my review of Wikinomics

Summary

Wikinomics is a good book for managers who want to understand the latest trends in technology and society.  Toffler's The Third Wave (1980, ISBN-13: 978-0553246988) and Friedman's The World is Flat (2005, ISBN-13: 978-0374292799) are better books, with deeper insights and more thoughtful analysis, but they are also a bit more theoretical and much longer.

Details

I was initially quite sceptical about this book, the articles in the Globe were interesting but a bit short on caveats.  The tone of the book is extremely positive, to the point of sometimes excessive technology evangelism hyperbole.  However, I found that as you get farther along in the book, they do provide more balance and perspective.  If you separate out some of their marketingspeak, there is content of value.

I am a bit concerned about the approach of using a small number of "business case" exemplars, as I don't believe in the business case idea - I think most businesses successes are a result of a unique confluence of events, that wouldn't work if you tried to duplicate them.

For me, the most interesting chapters were #4, about marketplaces for ideas and innovation ("ideagoras"), #6, about shared and collaborative science, and #7, about creating technology platforms that enable innovation and expansion.

The first three chapters are ok, a basic overview of the current technology and social environment.  This will be nothing new for those of you who have been tracking these changes in your RSS feed readers, but may provide a useful capsule of information for managers and others wishing to understand these new ideas and activities.

I myself am always interested most in information that is new to me, and the chapter on idea marketplaces was an eye-opener.  As in all chapters, they pick a few specific business examples, with InnoCentive being singled out for particularly lengthy discussion.  InnoCentive describes itself as a

web-based community matching top scientists to relevant R&D challenges facing leading companies from around the globe

I think that's an interesting idea - just as eBay has been able to match buyers with sellers, InnoCentive aims to match problems with solutions.  Can you make the world your R&D department?  I think it is profoundly challenging to outsource anything, but nevertheless, it's worth experimenting with.

Chapter 5 is about Prosumers, which is Toffler's idea, The Third Wave does at least get a citation at the back of the book, although I would have liked to have seen more prominent exposure in the actual text (for that matter, why not interview Toffler, if possible).  Prosumer is basically the idea of anyone being able to both produce (with potentially global distribution) and consume media and information.  They have some good examples, but are a bit behind the times in criticizing the mainstream media, "Why is this happening on digg and not CNN..."?  Err, actually, it is happening at CNN, they call it CNN i-Reports.

I was particularly interested to read about "Sharing for Science and the Science of Sharing" in chapter 6.  There is lots of good information about how the web is an enabler for science collaboration, and many ideas for how your organization can take advantage of open science.  They do, in my opinion, rather oversimplify the issues of peer review, implying that you could replace it with the Wisdom of Crowds, an idea I have already disagreed with at length.

The next chapter covers "platforms for participation", and this is a set of ideas that I already praised when they had an article in the Globe.  This chapter should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the huge advantages of building networks of APIs (perhaps implemented as Web Services).  They talk about the activities of Google, Amazon and the like, and explain how they benefit from providing their services for use at this machine-to-machine level.  They also provide some much-welcomed caveats about business models built around platforms.

Chapter 8 is about the "Global Plant Floor", which I don't really care about since I'm not much interested in manufacturing (or similar very complex collaborative design efforts).  In fact I think that this idea of globally sourcing designs and parts is in for a big challenge if the full carbon pollution costs of vast distribution networks start to be accounted for.

Chapter 8 does end with some guidance on "harnessing the global plant floor" which I think is applicable to any type of "harnessing the new web".  Here are the subheadings:

• Focus on the critical value drivers
• Add value through orchestration
• Instill rapid, iterative design processes
• Harness modular architectures
• Create a transparent and egalitarian ecosystem
• Share the costs and risks
• Keep a keen futures watch

If reading this book leads to people and organizations embracing even a few of the above activities, it will be of great benefit.

The final two chapters deal with how your can try to bring collaborative, dynamic work patterns into your organization, and harness the power of open collaboration.  Some good guidance is provided about when these patterns may and may not be useful.

Overall I thought it was a useful book.  I learned some new things and I also got some ideas about how to present some of the complex technology topics I deal with, including numerous concrete business examples.

In the spirit of open collaboration, their book's final chapter 11 is a blank wiki online, for the readers to create.

Product details from Amazon.com

# Hardcover: 320 pages
# Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (December 28, 2006)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1591841380
# ISBN-13: 978-1591841388

Previously:
November 24, 2006  the Wikinomic Generation