Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

- behaves not as a multinational, but as a truly global firm

- shares resources that were previously closely guarded

- co-innovates with everyone, especially customers

A new kind of business is emerging: one that

We are shifting from closed and hierarchical workplaces with rigid employment relationships to increasingly self-organized, distributed, and collaborative human capital networks that draw knowledge and resources from inside and outside the firm.

Om Malik blog post : "I wonder if this culture of participation was helping build businesses on our collective backs. If we tag, bookmark, or share and help del.icio.us or Technorati or Yahoo become better commerical entities, aren't we commoditizing our most valuable asset: time? We become the outsourced workforce, though it is still unclear what ... See more

How do I make my organization a platform for participation?

Customers will expect to share in the ownership and fruits of their creations. If you make it profitable for customers to get involved, you will always be able to count on a dynamic and fertile ecosystem for growth and innovation.

Customer tool kits and context orchestration: Forget about static, immovable products. If your customers are going to treat products as platforms anyway, then you may as well get ahead of the game. Make your products modular, reconfigurable, and editable. Set the context for customer innovation and collaboration. Provide venues. Build user-friendly... See more