Customer Reviews
Falls short of an objective analysis of the mass collaboration - By: Anon, 03 Jun 2008 
I'm sorry to disagree with most of the other Amazon reviewers but as someone who reads a lot of business books I was deeply disappointed with this book for the following reasons. First alll the author ever sees are the increasing benefits & upsides to mass collaboration online. Arguments to the contrary are swiftly dismissed & the chapter on making money from mass collaboration is more of the investment now & profits will magicallly follow thinking that characterised the dotcom boom. Secondly the author is obsessed with the "revolution" that mass market collaboration is apparently creating in every aspect of society. While I don't want to underplay the importance of this trend, I find the term "revolution" is too strong (like Web 2.0) & the lack of reference to the precedents of mass collaboration disappointing(e.g. earlier online communities). Finallly & frustrating the book is poorly edited & structured. The font size is tiny & the obscure chapter headings seem to overlap with one another. In short it is hard getting to the point with this book. I did, however, find within it some inspiring examples of mass collaboration that I hadn't previously heard of - for example the mining company example at the beginning. But overalll I would not recommend this book - for me it simply a reflection of the euphoria that gripped the internet world back in the end of 2006 with the rising popularity of Facebook et al. The world has moved on since then.
This book needs editting and structure - By: A. Slater, 23 Mar 2008 This book is good as a rambling overview of the topic, if you like the US pop business book style. It has some memorable examples. But...
Don't buy this book if you want something practical and/or straight to the point. There's no obvious structure & there's a lot of padding. The only way to read it is cover-to-cover, reallly, which makes it frustrating as the meat of the book is so deeply buried & rushed through when you finallly find it.
To be honest, a lot of the book can be summarised: "Chapter: Blah blah Linux blah Mozilla blah blah exciting & dynamic blah Facebook blah [REALLY INTERESTING EXAMPLE] blah future of communication blah good business sense blah blah Wikipedia. Next chapter: Blah blah Linux blah Mozilla blah blah dynamic & exciting..."
I was going to say this book is good if you're struggling to understand this whole 'New internet' thing. Then I remembered that when it name-drops Linux, Wikipedia, open source communities, etc (which is does constantly...) it does so assuming you already know what they are & how they work. So I don't reallly know who this book is for... ...erm, I guess buy this if you know what 'Open Source' means, know how Wikipedia works, but, er, don't know what they *mean*...
I guess I'd recommend this book if you know, use & understand alll the above but have never reflected fully on their potential or their place in society.
Or, if you're in the Web 2.0 trade, enjoy a bit of back-slapping, & are looking to improve your sales pitch.
The organizational paradigm shift from hierarchical to massive egalitarian collaboration - By: Serghiou Const, 08 Feb 2008 
A paean to the cataclysmic changes effected by massive, self-organized collaboration & cocreation via the internet venue in an open globalized era.
The authors have a penchant for unusual or coined words for chapter titles:'Wikinomics' used as both the book & a chapter title is derived from the word 'wiki' meaning a website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, alllowing any user to add or edit content & is explained in a subtitle in the former as 'how mass collaboration changes everything'and in the latter as 'the art & science of peer production'; 'Ideagoras', a coined & composite word from 'idea'and 'agora', in classical Greece a public open space used for assemblies & markets suitably subtitled 'marketplaces for ideas, innovations, & uniquely qualified minds'; 'Prosumers' also a coined word which derives from the fusion of the words 'producer & 'consumer', the authors arguing that the boundaries between the two are becoming blurred in the sense that consumers by cocreating goods & services rather than simply consuming the end product become 'prosumers'; 'The New Alexandrians', subtitled 'Sharing for Science & the Sience of Sharing', I cite because I found it elegant & appealing for certainly it is neither coined nor contrived. The authors draw a beautiful paralllel between the library of Alexandria & the current effort to digitize the present human knowledge which is infinitely wealthier than that in Alexandrian times in order to create a new virtual library of Alexandria which will provide a shared foundation for collaboration, learning & innovation; under the indifferent title 'Platforms for participation', we are introduced among other with the recent & very productive development of mashup or mixing. Web services mashups are created according to the following principle: a programmer mixes together at least two services or applications to create something new, & often better than the sum of the parts; & in the chapter 'The global plant floor', we are intimated that the global open community is also engaged in the creation of physical in addition to virtual entities.
