Lawrence Lessig’s vision of a “read-write” Internet (rather than a “read-only” Internet) is harshly and sloppily disparaged in Andrew Keen’s new polemic: The Cult of the Amateur. Lessig posted a characteristically brilliant response on his blog some time ago (which I only just had a chance to catch up with today). Lessig points out several fallacies in Keen’s book and then graciously suggests that we give poor Mr. Keen a break. Why? Because his book [...]
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Twentieth-century political communication has been described as a “oneway conversation”. Instead of inclusive deliberation — the substantive element of democracy — professionally produced and polished declarations of policy were released for public consumption via mass media. For most people political debate was perceived as something to watch – or switch off. YouTube is trying to change this by creating an interactive forum for engaging today’s youth in the political process. For starters, YouTube is giving [...]
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Over on Wikinomics.com, Paul Artiuch tells a classic tale about Dell’s encounter with the brave new world of transparency: An interesting exchange took place late last week that pinned computer maker Dell against The Consumerist, a popular blog backed by the communities of various sites such as Digg and Slashdot. The Consumerist posted a piece entitled “22 Confessions Of A Former Sales Manager†written by a ex-sales manager. The article described a few tricks on [...]
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Speaking of Britannica and online encyclopedias, data straight from Wikipedia suggests that the web 2.0 paragon may be peaking. The number of new Wikipedians is no longer growing at the same phenomenal rate exhibited in 2006. Similarly, the number of active editors appears to be in decline, especially if one examines the data across all of the various languages. And, after incredible growth in the number of English language articles in 2006, 2007 no longer [...]
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Scientists created and pioneered the Internet, so its natural that they would be among the main proponents and early adopters of web 2.0. In fact, there is arguably no area where web 2.0 principles and technologies are more vital than in the research communities that working to solve the long list of critical issues that will confront humanity over the next century. The California Institute of Technology (CalIT2) is the latest scientific institution to embrace [...]
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Guardian sports writer Will Buckley wonders whether a little bit of wikinomics thinking could democratize football in England. The English game has recently attracted a wave of American investment as clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, and Aston Villa have succumbed to American-backed takeovers. There is intense speculation that Stan Kroenke, who co-owns the St. Louis Rams, will make it four after having recently bought a 12% stake in Arsenal. Now Buckley reports that Will Brooks, [...]
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In their 2007 bestseller Wikinomics, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams taught the world how mass collaboration was changing the way businesses communicate, compete, and succeed in the new global marketplace. But much has changed in three years, and the principles of wikinomics are now more powerful than ever. In this new age of networked intelligence, businesses and communities are bypassing crumbling institutions. We are altering the way our financial institutions and governments operate; how we [...]
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