Chapter 4: Ideagoras

"Marketplaces for Ideas, Innovations, and Uniquely Qualified Minds"

This chapter begins with the story of Werner Mueller, a retired and passionate chemist and woodworker who built facilities in his home to "spend a half day on each passion" and who stumbled upon InnoCentive, a website listing challenges needing answers. The authors state "Werner Mueller and the story of InnoCentive points to a deep change in the way companies innovate" (p98). And, that Proctor and Gamble is leading the consumer products industry because "the company is constantly innovating" (p106).

Consider the questions posed by the authors on p.115 in the context of education:

"What do our customers need today? What will they need in the future? How can we complement or add value to our existing projects and services? What new market opportunities present the greatest opportunities for growth? As we develop new ideas, what can we deliver internally? What should we source externally? Are there exciting new clusters of innovation happening that we can tap into? Where can we work closely with partners to create even more value? Which external acquisitions can we turn into deeper and broader collaborations?"

A growing number of companies are engaging their customers in product design. The authors urge companies to use ideagoras because they "lower the cost of communicating, collaborating, and transacting and could completely revolutionalize the way firms conduct R&D" (p 121). Internal innovation will not be enough in the growing world.

Do you think schools and education could be improved using ideagoras, or open innovation? How beneficial could it be to "harvest external ideas?"

3-2-1: List 3 new ideas you have about ideagoras; 2 reasons you believe this is important to you or education in general; and 1 thing you might "do" differently as a result of your discovery.

Chapter 3: The Peer Pioneers

What is Peer Production? Features of peer production are explained to be "self-organizing, egalitarian communities of individuals who come together voluntarily to produce a shared outcome." (p 67).

In this chapter the authors state, "IBM provides a surprising example of how a large, mature company with an engrained proprietary culture can embrace openness and self-organization as catalysts for reinvention." (p.83).  Key benefits of Peer Production, for businesses to create value and competitive advantage include: 

• Harnessing external talent
• Keeping up with users
• Boosting demand for complementary offerings
• Reducing costs
• Shifting the locus of competition
• Taking the friction ouot of collaboration
• Developing social capital

What relationship might peer production have to education?

As an example, the authors refer to the California Open Source Textbook project (see: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:COSTP_World_History_Project

What are your "3-2-1" takeaways (3 new ideas or nuggets of information you learned; 2 reasons you believe this is important to you as an educator, or education in general; and 1 thing you might "do" differently as a result of your discovery)? Do you think Peer Production could be good for education? What are the caveats?

Chapter 2: The Perfect Storm

"How Technology, Demographics, and Global Economics Are Converging for the First Category 6 Business Revolution"
... "In this chapter we have tried to substantiate the new promise and imperatives of collaboration. We have argued that the coming together of a global platform for collaboration, a generation that grew up collaborating, and a global economy that enables new forms of economic cooperation is creating the conditions for a perfect storm that will drive deep changes in the strategy and architecture of firms" (p. 63)

As educators, we see and interact with a generation of students well before they enter the workplace. Are schools preparing students adequately for this "new" world? Are we helping students "connect to external ideas" or develop "collaborative habits?" Can you share an example from your classroom that demonstrates this?

Please post your 3-2-1 reflection and ideas or examples as a comment.

Chapter 1: The Art and Science of Peer Production

"The new mass collaboration is changing how companies and societies harness knowledge and capability to innovate and create value. This affects just about every sector of society and every aspect of management."

The authors go on to discuss the concepts of openness, peering, sharing and acting globally -- ideas that defy conventional wisdom in the business world. How can these concepts apply in education? Can you envision a "collaboration economy" for schools?

Please post your 3-2-1 reflection as a comment.

Wikinomics and Education?

Welcome to our study of "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything: by Donald Tapscott and Anthony Williams. We will be reading and discussing this book over the next several months, and will use this blog to document our ideas. Please feel free to join us and comment along the way.

Co-author Anthony Williams states on his blog (http://anthonydwilliams.com/wikinomics/),

"With vivid and engaging examples, WIKINOMICS explains how smart firms are harnessing mass collaboration in powerful new ways to drive innovation and success. The new mass collaboration presents far-reaching opportunities for every company and, most of all, for you."

Throughout this book study we will explore the ideas and concepts presented in "Wikinomics" and its implication for education. Are "smart" educators harnessing mass collaboration in new ways as well?

3-2-1...
For each chapter, recall 3 new ideas or nuggets of information you learned; share 2 reasons you believe this is important to you as an educator, or education in general; and reflect on 1 thing you might "do" differently as a result of your discovery.

Timeline:
9/24 Read Intro through pg. 64 (Ch. 1 & 2)
11/5 Read pgs. 65 - 124 (Ch. 3 & 4)
1/21 Read pgs. 124-182 (Ch. 5 & 6)
2/4 Read pgs. 183-238 (Ch. 7 & 8)
3/18 Read pgs. 239-287 (Ch. 9 & 10)
4/30 Read pgs. 288-315 (Ch. 11)