Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Book Review: Large look at the collaborative online world
Summary: 5 Stars
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams have written an intriguing, necessary and, in some ways, groundbreaking book, which we recommend to everyone...with some caveats. The authors examine the possibilities of mass collaboration, open-source software and evolutionary business practices. They integrate examples from the arts ("mashups"), scholarship (Wikipedia) and even heavy industry (gold mining) to argue that new forces are reshaping human societies. Some of their examples will be familiar, but others will surprise and educate you. However, the authors are so deeply part of the world they discuss that they may inflate it at times - for instance, making the actions of a few enthusiasts sound as if they already have transformed the Internet - and they sometimes fail to provide definitions or supporting data. Is the "blogosphere," for example, really making members of the younger generation into more critical thinkers? Tapscott and Williams repeatedly dismiss criticisms of their claims or positions without answering them. The result is that the book reads at times like a guidebook, at times like a manifesto and at times like a cheerleading effort for the world the authors desire. It reads, in short, like the Wikipedia they so admire: a valuable, exciting experiment that still contains a few flaws.Book Review: Helpful Summary of Early On-Line Mass Collaborations
Summary: 4 Stars
Think of this book more as reporting of where the world was in 2005 than analysis and direction for the future. But Wikinomics is a helpful resource to have, for most people are unaware of the extent to which self-organization through mass communication is being developed. Some of the successes are spectacular like the Goldcorp contest to locate more gold (which I described in The Ultimate Competitive Advantage in 2003) and Procter & Gamble's astonishing efforts to acquire technology from outside the organization (which I describe in The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution).
The strength of the book is that several different aspects of on-line mass collaborations are developed including:
1. Open collaborations to produce collective results not owned by anyone including Wikipedia and Linux.
2. Accessing more expert knowledge through idea markets (such as Goldcorp and P&G have done).
3. Customers being able to participate in detailed customization past what the vendor facilitates (basically a blurring of company-customer boundaries).
4. Knowledge transfer among the scientific community.
5. Methods of opening access to partners, especially for complementary software development.
6. Global production methods.
7. New ways of facilitating work in combination with those outside the organization.
If you are like me, you'll learn about some examples that you didn't before and find yourself feeling better informed.
The book has two annoying qualities that you should be aware of. First, the authors are very generous with each other in giving credit for ideas generated in the nondigital world by others. Second, there is a gushiness about the potential that isn't nuanced enough to reflect the problems that need to be solved. As a result, the inexperienced reader will get a sense that each opportunity is equally easy to grasp. That's clearly not true. In addition, the psychology of where which approaches will and won't work are mostly alluded to rather than developed. Building mass collaboration around enlightened self-interest is quite different from doing so built around more purely altruistic purposes.
I suspect the book would have worked better if the authors had written a series of books that developed each perspective further. Certainly, the global contest concept for for-profit enterprises is a proven area that almost anyone can do. That topic deserved more emphasis and explanation. Instead, you get a newspaper-level discussion of the topic.
I have not read a better book on this subject (but there may well be one I've missed) and I suspect Wikinomics will be one of the standards in on-line mass collaborations.
Book Review: New tools for the strategy toolkit in any business
Summary: 5 Stars
The book takes an exciting look into the emerging paradigm of mass collaboration and peer production. What I love in this book is how it provides tools for understanding how this new paradigm can facilitate growth in businesses. In fact, based on the examples in the book it may soon be necessary to follow these ideas in order to grow any business by double-digit figures.
The key insights include:
- how to use peer production to save in R&D costs.
- how prosumers can provide the best ideas for any business.
- how opening business is key for optimising production for cost and performance.
The book is not offering a silver bullet - it also considers the down-sides of the key elements of the new paradigm: openness, peering, sharing and acting globally. To benefit from mass collaboration, a new way of thinking business-making is needed.
Any leader in large or small businesses should understand these concepts and take mass collaboration and peer production into their strategy toolkits.
Book Review: Wikinomics - how mass collaboration changes everything
Summary: 5 Stars
one to read quickly, a chapter at a time, like Digital Economy an excellent review of where technology is at, and where it is taking us. Focussed on the impact of Web 2.0 type innovations like wiki, and user input, it argues for a new way of working that is collaborative and ideas driven. Written to the standard of a good Wired or Economist article, well researched and well written. For many people, they are increasingly becoming a modular unit, in a flexible workforce, that uses their ideas and input, their problem solving, but often fails to recognise and reward the contributions that are hard to measure. This is a work environment that requires different behaviours, flexibility and innovation, but self sufficiency too. If the West is to remain more successful than competitors, it needs to be smarter than traditional hierarchical structures.
On the debit side, it has been printed on pretty shabby paper, and it has a couple of typos. Although insightful and thoughtful, I'm not sure that it contributes anything terribly new, that most readers would not have more or less figured out themselves. It also fails to clarify where new approaches are likely to work, and where they are unlikely to work. A more technologically empowered and ideas orientated organisation is essential in some sectors, less so in others. A better understanding of the variables, would make for a more rounded understanding. Cheap computing, and connectivity makes it possible. From a personal point of view, I would be intrigued to see how these approaches could be incorporated into government.
Random Quote
"The bottom line is this: The immutable, standalone Web site is dead. Say hello to the Web that increasingly looks like a library full of chatty components that interact and talk to one another. Increasingly, poeple are engineering software, databases, and Web sites so that they not only meet private objectives, but so that they can be used in ways the originators did not know or intend. this makes it very easy to build new Web services out of these exisitng components by mashing them together in fresh combinations."
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Book Review: Wikinomics - Tap your business into the worlds knowledge
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has to be read by anyone doing business in 2007 onwards who is serious about building up their business capabilities using the concept of collective intelligence
For some reason the authors seem to be obsessed about creating new jargon such as Ideagoras, Prosumers etc. and if not a challenge to the not so technical reader, they may come across as a fraction nausiating at times. This aside the book is gripping and will completely
explode your mind with ideas on how to apply these wiki frameworks in your day to day business and even if these ideas are not so new, the case studies of businesses who have had great success through online project collaboration, will not fail to inspire. Wiki's are by no way a new concept in terms of businesses, people and organisations working together and centralising information through the use of the net, although the various orchestrations that businesses can use to work together is simply awesome.
This book is a tip of the iceberg on the subject of collective intelligence although it certainly is groundbreaking in terms of opening our minds to the possible and even the actual of the ways we can orchestrate our activities with others to achieve more.
One area I felt that it could have touched on in much greater detail is on the drivers behind people 'wanting' to contribute to Wiki's. In my experience setting up Wiki's, Sharepoint and other tools of a similar nature tend to work very well within the IT departments where intellect is gladly shared (and gladly expressed at times !) as the return is more tangible and obvious, although when it comes to other departments gaining the motivation from others to share and contribute to these online tools can be more of a challenge.