to record themselves reading an excerpt from the novel.

A select few then joined online actors for a 15 hour reading of the book, recorded against a green screen and then integrated with the scenery of the story using 360 degree animation.

This unique multimedia project was able to combine modern technology with classical media. Hundreds of people collaborated on to the final reading, retelling the story over 15 hours to an online audience of thousands.

China Australia Millennial Project 

CAMP, as it is known, delivers a high-tech and high-touch business model that promotes cross cultural connections between students aged 18 to 35.

Designed to empower those involved, fostering friendships as well as support networks, the project invites participants from China and Australia, encouraging them to create solutions to real-world challenges.

CAMP takes place over 100 days in both China and Australia. Those who participate also collaborate online, using the social media platform WeChat, which can switch between Chinese and Roman characters.

In the past, teams have come up with energy reduction solutions, web applications and web based mental health platforms, some of which have already been put into production.

There are so many tools for online collaboration. Skype, Google Hangouts, Evernote and chat tools like Slack all make it easy to share files, have discussions with multiple people and, of course, make beautiful music!

Our musicians are working away, at home alone and together, pulling together an Australian-first collaboration using the power of the internet in order to achieve what has never been done before.

They are looking forward to sharing the results with the world in early 2017.

Follow their journey at http://nbnco/blog.