The Uncommon Ground book investigates the new culture of collaboration which emerged from recent developments in which areas of art and design have creatively fused with media and technology. This fusion of disciplines has given rise to powerful new industries, cultures, and social movements. In all sectors, important concepts no longer come into existence as 'isolated products, devices or websites. They rather exist in a system, or network, of both tangible and intangible elements’. These developments extend and intensify the need for knowledge sharing across a broader combination of disciplines and sectors. (Un)common Ground emphasizes the fact that collaboration for competitive advantage is matched in importance by the an equally urgent need for a deeper and more responsible understanding of what is at stake when we work together across disciplinary boundaries. The desire for deeper understanding is aligned to the fact that the era of networks not only makes us more interconnected but also heightens the awareness of our interdependence. Uncommon Ground is based around case studies involving both major institutions and companies along with smaller independent experimental networks. Examinations of case studies are interspersed in this volume with reflective essays by some of today’s leading thinkers and practitioners. By juxtaposing the concrete and the reflective with the tangible and the intangible, this volume begins a process of mapping the varieties of experimental forms that are emerging as the various actors attempt to navigate the opportunities and balance the contradictory forces and values at work. Sometimes these experiments have been designed, planned and orchestrated but more often they have evolved through countless improvisations. This is the complex ecology we have begun to map. The result is a range of practical and inspiring examples providing insight into the complex rewards and challenges of both interdisciplinary and cross sector collaboration. This book is the first published outcome of a programme of research on collaborative practice that began with an expert meeting in Amsterdam in September 2006. In this meeting a group of researchers, artists and designers examined a number of concrete case studies from multiple perspectives. The Uncommon Ground research process combines the empirical, comparative analysis based on tracking a number of case studies whilst regularly opening up the findings for a wider process of reflection and theorisation. In the future we will continue this approach, tracking our key case studies whilst periodically introducing new examples, platforms and partners.