Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything /

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (ISBN 1591841380) is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, first published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration (also called peer production) and open-source technology, such as wikis, to be successful. Tapscott and Williams have released a followup to Wikinomics, entitled Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, which was released on September 28, 2010. According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference.