Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything | 
 enlarge | Authors: Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams
Creator: Alan Sklar
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $37.99
Buy New: $20.41
You Save: $17.58 (46%)
New (21) Used (6) from $20.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  92 reviews
Sales Rank: 207887
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 11
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 1400104157
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.046
EAN: 9781400104154
ASIN: 1400104157
Publication Date: April 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.A brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand competitiveness in the twenty-first century.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 87 more reviews...
Could be helpful if you are new to the topic... October 8, 2008
As has already been stated, the view of the world of mass collaboration presented in this book is rather simplistic. It could be helpful, though, if you are new to the topic and would like to understand what "emergence", "wikis" and "prosumers" mean and how the term "knowledge" is changing in meaning.
 Sorely disappointing October 2, 2008
I heard a lot of buzz about Wikinomics when it was published a few years ago, but when I finally picked it up a few weeks ago I was sorely disappointed. I'm very surprised that it gets such a high overall rating on Amazon.
First and foremost the book is extremely repetitive. I feel that instead of 300 odd pages it could have easily been under 100 while becoming significantly more readable. Granted, some sections are very well written, but I found most sections of the book difficult to read for more then 20-30 minutes at a time.
This is a subject that I'm very interested in, and am not clueless about, so perhaps I'm a bit biased in that I was already familiar with most of the ideas in the book. However, I still feel that there was way too much hyperbole and not enough critical analysis.
The 7 "business models" that the authors present (which aren't really business models) have so many things in common that dedicating a large chapter to each just doesn't make sense.
The authors use words like 'b-webs' that no one else uses as if they were widely used. Sure, one of the authors coined this word in one of his previous books but it hasn't caught. Deal with it. There's no need to try and force it on us here again.
When it comes to criticisms of the authors' ideas, they get brushed aside without any critical evaluation by just citing another author that agrees with Wikinomics and stating something along the lines of "X is wrong, but Y is right". Having some economic data would have been much more useful than stating "the tide is coming, get in line with the new business models" over and over.
Maybe the book would have been better if the authors published it through a Wiki? I think it would have quickly been edited down to about 70 pages then.
 Touches on important points and gets the details wrong September 21, 2008
This is the sort of book that often comes out about new social and technological developments... it touches on all of the hotspots surrounding wikis and massively parallel collaboration, even name-drops many important people and cases related to each, but usually gets the details wrong.
Precisely because the issues raised are so important to understanding how we as a society can collaborate on the scale of millions of people working together on similar projects, I must disrecommend this book to anyone interested in the topic : it will hamper those reading it from later coming to a true understanding of how these processes work.
The writing is clear and informative in places, but repetetive and obfuscating in others. The whole could have been improved by being cut down to 1/4 this length, with better sources and serious analysis.
The future of economics September 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Must read to keep up with the times! September 3, 2008
Excellent book. I promise you'll learn a lot! Great info to take back to your organization. It provides a different mindset on how to do things and that in itself is worth the read. You'll also be amazed at what companies are doing to stay abreast and be shocked how those who aren't doing are staying in business...but may not be for long.
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