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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
Large look at the collaborative online world
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...
Published on 23 Feb 2007 by Rolf Dobelli
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
Falls short of an objective analysis of the mass collaboration
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...
Published 17 months ago by Anon
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
Falls short of an objective analysis of the mass collaboration, 3 Jun 2008
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.
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
Large look at the collaborative online world, 23 Feb 2007
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.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Wikinomics over-shadowed by Tapscott's earlier books, 11 Aug 2008
Don Tapscott's Paradigm Shift was required reading when I was in college in the mid-1990s, many of the important concepts such as enterprise collaboration and the co-opting of consumers in the production process are extended and expanded upon in Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything to include web 2.0 services and the latest iterations of open source software.
Is there anything in Wikinomics that readers of Tapscott's previous books would find surprising or different? No. To be honest I found it most of use for pulling together case studies for internal and external presentations to help clients and peers `get' online/digital/web 2.0.
If you haven't read a Tapscott book before then this one is a well-read and researched book that provides up-to-date examples of offline and and online collaboration and how this is affecting the world of commerce. If you are familiar with his work pick it up secondhand on Amazon Marketplace it's an interesting but by no means essential read.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Wikinomics - how mass collaboration changes everything, 27 May 2007
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."
p38
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Helpful Summary of Early On-Line Mass Collaborations, 6 April 2007
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.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
This book needs editting and structure, 23 Mar 2008
This book is good as a rambling overview of the topic, if you like the US pop business book style. It has some memorable examples. But...
Don't buy this book if you want something practical and/or straight to the point. There's no obvious structure and there's a lot of padding. The only way to read it is cover-to-cover, really, which makes it frustrating as the meat of the book is so deeply buried and rushed through when you finally find it.
To be honest, a lot of the book can be summarised: "Chapter: Blah blah Linux blah Mozilla blah blah exciting and dynamic blah Facebook blah [REALLY INTERESTING EXAMPLE] blah future of communication blah good business sense blah blah Wikipedia. Next chapter: Blah blah Linux blah Mozilla blah blah dynamic and exciting..."
I was going to say this book is good if you're struggling to understand this whole 'New internet' thing. Then I remembered that when it name-drops Linux, Wikipedia, open source communities, etc (which is does constantly...) it does so assuming you already know what they are and how they work. So I don't really know who this book is for... ...erm, I guess buy this if you know what 'Open Source' means, know how Wikipedia works, but, er, don't know what they *mean*...
I guess I'd recommend this book if you know, use and understand all the above but have never reflected fully on their potential or their place in society.
Or, if you're in the Web 2.0 trade, enjoy a bit of back-slapping, and are looking to improve your sales pitch.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Doesn't do what it says on the cover, 11 Sep 2008
This book has plenty of flaws, many pointed out by other reviewers here, but it's central problem is it fails to explain how mass collaboration changes EVERYTHING. Sure it comes up with some compelling evidence that certain sorts of activity and business involving information have changed and will change more.
But when it alleges that this will extend into the physical world, of car design for instance, its examples are woefully thin. Furthermore the authors simply don't acknowledge that design is only one part of the production of cars and that other physical processes are likely to remain unchanged.
I'm sure if you are a magazine editor and your friends all work in publishing or software everything is changing, but where is the evidence that nursing, bus driving, window cleaning or garden design to pluck a few random examples ever will be revolutionised by mass collaboration?
The authors simply make an extravagant claim they cannot back up.
Furthermore as a web editor looking for practical pointers, the news that the staff at Geek Squad are encouraged to spend all day on online games simply isn't helpful to me. They live in a specialised world and nothing the authors write has convinced me that my own workplace would benefit from me and my colleagues playing online games. Again, the authors' examples don't represent EVERYTHING, they represent life in parts of California, London, Bangalore and a handful of other places.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Humorously over the top, 21 Aug 2008
The book takes what is, at times, a comically breathlessly enthusiastic view on how the future is being changed by a culture of mass collaboration, but I don't personally feel that the shift is quite so fundamental as is being indicated. On the whole, it's an entertaining read, but more for the concrete examples of mass collaboration in industry rather than the central thesis of the book, which is 'Hold on to your hats!'.
Some of the examples of mass collaboration cited as fundamental paradigm shifts strike me as incremental shifts at best - chief amongst these, the example of GoldCorp who opened up their geological data to everyone and as a result netted a huge windfall of information that led to the identification of new, rich seams of gold in a mine that was about to be closed. It's interesting, yes, but I feel nothing revolutionary. The GoldCorp situation says more 'competition' than 'collaboration' to me - effectively GoldCorp ran a competition in which they said 'Find us some gold, win a prize!'. None of the mechanisms that lead to mass collaboration as a genuinely new phenomenon are present in a number of the examples given.
The book is sparesely sourced, but contains interviews (or at least, soundbites) with a number of very prominent figures in the computing industry and other areas. Some of these people are pioneers in some of the emergent ideas that, in my opinion, indicate collaboration as a paradigm shift.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Insightful, informative and educational, 17 Aug 2008
I picked up this book randomly when looking for something to read on holiday. I'm glad I did. I've seen the internet evolve since the mid-90's to what it is today and the book brilliantly encapsulates the impact of this evolution and how it is a force for value creation and participation in modern day business and economics.
It presents a thoroughly convincing argument that business must embrace the culture of openness and collaboration that characterises the modern Web, whether they are primarily Web companies or traditional, long established companies like Boeing and P&G.
Since finishing the book, my perspective of how the power of mass collaboration can change things and propel products and services to new levels has certainly been shaken up and redrawn and there are a great many lessons that can be absorbed from this book. Highly recommended and very entertaining to read.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Wikinomics - Tap your business into the worlds knowledge, 4 Dec 2007
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.
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Wikinomics by Don Tapscott (Paperback - 1 Jun 2008)
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