Task 1 LIS 590By

Jessica Yonzon

Definitionsinnovation and value creation driven by the

masses of people and firms collaborating openly; a new way of producing goods and services that harnesses the power of mass collaboration (Wikinomics – Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams)

commons-based peer production: radically decentralized, collaborative, and nonproprietary production based on sharing resources and outputs among widely distributed, loosely connected individuals who cooperate with each other without relying on either market signals or managerial commands (Benkler, 2006)

Characteristics of peer productionSelf-organizationVolunteering (not always)Shared outcome/outputLeadership to integrate community contributionsSelf-selection by contributors themselves based on

interests and expertise efficient at allocating resources

Low cost of participation (desirable)Collective intelligenceBuilding a community/ belonging to a community

of shared interests

Models of peer production (Haythornthwaite, 2009):

Lightweight - large set of contributors; each provides minimal, rule-based additions to the product as a whole; not designed to create or maintain relationships among contributors; no need to make a long-term commitment to the project, the group, or its members; contributors not expected to play an ongoing role in determining the course of the enterprise as a whole

Heavyweight - commitment to maintaining and sustaining the direction and viability of the community; commitment to the enterprise as a whole, including internal processes as well as products, the social and emotional experience of the community, and its continued existence

Dual weight – mixture of both lightweight and heavyweight

Benefits of peer production (to firms):

Use external talent/skills that might not be available within the company

Fast-paced upgrades/ rapid diffusion of best-practice techniques and standards

Opportunities for auxiliary businessesReduced costsEasy collaboration without problems related

to ownerships and IP proprietorships

Pitfalls/ difficulties of peer production:

Authenticity or reliability of information/ knowledge

Monitoring inaccuraciesMaking all the disparate contributions work

in concert (for example in the case of OSS)Contributions might not be consistent over

time and quality

Fields/ areas where peer production has been used: (Wikinomics – Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams)Software development (OSS)Scientific Research & Design (Pharmaceuticals)Games (Second Life)Design (BMW cars)News Media/ Entertainment/ Informational sites Open Access Journals (academic) – reviewed by a

greater proportion of the scientific community (?)Industry-University partnerships – transferring

technologies back and forth – example, Intel’s labs at UC Berkeley, University of Washington in Seattle, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Cambridge (UK)

Fields/areas where peer production has a potential to add value:

(Wikinomics – Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams)

E-governance – RI’s GovTracker, Scorecard (combines data from over four hundred scientific and government databases to profile local environmental problems and the health effects of toxic chemicals), Neighborhood Knowledge California

Producing physical products – Chinese motorcycle industry, 787 Boeing – many suppliers working together for design and production

Web sites that are built on or promote peer production:

Wikipedia – a collaboratively created encyclopedia owned by no one and authored by masses

http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page - a collaboratively created how-to manual

http://www.shopwiki.com/ - collaboratively created shopping guide

http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page - collaboratively created travel guide

Social networking sites – FaceBook, MySpace, OrkutTakingITGlobal <http://www.tigweb.org/> - online social

community of youth leaders and educators collaborating to address global issues

Human Genome Project, Open Wet WareOpen Innovation - InnoCentive, NineSigma,

InnovationXchange Network, Eureka Medical, YourEncore, Innovation Relay Centers, yet2come.com

User-generated news sites - Slashdot, digg, Rabble

Areas that peer production affects and may eventually change/modify:

Copyright & Intellectual property –www.creativecommons.org,

Existing business model – direct control of assetsOrganizational structure – open peer production

(within and/or outside the company) vs. hierarchical top-down approach, using external skills rather than hiring employees

Labor market will be global – legal issues, taxes, etc.

Education systems – technology-based, emphasis on collaboration (?)

New ways of doing business: (Wikinomics – Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams)Auxiliary business supporting free product – example

support/training/consulting for customizing OSSProviding platform for consumers to innovate, create

– example SecondLifeProviding platforms for participation – “mashup

businesses” – example, housingmaps, cheapgas, Chicagocrime; Amazon, eBay, Google open up their software services and databases via APIs (application programming interface) for possible mashup innovations/ co-developments of services

Rewarding participation to sustain the business – Amazon developers get sales commissions, SecondLife

References:

Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks. New Haven: Yale University Press

Haythornthwaite, C. (2009). “Crowds and Communities: Light and Heavyweight Models of Peer Production”, Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference On System Sciences

Tapscott, D. & A. Williams (2006). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York: Penguin Group.