- How might you best research how members of your business are collaborating without introducing an “uncertainty principle” of observation?
- How might you discern the optimal balance between internal innovation and external innovation in your company? In light of this, how might your company need to reassess and rethink its contribution to the value of its product or process?
- Are there certain products or services that just CAN NOT be generated with mass collaboration methodologies? Why or why not?
Review – Wikinomics: “All Together Now…”
“Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams is a bit of a departure from the other books read for this course. While “The Long Tail” and “The Wealth of Networks” are primarily about how the networked information economy has evolved, directions it may take and their impact, this work is more about collaborative economy and production not necessarily tied to the network as scoped by Anderson and Benkler.
Review – Wikinomics: "All Together Now…"
“Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams is a bit of a departure from the other books read for this course. While “The Long Tail” and “The Wealth of Networks” are primarily about how the networked information economy has evolved, directions it may take and their impact, this work is more about collaborative economy and production not necessarily tied to the network as scoped by Anderson and Benkler.
Comment – Raquel’s Abstract
I feel that Joan Cheverie is a less adventurous thinker than Benkler. I say this because of the tension between their two views: Cheverie is less inclined to fully buy into the “Information Should Be Free” stance than Benkler and hedges her thought around information copyright.
Intriguing items – DRM run amok
<ZDNET>: A look at risk-reward: Apple may nuke apps on your iPhone remotely – apparently Apple feels that its iPhone customers won’t mind if apps they have installed and opted-into just “go away”. It’s a FEATURE….the blogger posting this feels that Apple (DRM) wins. Zittrain might disagree….
<CNET>: Much ado about the iPhone’s ‘kill-switch’ – More on this same thing. The writer here says we should all just wait and see what actually happens and/or what Apple’s explanation is….
Comment – Terry’s Review of the Wealth of Networks
Terry, your summary of Benkler’s work is very clear. You call out the almost utopian vision he has for what is happening and what that might evolve into, and allude to his subtle taking of sides (“big media = bad, YouTube = good”). It is unfortunate that the default stance many of us assume is contrarian. Could it be that this is instead The Evolution of Production? One of the theories that anthropologists have regarding human evolution is that, before Neanderthal People disappeared, they co-existed with Cro-Magnons and then disappeared through absorption. Couldn’t that also happen here too?
Reflection – 8/4/08
Howard Rheingold touched upon numerous things in his session with us and the one I found particularly significant to me was the importance of mindfulness in communications. Knowing the power and impact of providing solid or incorrect information, as well as the ways to shade and tone the communications can have any number of positive, negative or inconsequential effects upon the community. In his comments about education (evaluate information, asking the right questions, ascertain the mores of the community) he highlighted the need for foundational cultural immersion for denizens of the community or communities to which one can belong. His example of Stokely Carmichael alludes to this, as Carmichael was unable to maintain a different “face” between audiences. He was presented with a choice of communities with which to identify and ultimately represent and based his communications upon that culture thereafter.
Questions – Rheingold (8/4/08)
- How is value assessed in a LETS environment? Who does the assessing? How might the value of an “offering” change over time?
- What has been the comparable performance of the LETS system over the existing public system in Ithaca? What has the experience been like in adoption by and “weeding out” of members/entities?
- Why do you believe the DC Stock database information is not more widely advertised? Why might there not be the same information available or collated for all elected officials, as it seen as a public to assist in deeper awareness of our representatives?
Review – The Wealth of Networks
Yochai Benkler’s book “The Wealth of Networks” is a wide-ranging work that presents an encompassing ground of thought and evidence to support his premise: that the radically distributed and peer-produced network information economy being enabled and encouraged by Internet technologies is showing our society a positive direction of possible evolution. This evolution is from a one-to-many, relatively passive consumer, and industrial production model to a many-to-many, engaged participant, and commons-based production model.
Intriguing news items
Just wanted to share:
<WEBWARE>: New search engine Cuil takes aim at Google – A challenger in approach to relevance and ranking.
<CNET>: When worlds collide: Microsoft funds Apache – …you read it right.
<CRAVE>: Five ways to make digital music sing – Advocating audiophile digital recordings….what else are you going place on 60-80 GB of space?
