Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaberation, or peer production, and open-source technology such as wikis to be successful. Tapscott and Williams have released a followup to Wikinomics, entitled "Macrowikinomics, rebooting business and the world", which was released on September 28, 2010.
According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is all based around four 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 in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem, instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowd sourcing, to reflect this difference.
World English Dictionary
ReplyDeletecollaboration
1. The act of working with another or others on a joint project
2. Something created by working jointly with others
3. The act of cooperating as a traitor, esp with an enemy occupying one's own country