In the last few years, traditional collaboration-in a meeting room, a conference call, even a convention center-has been taken over by new, innovative collaboration methods – on an ever-growing scale˳
Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams’ book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything has definitely spurred discussion˳ First published in 2006, the book explores how some modern-day companies mass collaboration and open-source technology such as wikis to be successful˳
According to the authors, Wikinomics is based on four key ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally˳ The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend to outsource business functions˳
Based on a $9 million research project, Wikinomics shows how all people can participate in the economy like never before˳ They are creating TV news stories, sequencing the human genome, remixing their favorite music, designing software, finding a cure for disease, editing school texts, inventing new cosmetics, and even building motorcycles˳
Furthermore, the book challenges the status quo, questioning if success can be achieved in less overtly structured ways˳ In many ways, it emphasizes the trend of customer-driven power˳
To illustrate these points, Wikinomics cites traditional business approaches˳ Throughout history corporations have organized themselves according to strict hierarchical lines of authority˳ Everyone was inferior to someone else-employees versus managers, marketers versus customers, producers versus supply chain subcontractors, companies versus the community˳
While hierarchies are not vanishing, massive changes in technology, demographics, and the global economy are producing influential new models of production based on community, collaboration, and self-organization rather than on hierarchy˳ Mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem˳ Much of this is the result of our growing, global Internet-based culture˳
While some leaders fear the quick growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is unfounded˳ Smart firms can actually use collective talent and genius to prompt innovation, growth, and success˳
Who are these pioneering businesses? Companies such as Boeing, BMW, and Proctor & Gamble have been around for almost a century˳ And yet their leaders use collaboration as a way to cut costs, innovate, co-create with customers and partners, and push ahead of their competitors˳ Wikinomics shares a number of these stories, citing the explosive growth of phenomena such as MySpace, flickr, Second Life, YouTube, and the Human Genome Project˳
Is Wikinomics reflecting a new, substantial economic trend or just another wave of innovation? Regardless, mass collaboration is taking hold˳ In true collaborative fashion, the last chapter is written by viewers, and was opened for editing on February 5, 2007˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Book-Overview—Wikinomics—How-Mass-Collaboration-Changes-Everything&id=1022234
