Book Review: Wikinomics – How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams

In order to stay in business, companies must change some of the very principles they hold most dear.  Mass collaboration, now ever so accessible via the web, is changing the way and the speed by which we do business and advance technology.  Traditional collaborations of meeting rooms and conference calls now seem very small and limited, indeed.  And corporate secrets, previously guarded not to leak beyond those boardroom walls, are the very things that must be published to the internet if companies are to maintain their profit margins.

Wikinomics is the compliment, rather than the antitheses to the Long Tail.  The long tail being the metaphor whereby the intrinsic uniqueness of each individual is met by the internet allowing them to find what they want, rather than having to settle for what is popular.  Wikinomics embodies the concept that this same intrinsic uniqueness can be unilaterally accessible for the largest possible advantage.

Wikinomics will reward those businesses that aren’t afraid to share.  The more they share, the more they will gain.  Long standing ideas of what is “top secret” will have to be abandoned if a business is to survive and compete in a web 2.0+ era.

These trends symbolized recently by such events as Linux snagging a serious market share away from Microsoft Server and Wikipedia completely dwarfing the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica are not new.  In my lifetime, particularly memorable was Sony’s proprietary rights that caused Betamax to loose out to VHS, and conversely the open licensing of IBM compatible PC’s allowed that platform to prevail over Apple’s, netting IBM a tidy sum in licensing fees.

“Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics explains how to prosper in a world where new communications technologies are democratizing the creation of value. Anyone who wants to understand the major forces revolutionizing business today should consider Wikinomics their survival kit.”

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