Dr_Wilson_Trivino
Posted February 15, 2012
The world has increasingly become a much smaller place. The internet and information age has merged the whole world onto one plane as Friedman writes about as he describes in living in a “flat world”.
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams delve into this question of an open source world in their book. What is interesting about reading this work that was published in 2006, how the issues identified have only magnified.
I also find it striking that within that short period My Space was the social media boom and now Facebook dominates, which some predict has a valuation of 100 billion dollars.
This book weaves concepts that will enable the reader to better understand the importance of collaboration in the new global information based society.
Anonymous
Posted April 18, 2011
For my book posting I read Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. This book was challenging for me to read because it is not my normal type of book and the writing style of the author makes it difficult to sit down and read a lot of it at once, but I did find it very informative. This book came out in 2006 right around the time where we were starting to expand our world into more of a virtual era, and Wikinomics talks about how to be a successful business in this era you need to start expanding in a different way, or else you are going to end up with the same business as someone else and eventually fail. By advancing and doing these new innovative things within a business, you have a better chance of success. I am an up and coming teacher, and can apply this to education because some schools are cutting out Friday classes and moving towards online instruction. Already in college, I have had multiple online classes, so I have experienced this first-hand. The web is moving from just something you can view to something with collaboration and where you can talk to other people.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.That the nature of work, collaboration, and other economic activities is changing very rapidly these days is indisputable. However, it is not immediately clear to everyone what are the forces that are driving this change and what sorts of effects it may have. This book tries to answer these and many other questions in the realm of how the latest advances in various information tools are enabling the radical shift in collaborative production. It is a very readable book aimed at the general audience. The fact that it doesn't delve too deeply into the technical details (like the "Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More") may be a plus, as this way it may be more suitable to appeal to the wider readership base. Overall, it is an interesting read if you are not familiar with the general trends in open and collaborative economy.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Treblid
Posted April 6, 2009
Tapscott and Williams have written a book on the economics of the web that reads as if it was written at a fraternity kegger. The book is verbose, repetitive, and though overly long, barely gives the reader any real insight into the topic.
The two fraternity brothers make many pontifical statements about intellectual property as if making the statement proves the case. They skirt the very important issue of what makes some companies willing to give up rights to intellectual property while other companies retain rights to intellectual property. I suspect the real answer to why companies give up rights to intellectual property is because doing so enhances their bottom line or creates advantages for them in the marketplace. They seem to soft-peddle the fact that the person/company which owns the intellectual property is the person/company which can chose to give away that intellectual property--that anyone else taking or making use of that intellectual property is a thief!
I did notice that the two fratboys did not give away their intellectual property having copyrighted both the first and second editions of Wikinomics.
For those people who want to (or have to because your pointy-haired boss insists you) read this book, I would look for the cheapest copy I can find, would borrow it from a friend (or is that stealing, Don and Tony?), or check it out of the library. I would recommend the reader save time reading by skipping any section in which the fratboys are pontificating and any section in which you find yourself reading a rehash of a previous section. That strategy will turn this 340 page tome into a barely readable 120 pages of poorly written material. It's a shame you cannot scale down the price by the same percentage.
The idea of this book is excellent. The concepts it focuses on: Peer-production methods, open-source software, and collaboration are clearly ideas and themes that the business world must embrace. The problem with this book is execution. Its poorly written, repetitive and short on in-depth analysis. All those things make getting through it a slog. The authors point out early on that the book was written as an outgrowth of a major study they do for some big corporations on the subject. One is left with the sense that the big corporations got the better result of their work and this "cliff notes" version is simply not worth it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 21, 2008
The authors of this book have a very important topic to discuss and there is some value to be gained by reading this book. The problem is that the authors writing style is lacking and it makes reading the book a bit of a trial. As with many authors writing about Web 2.0 concepts and innovation Tapscott and Williams are overly optimistic about the results from using the concepts they espouse. To be sure, there are some companies that have tried these measures and have met with little success ... any business book worth its salt needs to provide a complete picture to get an honest appraisal of new methods. Discussing the disadvantages of these methods 'how they impact overall employment in this country especially for lower wage jobs and the significant impact on our copyright laws' would have been welcome. Maybe that was in there, but I found myself skimming some sections because the authors have a habit of repeating themselves over and over again ... making the same points ad-nauesum. You get the sense that there is some serious meat missing from this meal and the authors admit that in the preface ... this book was an outgrowth of a major study they did on behalf of a consortium of big companies. Unfortunately, they weren't allowed to include what was in that report and it shows.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 10, 2007
