We-Think: Mass Innovation Not Mass Production
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"* 'a riveting guide to a new world in which a whole series of core assumptions are being overturned by innovations on the web' Mathew D'Ancona, The Spectator 'Leadbeater - with the help of his hundreds of online collaborators - has written an excellent, intelligent and comprehensive guide to the labyrinth of bewildering ways in which a truly revolutionary era is unfolding.' Sunday Telegraph 'I was gripped. The book's theme is as big and bold as it gets... Leadbeater's book should be compulsory reading for all who seek to understand the driving force of this century.' Management Today 'Likely to be the most controversial book about the internet to be published this year... I urge you to read it' The Independent"
Independent
`Likely to be the most controversial book about the Internet to be published in Britain this year.... A highly readable British synthesis of James Surowiecki's Wisdom of the Crowds and Chris Anderson's Long Tail, Leadbeater's We-Think is definitely an important book, even for skeptics like me who are suspicious of the seductive techno-utopian promises of the Web 2.0 revolution.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good primer on the collaboration business model,
By
This review is from: We-Think: Mass innovation, not mass production: The Power of Mass Creativity (Paperback)
Charlie Leadbeater has written a very well researched and approachable introduction to collaboration and creativity. His illustrations of how successful enterprises can be built by harnessing the "Pro-Am" (the amateur who is as skilled as a professional) are sources of hope. He is undoubtedly right but he has also missed a couple of good points. The first is that in science and engineering like Moore's Law (in respect of computer power) and Sod's law ( in respect of things in general) there is Stigler's Law of Inventions: "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." No modern scientific or engineering discovery can be laid at the door of one person - the reality is that multiple entirely independent individuals come up with the same thing at the same time. From the lightbulb to the telephone this has always been shown to be true. This is where "We-Think" can gain its power since, thanks to the Internet entirely independent individuals can collaborate to innovate and invent at warp speedThe second point which Charlie misses (or, to be fair, probably choose not to mention since I believe he is is fully aware of the issue) is the inability of the legal system to protect inventions and technologies developed through collaboration. Brainstorming solutions to problems is overrated - it is easy to brainstorm but it is hard to execute the ideas that have come from the brainstorm. "We-Think" collaboration suggests a mechanism to do just that - but the business models to protect the collaborative effort do not yet exist. (I have some possible solutions but a review of this book is not the place to discuss them.) All in all a fascinating and thought provoking read - hence the five stars.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Where did the author go?,
By Tim Harrap (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: We-Think: Mass innovation, not mass production: The Power of Mass Creativity (Paperback)
A lot of factual books acknowledge the input of others but then let it be known that the work is in the end totally the author's responsibility. Here the author admits to strong input from outsiders having let it be edited under a wiki format on the web. In the end I don't think you hear Charles Leadbeater's heart or soul in this book but a lot of pussy footing around the subject having tried to accomodate multiple viewpoints.Contrast Benkler's Wealth of Network's which although available as a wiki the hard copy delivers Benkler's authorship. Interesting book in the nonetheless in a Cluetrain sort of way!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strong and interesting,
By
This review is from: We-Think: Mass innovation, not mass production: The Power of Mass Creativity (Paperback)
I really enjoyed this book - it's far less bombastic than WikiNomics and raises a number of important 'calming factors' surrounding the areas of collaborative technology. In essence he says it's important, and will be dramatically important for a small number of fields and industries, and less important but still influential in more. However, the book makes a number of fairly bizarre points based on what I feel is a misunderstanding of some of the concepts covered. The biggest example of this is the three-four page treatment he does on World of Wacraft in which he talks about in terms of mass collaboration on content development - in this respect, he may be getting it confused with Second Life, but the argument he makes in favour of this interpretation is entirely in the context of WoW. I feel this is a poorly considered argument for one reason - there is nothing new in Warcraft that hasn't been in all social gaming. They're all about collaborating to have fun, but they do not involve content generation. Warcraft is a large scale content-consumption platform, but it's not a content generator.On the other hand, there is a thriving 'cottage industry' of add-on development which does involve considerable collaboration, but that's not the argument he makes. On the whole though, a strong book that would make a good introduction to anyone wondering what all this wiki/collaboration stuff was about and why it mattered.
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