Thursday 14 February, 2008

HBS Case on Wikipedia

Today I came across a Harvard Business School (HBS) case on Wikipedia. The case begins with a story of addition of the "Enterprise 2.0" entry in Wikipedia. It then gives some history of encyclopedias and that of Wikipedia. It explains the transition from Nupedia to Wikipedia before getting into detailed account of Wikipedia in 2006. There are quite a few exhibits that provide background data. Finally it describes some debates and controversies regarding accuracy, expertise, authority, anti-elitism and bureaucracy with a mention of philosophical differences between inclusioninsts and deletionists camps.

This is a well-researched case, worth reading to get a good perspective on Wikipedia.

Trends underlying Enterprise 2.0

I came across this very impressive blog on trends underlying Enterprise 2.0. Prof Andrew McAfee has explained following three trends in quite convincing manner:

  1. Simple, free platforms for self-expression
  2. Emergent structures, rather than imposed ones
  3. Order from chaos
Worth reading!

Andrew McAfee