"collaborate to graduate"

"Collaborate to graduate". Catchy, ain't it? That's the catchphrase of NoteMesh, a web service that allows college students to combine notes online with other students in their classes.  This website was recommended to me early this semester by my professor in the hopes that we could spend less time worrying about the notes day after day and start focusing on the lecture.  The website is not the only one of its kind from what I understand, and although I haven't used the site myself, the idea seems to work.  Perhaps it would seem somewhat counterproductive for a small discussion, but in my intro Anthropology course with 700 classmates, it seems even more counterproductive for all 700 of us to write the same notes individually.  In large lectures like these, other virtual collaborative efforts are often used and embraced by students and teachers alike.  Almost all of my bigger classes utilize online discussion boards so that our classmates can answer a question before we have to bother the professor.  NoteMesh and other course wikis seem like an efficient way to make sure you caught everything said in lecture or to get notes from the lecture you missed.  I'm assuming however that the system works.  I'm sure there are times that collaborating would result in an unequal distribution of work.  Someone has to get the ball rolling by posting their notes.  Why wouldn't everyone else just copy the notes without contributing?  I have yet to register on the site for this very reason.  I'm often the individual in group projects who picks up the slack when others don't pull their weight, and it seems like a real possibility that this could happen here.  If anyone has used it, I would love to know their thoughts.  In the meantime, I think I'll stick to taking notes the old-fashioned way.