Towards the middle of the 20th century, scholarly research revealed that the fabled Silk Roads, far from being mere trade routes, were cultural highways that played a pivotal role in linking East and West, intermittently bringing together nomads and city dwellers, pastoral peoples and farmers, merchants and monks, and soldiers and pilgrims.

UNESCO: Culture

This week's news that the European Union had reached an initial gas deal with Turkmenistan, for example, highlights yet again Georgia's role as an energy corridor linking Europe with Central Asia.

ECONOMIST: Georgia in the firing line: who��s watching?

Parkinson's pathway: A cellular network linking various regions of the brain may play an important role in the development and progression of Parkinson's disease, research published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine suggests.

WSJ: Exercise Benefits vs. Joint Concerns

With this approach, collaboration tools linking and enabling scientists all over the world could play a critical role in the discovery of new drugs.

FORBES: Could collaboration cure cancer?

But a report linking hackers to the Chinese army suggests members of Anonymous may have played a crucial role in allowing researchers to link hackers to the Chinese army.

BBC: Hacking group Anonymous latest victim of Twitter hack

It will require a different goal (adding value for customers), a different role for managers (enabling self-organizing teams), a different way of coordinating work (dynamic linking), different values (continuous improvement and radical transparency) and different communications (horizontal conversations).

FORBES: The Boeing Debacle: Seven Lessons Every CEO Must Learn