Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Taps Don, Anthony D. Williams Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Book Review: The organizational paradigm shift from hierarchical to massive egalitarian collaboration
Summary: 5 Stars
A paean to the cataclysmic changes effected by massive, self-organized collaboration and cocreation via the internet venue in an open globalized era.
The authors have a penchant for unusual or coined words for chapter titles:'Wikinomics' used as both the book and a chapter title is derived from the word 'wiki' meaning a website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add or edit content and is explained in a subtitle in the former as 'how mass collaboration changes everything'and in the latter as 'the art and science of peer production'; 'Ideagoras', a coined and composite word from 'idea'and 'agora', in classical Greece a public open space used for assemblies and markets suitably subtitled 'marketplaces for ideas, innovations, and uniquely qualified minds'; 'Prosumers' also a coined word which derives from the fusion of the words 'producer and 'consumer', the authors arguing that the boundaries between the two are becoming blurred in the sense that consumers by cocreating goods and services rather than simply consuming the end product become 'prosumers'; 'The New Alexandrians', subtitled 'Sharing for Science and the Sience of Sharing', I cite because I found it elegant and appealing for certainly it is neither coined nor contrived. The authors draw a beautiful parallel between the library of Alexandria and the current effort to digitize the present human knowledge which is infinitely wealthier than that in Alexandrian times in order to create a new virtual library of Alexandria which will provide a shared foundation for collaboration, learning and innovation; under the indifferent title 'Platforms for participation', we are introduced among other with the recent and very productive development of mashup or mixing. Web services mashups are created according to the following principle: a programmer mixes together at least two services or applications to create something new, and often better than the sum of the parts; and in the chapter 'The global plant floor', we are intimated that the global open community is also engaged in the creation of physical in addition to virtual entities.
In conclusion the authors in this important, well documented, pioneering and visionary book argue convincingly - though prudently cautioning the reader on the attendant difficulties and complexities - that profound changes in the nature of technology, demographics, and the global economy, are giving powerful new models of production based on community, collaboration, and self-organization rather than hierarchy and control and that we are making the transition from an economy, research, developmet and production which is confined and local to one that is open and global.
The writing of the authors is sanguine and engaging with possibly a touch of missionary, albeit legitimate zeal.
Book Review: The organizational paradigm shift from hierarchical to massive egalitarian collaboration
Summary: 5 Stars
A paean to the cataclysmic changes effected by massive, self-organized collaboration and cocreation via the internet venue in an open globalized era.
The authors have a penchant for unusual or coined words for chapter titles:'Wikinomics' used as both the book and a chapter title is derived from the word 'wiki' meaning a website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add or edit content and is explained in a subtitle in the former as 'how mass collaboration changes everything'and in the latter as 'the art and science of peer production'; 'Ideagoras', a coined and composite word from 'idea'and 'agora', in classical Greece a public open space used for assemblies and markets suitably subtitled 'marketplaces for ideas, innovations, and uniquely qualified minds'; 'Prosumers' also a coined word which derives from the fusion of the words 'producer and 'consumer', the authors arguing that the boundaries between the two are becoming blurred in the sense that consumers by cocreating goods and services rather than simply consuming the end product become 'prosumers'; 'The New Alexandrians', subtitled 'Sharing for Science and the Sience of Sharing', I cite because I found it elegant and appealing for certainly it is neither coined nor contrived. The authors draw a beautiful parallel between the library of Alexandria and the current effort to digitize the present human knowledge which is infinitely wealthier than that in Alexandrian times in order to create a new virtual library of Alexandria which will provide a shared foundation for collaboration, learning and innovation; under the indifferent title 'Platforms for participation', we are introduced among other with the recent and very productive development of mashup or mixing. Web services mashups are created according to the following principle: a programmer mixes together at least two services or applications to create something new, and often better than the sum of the parts; and in the chapter 'The global plant floor', we are intimated that the global open community is also engaged in the creation of physical in addition to virtual entities.
In conclusion the authors in this important, well documented, pioneering and visionary book argue convincingly - though prudently cautioning the reader on the attendant difficulties and complexities - that profound changes in the nature of technology, demographics, and the global economy, are giving powerful new models of production based on community, collaboration, and self-organization rather than hierarchy and control and that we are making the transition from an economy, research, developmet and production which is confined and local to one that is open and global.
The writing of the authors is sanguine and engaging with possibly a touch of missionary, albeit legitimate zeal.
Book Review: Falls short of an objective analysis of the mass collaboration
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm sorry to disagree with most of the other Amazon reviewers but as someone who reads a lot of business books I was deeply disappointed with this book for the following reasons. First all the author ever sees are the increasing benefits and upsides to mass collaboration online. Arguments to the contrary are swiftly dismissed and the chapter on making money from mass collaboration is more of the investment now and profits will magically follow thinking that characterised the dotcom boom. Secondly the author is obsessed with the "revolution" that mass market collaboration is apparently creating in every aspect of society. While I don't want to underplay the importance of this trend, I find the term "revolution" is too strong (like Web 2.0) and the lack of reference to the precedents of mass collaboration disappointing(e.g. earlier online communities). Finally and frustrating the book is poorly edited and structured. The font size is tiny and the obscure chapter headings seem to overlap with one another. In short it is hard getting to the point with this book. I did, however, find within it some inspiring examples of mass collaboration that I hadn't previously heard of - for example the mining company example at the beginning. But overall I would not recommend this book - for me it simply a reflection of the euphoria that gripped the internet world back in the end of 2006 with the rising popularity of Facebook et al. The world has moved on since then.Book Review: Essential book, limited shelf-life
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is a tour de force in wiki-ness. Yes, it's a little uncritical but it's inspiring and readable. And, no doubt, does describe the state of the art etc etc
But if you don't read this before the end of 2008 (and that's possibly a little generous) there'll be no point. Think The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand or Release 2.0: a Design for Living in the Digital Age; everybody who's even vaguely familiar with these fields will find that they've absorbed all the content by virtue of diffusion. So it will be with this book.
They do a nice blog, though.
For now, there's still lots to learn but it'll be like one of those '500 Most Useful Websites' books by Xmas.
Book Review: A book of two halves
Summary: 3 Stars
How useful is the philosophy of the world-famous collaborative encyclopedia Wikiepedia when applied outside the world of reference books? Tapscott and Williams both answer and fail to answer this question. On the one hand, they offer the readers many examples of how one person has built up on another's work to produce something neither of them would have been able to achieve on their own.
But the reader can be left bewildered, wondering "what do all these have in common, other than being new and on the web?" This is a great pity, as the book promises in its brightest moments to offer new insights into business. But, sorry to say, specific examples are just too thin on the ground for it to be useful.
Still, it is a well written round up of collaborative, "wiki-style" projects.