Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything - by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams

The book at hand is the first one that systematically addresses the economy of the contemporary Internet, recently transformed from a medium that is predominantly information oriented toward a medium that is increasingly used for communication and community building. In new media research, this transformation has been labeled with categories like Web 2.0 and Social Software. Given the circumstances, it is likely that this transformation will have an impact on the work of researchers in the field of media and communication studies. Tapscott and Williams argue that the emergence of social software (they speak of the “new Web”) has brought about a potential for an economy that is based on mass collaboration. They term the resulting economy “wikinomics.” The task of the book is to show that and how mass collaboration does not reduce, but can enhance, profitability. Wikinomics would be based on four principles: openness (of standards and external involvement), peer production, sharing, and acting globally (pp. 20–30).