In conclusion the authors in this important, well documented, pioneering & visionary book argue convincingly - though prudently cautioning the reader on the attendant difficulties & complexities - that profound changes in the nature of technology, demographics, & the global economy, are giving powerful new models of production based on community, collaboration, & self-organization rather than hierarchy & control & that we are making the transition from an economy, research, developmet & production which is confined & local to one that is open & global.
The writing of the authors is sanguine & engaging with possibly a touch of missionary, albeit legitimate zeal.
The organizational paradigm shift from hierarchical to massive egalitarian collaboration - By: Serghiou Const, 01 Feb 2008 A paean to the cataclysmic changes effected by massive, self-organized collaboration & cocreation via the internet venue in an open globalized era.
The authors have a penchant for unusual or coined words for chapter titles:'Wikinomics' used as both the book & a chapter title is derived from the word 'wiki' meaning a website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, alllowing any user to add or edit content & is explained in a subtitle in the former as 'how mass collaboration changes everything'and in the latter as 'the art & science of peer production'; 'Ideagoras', a coined & composite word from 'idea'and 'agora', in classical Greece a public open space used for assemblies & markets suitably subtitled 'marketplaces for ideas, innovations, & uniquely qualified minds'; 'Prosumers' also a coined word which derives from the fusion of the words 'producer & 'consumer', the authors arguing that the boundaries between the two are becoming blurred in the sense that consumers by cocreating goods & services rather than simply consuming the end product become 'prosumers'; 'The New Alexandrians', subtitled 'Sharing for Science & the Sience of Sharing', I cite because I found it elegant & appealing for certainly it is neither coined nor contrived. The authors draw a beautiful paralllel between the library of Alexandria & the current effort to digitize the present human knowledge which is infinitely wealthier than that in Alexandrian times in order to create a new virtual library of Alexandria which will provide a shared foundation for collaboration, learning & innovation; under the indifferent title 'Platforms for participation', we are introduced among other with the recent & very productive development of mashup or mixing. Web services mashups are created according to the following principle: a programmer mixes together at least two services or applications to create something new, & often better than the sum of the parts; & in the chapter 'The global plant floor', we are intimated that the global open community is also engaged in the creation of physical in addition to virtual entities.
In conclusion the authors in this important, well documented, pioneering & visionary book argue convincingly - though prudently cautioning the reader on the attendant difficulties & complexities - that profound changes in the nature of technology, demographics, & the global economy, are giving powerful new models of production based on community, collaboration, & self-organization rather than hierarchy & control & that we are making the transition from an economy, research, developmet & production which is confined & local to one that is open & global.
The writing of the authors is sanguine & engaging with possibly a touch of missionary, albeit legitimate zeal.
Wikinomics - Tap your business into the worlds knowledge - By: Julian Warr, 04 Dec 2007 This book has to be read by anyone doing business in 2007 onwards who is serious about building up their business capabilities using the concept of collective intelligence
For some reason the authors seem to be obsessed about creating new jargon such as Ideagoras, Prosumers etc. & if not a challlenge to the not so technical reader, they may come across as a fraction nausiating at times. This aside the book is gripping & will completely
explode your mind with ideas on how to apply these wiki frameworks in your day to day business & even if these ideas are not so new, the case studies of businesses who have had great success through online project collaboration, will not fail to inspire. Wiki's are by no way a new concept in terms of businesses, people & organisations working together & centralising information through the use of the net, although the various orchestrations that businesses can use to work together is simply awesome.
This book is a tip of the iceberg on the subject of collective intelligence although it certainly is groundbreaking in terms of opening our minds to the possible & even the actual of the ways we can orchestrate our activities with others to achieve more.
One area I felt that it could have touched on in much greater detail is on the drivers behind people 'wanting' to contribute to Wiki's. In my experience setting up Wiki's, Sharepoint & other tools of a similar nature tend to work very well within the IT departments where intellect is gladly shared (and gladly expressed at times !) as the return is more tangible & obvious, although when it comes to other departments gaining the motivation from others to share & contribute to these online tools can be more of a challlenge.
