Wikinomics

Wikinomics came out in 2006, when the internet was already commonplace, but smartphones had not yet spread worldwide and social media was nothing like it is today. Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams looked at emerging projects, including the open encyclopedia Wikipedia, the Linux operating system, and photo- and video-sharing sites, and made a bold prediction: mass collaboration would reorganize the economy.

The title combines wiki, a term for pages that anyone can edit, with economics. The argument is that companies willing to open their doors, connect with outsiders, and share some of what they know will grow more than those that keep everything to themselves.

The authors argue that the public is no longer just an audience. With simple tools for creating and publishing, anyone can write, film, code, translate, and share opinions. The old dividing line between producers and consumers is blurring.

That includes the young person who grew up with a computer at home and expects to be heard, the customer who posts ratings and complaints on social media, and the expert who helps out for free on a forum. For the authors, companies that ignore this energy miss ideas and opportunities, and end up facing public criticism.

You can see this when a gaming community creates translations, when a consumer solves a problem in a product's user group, or when a company launches a product and people discover new uses for it.

The book organizes the new economy around four ideas. Openness calls for transparency from organizations, which should reveal more than they conceal and welcome outside ideas and talent. Peering recognizes that groups of equals, without a formal boss, can produce complex things. Sharing holds that sharing information and intellectual property can generate more value than keeping everything under lock and key. And acting globally reminds us that talent and markets are everywhere.

These principles are not magic rules, but bets on what works in a connected world. A company that locks everything down risks being overtaken by one that learns from many different perspectives.

The authors themselves acknowledge that adopting these principles requires changing culture and habits, not simply installing a new tool.

Acting globally, in particular, has a straightforward practical side: a professional in a small city or a remote town can now collaborate with a team on another continent, sell services abroad, and learn from communities that would once have been inaccessible. The boundaries of the talent market are no longer so rigid.