Wikinomics

Wikinomics

Wikinomics by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams is a great book geared towards helping traditional marketing expertise understand the new form of marketing, branding, and consumer communication.

            For people with a fairly steady grasp on social media, the book is interesting for the case studies that are included. They show how companies did or did not use social media and the effects that it had. There is a well-structured flow to the book that gives helpful steps and guidelines:

·      Engage and co-create rather than plan and push. The point here is to make the customers the designers and marketers of the product. Rather than the old method of developing a product or service, push through marketing, revising, and starting over again, let the customers help develop a product or service they want and would use. 

·      The second outline is actually four principles that should be followed to function properly with in Web 2.0.

o   Peering- The classic, grass root example of this is Linux. An operating system developed over time by anyone who is interested. The operating system has been given a general public license, which allows everyone to use it for free. The only stipulation that has ever been placed on Linux is that any changes that are made need to made available to others.

o   Global Acting- GM is the example that Wikinomics sighted. They have multiple car companies located and selling all over the world. They were greatly duplicating efforts. Ralph Szygenda, CIO stated that redundancies are costing the company billions and restricting them in future global growth.

o   Openness- One of the more comprehensive examples, focusing on openness is Swiss drug maker Novartis. In February of 2007 they published all of its raw data regarding their genetic research into unlocking type 2-diabetes. Their intention is that if and when another is able to make a break through they will come back to the company to use their services, as it was their openness that allowed the break through.

o   Sharing- having the ability to share across boards and around the world is invaluable. There are multiple contents (i.e. intellectual property or trade secrets) that need to be considered within the context of sharing. The rapid rise in the popularity of Skype is a great example of how important sharing has become.

 

            As a whole I would highly recommend Wikinomics.