Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (ISBN 1591841380)^[1] is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, first published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration (also called 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.^[2][3]

Concepts[link]

According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is based on 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 instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference. This can be incentivized by a reward system, though it is not required.

The book also discusses seven new models of mass collaboration, including:

• Peering: For example, page 24, "Marketocracy employs a form of peering in a mutual fund (Ticker Symbol: MOFQX) that harnesses the collective intelligence of the investment community...Though not completely open source, it is an example of how meritocratic, peer-to-peer models are seeping into an industry where conventional wisdom favors the lone super-star stock advisor."^[4]
• Ideagoras: For example, page 98, linking experts with unsolved research and development problems. The company InnoCentive is a consulting group that encapsulates the idea of ideagoras.^[5]
• Prosumers: For example, page 125, where it discusses the social video game Second Life as being created by its customers. When customers are also the producers, you have the phenomenon: Prosumer.^[6]
• New Alexandrians: This idea is about the Internet and sharing knowledge.

The last chapter is written by viewers, and was opened for editing on February 5, 2007.

Coase's Law[link]

In the chapter The Perfect Storm, the authors give an overview of the economic effects of the kind of transactions Web 2.0 permits. According to the authors, Coase's Law (see Ronald Coase) governs the expansion of a business:

A firm will tend to expand until the cost of organizing an extra transaction within the firm become equal to the costs of carrying out the same transaction on the open market.^[7]

However, because of the changing usage patterns of Internet technologies, the cost of transactions has dropped so significantly that the authors assert that the market is better described by an inversion of Coase's Law. That is:

A firm will tend to expand until the cost of carrying out an extra transaction on the open market become equal to the costs of organizing the same transaction within the firm.^[7]

Thus, the authors think that with the costs of communicating dramatically dropping, firms who do not change their current structures will perish. Companies who utilize mass collaboration will dominate their respective markets.

Reviews[link]

A review of this book in the Harvard Business Review states "like its title, the book's prose can fall into breathless hype."^[8] A review of this book in Choice recommends the book for "general readers and practitioners," but cautions that the authors "present an optimistic overview of successful collaborations and business ventures", "use unique terms (e.g., marketocracy, prosumption, knowledge commons)", should have given "more consideration [to] the darker sides of human motivation as well as groupthink and mass mediocrity", and "primarily draw on their own observations of businesses and trends for the ideas presented."^[9].

See also[link]

• Business Intelligence 2.0 (BI 2.0)
• Demand-side learning
• Cory Doctorow
• Entrenched Player's Dilemma
• File sharing
• Human-based computation
• FreeBSD
• Linux
• Open Business
• Participatory organization
• Stigmergy
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar, an essay by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods
• The Long Tail and Free: The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson
• Financial Crisis

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Mass collaboration could change way companies operate, article in USA Today
• Website for the public to create the "unwritten chapter"
• Abstract: Don Tapscott - Wikinomics: Winning with the enterprise 2.0
• Make Room, Wikipedia: Internet-based Collaboration Could Change the Way We Do Business, February 21, 2007
• Up is down and black is white as Wikinomics changes the business world, article on PCWorld.ca
• The Cult of the Amateur, New York Times' Book Review on Andrew Keen's criticism of Web 2.0 philosophy
• A Book Review of Wikinomics
• Review by Roger Parry in Management Today August 2007
• The Guardian: "The wiki way", 5 September 2007

Videos

• 2007-02-26 Don Tapscott 82 minute presentation on Wikinomics, hosted on Google Video and Internet Archive (mpeg4 and Windows Media Player)
• 2007-01-25 Don Tapscott 45 minute presentation on Wikinomics, hosted by The Canadian Club. (Windows Media Player only)
• 2006-11-08 Don Tapscott 3 minute preview of Wikinomics to ZDNet.

Don Tapscott
Born	1947
Occupation	Chairman, nGenera Insight
Spouse	Ana Lopes
Children	2
Website
dontapscott.com

Don Tapscott (born 1 June 1947, Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian business executive, author, consultant and speaker, specializing in business strategy, innovation, organizational transformation and the role of technology in business and society. Tapscott is chairman of business strategy think tank New Paradigm (now nGenera Insight), which he founded in 1993. Tapscott is also a member of World Economic Forum and Adjunct Professor of Management at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.^[1] Tapscott consults with heads of state, cities and corporations under Tapscott Group advisory services.

