Today, I received what I thought was a strange package. Inside, I found a book called Wikinomics. I had attended a webinar a few weeks ago and requested the presentation, which was also included in the package.
The concept presented in this book is quite fascinating: businesses are likely to gain significantly by becoming more transparent and sharing their once prized possession–their intellectual property–and implementing the technologies commonly referred to as web2.0–blogs, wikis, RSS, and other collaborative technologies. In fact, you can help complete the authors’ effort to finish their book! Just go to www.wikinomics.com and volunteer your time to research and help write the The Wikinomics Playbook. For those who don’t know, collaborative technologies are here defined as “open source” projects or technologies that allow multiple users to add and use information to the betterment of the collaborators.
How accurate the authors are in assessing the impact of web2.0 technologies remains to be seen. However, early signs indicate that they are at least partially right. Many companies have and are moving to more collaborative online environments. I don’t see a majority of companies ever moving to such a collaborative environment, even if such environments are proven to be the absolute best way to do business. Some will always hold on to more traditional business models, whether it be for lack of understanding or fear of change. Nevertheless, I am interested to see how everything shakes out. I keep thinking that someday, we’ll all start screaming about how globalization kills unique identities and radically shift the other way. Only time will tell.