Mass collaboration changes everything.

• Author: Wilkin, Jesse
• Position: Book review

TITLE: Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

AUTHOR: Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

PUBLISHER: Portfolio

PUBLICATION DATE: 2006

LENGTH: 324 pages

PRICE: $25.95

SOURCE: Available in most online and traditional bookstores

Wikinomics is not about wikis--or at least not just about wikis. Instead, Wikinomics describes a brave new world of collaboration between organizations and their customers. Over the course of 324 pages and a number of terms newly created for this work, authors Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams make the case that organizations must embrace collaboration or be relegated to the dust bin of history.

"Wikinomics" is a term the authors coined to describe the intersection of collaboration and traditional economic theory. One of the fundamental tenets of business is that intellectual property is important and must be safeguarded in order to drive competitive advantage. In this new era of mass collaboration, argue the authors, there is more to be gained by sharing than there is by hoarding knowledge. Organizations that want to survive will find new ways to leverage their partners and customers' insights, experiences, and expertise to create new opportunities. To that end, companies must embrace the four wikinomics principles of openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally.

The authors make a strong case for their thesis, citing numerous examples (sometimes over and over again). They anticipate readers' reactions against such a radical change in business models by providing several case studies where collaborative efforts dramatically changed the organization for the better, in one case saving the company from almost-certain bankruptcy.

The book is divided into 10 chapters plus a unique eleventh chapter, "The Wikinomics Playbook." It comprises a single sentence:

Join us in peer producing the definitive guide to twenty-first-century strategy at www.wikinomics.com. It's an intriguing bead; at that link can be found the Wikinomics website, the blog (http://wikinomics.com/blog/), and the wiki (www.socialtext. net/wikinomics/index.cgi). And readers are taking the call to action to heart; at the time of this writing, six chapters are in progress with sufficient information that the authors will publish a follow-up work this fall (The Wiki Workplace) that includes the best ideas and revisions. The book includes a number of end-notes for additional information.

The authors cite several case studies, ranging from...