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams have created a new guide to the modern way of economics, known as Wikinomics. Through Wikinomics we are seeing forms of mass collaboration on a global scale that are continually changing and re-shaping the Economy. I thought this book did a very in-depth look at many examples of Wikinomics and how it is in use in today¿s businesses from gold mining and chemistry, to the web and beyond. This book also inflates some ideas of Wikinomics to an extreme and may not take in all of the critiques that they should, yet they do prove many good points about mass collaboration and how it is used today. I believe after reading this book that Wikinomics will change many business principals, and the way we do business all together. From Wikies to Heavy Industry we see Wikinomics in use to a global extent, with the art of mass collaboration I believe that Wikinomics will be adopted as a major business rule.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 22, 2007
Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams have created a very in depth review of open source and mass collaboration explaining how it is effecting the modern economy, relating it to file sharing, gold mining, or the war between operating systems such as Windows versus Linux. In this ever changing world ideas such as openly sharing your company's secrets may benefit you. Or maybe it is best to bond with other companies and form many allies, all of which is examined and explained in this book. Although there are several points within the book where the authors are a bit biased they are able validate their points and still explain both sides of the argument. It is my belief that reading this book will benefit anyone that has a slight interest in economics or the business world so that they may understand the risks that may take and how it will potentially affect them in the long run.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 22, 2007
I found that Wikinomics was a well-written, informative book about the coming of age of the internet. Its basic point is that the internet is becoming absolutely free, with books, social networking, encyclopedias and others operate for free with help from unpaid individuals. For instance, Wikinomics mentions that BMW opened all of the code for its computers in its car and freelance computer coders fixed, updated and improved the code for the cars. It implies that businesses should work like internet forums, allowing input from non-employees to make better innovations and products, at the risk of displaying your business model to competitors. It's a balance, however, to decide whether to hold your inner-business secret and recieve no outside help, or to display everything and hopefully recieve outside input.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 27, 2007
The first few chapters were the best for me. Once the author's got into descriptions of what large corporations did/didn't do regarding the impact of Web 2.0 on their industry/business I lost interest. There are nuggets of significant value in the book, but I got bored trying to find them. The last chapter offers the reader an opportunity to join their 'wiki' on wikinomics which I might take them up.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 23, 2007
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams have written an intriguing, necessary and, in some ways, groundbreaking book, which we recommend to everyone...with some caveats. The authors examine the possibilities of mass collaboration, open-source software and evolutionary business practices. They integrate examples from the arts ('mashups'), scholarship (Wikipedia) and even heavy industry (gold mining) to argue that new forces are reshaping human societies. Some of their examples will be familiar, but others will surprise and educate you. However, the authors are so deeply part of the world they discuss that they may inflate it at times - for instance, making the actions of a few enthusiasts sound as if they already have transformed the Internet - and they sometimes fail to provide definitions or supporting data. Is the 'blogosphere,' for example, really making members of the younger generation into more critical thinkers? Tapscott and Williams repeatedly dismiss criticisms of their claims or positions without answering them. The result is that the book reads at times like a guidebook, at times like a manifesto and at times like a cheerleading effort for the world the authors desire. It reads, in short, like the Wikipedia they so admire: a valuable, exciting experiment that still contains a few flaws.
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More About This Textbook
Overview
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
"Sklar is a sophisticated reader whose well-known voice is a smooth platform for the authors' case studies of innovative information sharing . Sklar provides an engaging reading that will make listeners excited." —-AudioFileProduct Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
Don Tapscott is chief executive of New Paradigm, the think tank and strategy consulting company he founded in 1992. He is the author of more than ten books, including the bestsellers Paradigm Shift and Growing Up Digital. Anthony D. Williams is a research director at New Paradigm, a think tank and strategy consulting company, where he leads the company's work in the areas of innovation and intellectual property. He also teaches at the London School of Economics. Winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards and a multiple finalist for the APA's prestigious Audie Award, Alan Sklar has narrated nearly two hundred audiobooks, including Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings by Thomas Maier, and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Named a Best Voice of 2009 by AudioFile magazine, his work has earned him a Booklist Editors' Choice Award (twice), a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and Audiobook of the Year by ForeWord magazine. The Dartmouth graduate's theatre credits include Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull, and many modern roles. Alan has also narrated thousands of corporate videos for clients such as NASA,Sikorsky Aircraft, IBM, Dannon, Pfizer, AT&T, and SONY. For several years, he has been the spokesman for TracFone Wireless Co. and can often be seen and heard on TracFone radio and TV spots and infomercials."I am so pleased, as is my husband, to have found a narrator that holds our attention so well that we have come to compare every other narrator to him (you). So far we have found none with such a talent as yours. We very much plan to listen to as many of your works as we can find." -Sandi King, a letter to Mr. Sklar
Table of Contents
Subtitles 5
1 Wikinomics 7
2 The Perfect Storm 34
3 The Peer Pioneers 65
4 Ideagoras 97
5 The Prosumers 124
6 The New Alexandrians 151
7 Platforms for Participation 183
8 The Global Plant Floor 213
9 The Wiki Workplace 239
10 Collaborative Minds 268
11 Enterprise 2.0 288
Acknowledgments 317
Notes 321
Index 341