The Power of Internet Collaborative Tools

This week, the cover story of BusinessWeek, "The Power Of Us," reminds us that "mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business." The long article covers all the new Internet technologies we are using today, from free phone calls using Skype to file-sharing, blogs, wikis and social networking services. As says Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs, a mix of different technologies such as the Web, mobile devices, and the feedback system on eBay "may make some new economic system possible." In other words, these new Net technologies are creating a new world, where "the economic role of social behavior is increasing." The whole BusinessWeek article is worth reading, but I want to focus here on InnoCentive, a web-based community matching 80,000 independent scientists (the "solvers") to relevant R&D challenges facing leading companies (the "seekers") from around the globe. Read more...

First, here is how some traditional companies are adopting these new tools to face this world of changes.

Traditional companies, from Procter & Gamble Co. to Dow Chemical Co., are beginning to flock to the virtual commons, too. The potential benefits are enormous. If companies can open themselves up to contributions from enthusiastic customers and partners, that should help them create products and services faster, with fewer duds -- and at far lower cost, with far less risk. LEGO Group uses the Net to identify and rally its most enthusiastic customers to help it design and market more effectively. Eli Lilly & Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., and others are running "prediction markets" that extract collective wisdom from online crowds, which help gauge whether the government will approve a drug or how well a product will sell.

And here is Rheingold's vision of this phenomenon.

Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, sees a common thread in such disparate innovations as the Internet, mobile devices, and the feedback system on eBay, where buyers and sellers rate each other on each transaction. He thinks they're the underpinnings of a new economic order. "These are like the stock companies and liability insurance that made capitalism possible," suggests Rheingold, who's also helping lead the Cooperation Project, a network of academics and businesses trying to map the new landscape. "They may make some new economic system possible."



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