Tapscott holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Statistics, and an M.Ed. specializing in Research Methodology. He also holds three honorary Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) granted by the University of Alberta in 2001, Trent University in 2006, and McMaster University in 2010.^[2] While earning his Master's of Education at the University of Alberta, he ran for mayor of Edmonton in the 1977 municipal election.^[3][4]

In 2011, Tapscott placed ninth in the Thinkers50 ranking of the world's most influential management thinkers. In 2012, Tapscott received the Yorktown Humanitarian Award for community service.^{[citation needed]}

Tapscott has authored or co-authored thirteen books on the application of technology in business and society. His fourteenth book Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, co-authored by Anthony D. Williams was released in September 2010 and was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Book Award. Macrowikinomics is the follow-up to Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) also co-authored by Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics was an international bestseller, #1 on the 2007 management book charts, and was translated into 20 languages.^[5]

In 2008, Tapscott published Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, which drew upon a 4.5 million dollar research study of over 11,000 young people and examines how the net generation is changing the world and all of its institutions.^[6] Grown Up Digital is a follow-up to his popular 1997 book Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation which explained the business and social impact of the first generation to come of age in the digital world. He is also a an avid accordion player.

His 2003 book The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, co-authored with David Ticoll, describes how corporate transparency, accountability, and stakeholder relationships are the new frontier for competitive innovation. His 2000 release Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs describes how business webs are replacing the traditional model of the firm and changing the dynamics of wealth creation and competition. Digital Economy: Promise and Peril In The Age of Networked Intelligence, published in 1995, was one of the first books to describe how the Internet would change business and society. Tapscott is also known for his 1992 book Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology.

Tapscott lives in Toronto.

Bibliography[link]

• Don Tapscott, Del Henderson, Morley Greenberg, Planning for Integrated Office Systems: A Strategic Approach, Carswell Legal Pubns, 1984. ISBN 0-87094-653-6.
• Don Tapscott, Del Henderson, Morley Greenberg, Office Automation: A User-Driven Method, Springer, 1985. ISBN 0-306-41973-4.
• Don Tapscott, Art Caston, Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology, McGraw-Hill Companies, 1992. ISBN 0-07-062857-2.
• Don Tapscott, Ann Cavoukian, Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World, McGraw-Hill, 1997. ISBN 0-07-063320-7.
• Don Tapscott, The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril In The Age of Networked Intelligence, McGraw-Hill, 1997. ISBN 0-07-063342-8.
• Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN 978-0-07-134798-3.
• Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, Alex Lowy, Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business, McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN 0-07-135213-9.
• Don Tapscott, Creating Value in the Network Economy, Harvard Business Press, 1999. ISBN 0-87584-911-3.
• Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, Alex Lowy, Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs, Harvard Business Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1-57851-193-8.
• Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, Free Press, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-4650-0.
• Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio Trade, 2006. ISBN 1-59184-367-7.
• Don Tapscott, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, McGraw-Hill, 2008. ISBN 0-07-150863-5.
• Don Tapscott, The Net Generation Takes The Lead; in: Willms Buhse/Ulrike Reinhard: Wenn Anzugträger auf Kapuzenpullis treffen (When Suits meet Hoodies), whois-Verlag 2009. ISBN 978-3-934013-98-8.
• Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, Portfolio Hardcover, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59184-356-6.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Don Tapscott at the Internet Movie Database
• 82 minute talk on Wikinomics
• Authors@Google Interview with Eric Schmidt
• Don Tapscott Web 2.0 article and podcast
• 3 minute preview of Wikinomics to ZDNet
• Interview with Don Tapscott on bigthink.com, June 2009
• Interview with Don Tapscott on TWIT's Net at Nite
• RSA Vision webcast - Don Tapscott "The Economic Crisis and the Age of Uncertainty"
• Interview with Don Tapscott on IT Manager Connection by, Stephen Ibaraki