Wikinomics

Collaboration is key when working in a group setting. All ideas must be shared and brought to the forefront of the meeting. After the sharing of ideas is finished, the elimination process begins.

There are multiple ways to get to a certain destination or conclusion; it is up to the collaborating team to determine the most efficient and productive way. These collaborating teams do not even need to know each other. For example, the "Goldcorp Challenge" invited geologists as well as students, professors, and anyone else willing to contribute an idea on how to get the gold out of their land. The compilation of all the ideas helped Goldcorp determine the best possible way to extract gold from their mines.

According to Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams in their book Wikinomics: How Mass

Collaboration Changes the World, Goldcorp, through mass collaboration, changed their image as well as their profits. They moved from a multi-million dollar company to a multi-billion dollar kingpin (Wikinomics).

Goldcorp is not the only entity that adopted the wikinomic approach. Common sites like Myspace, YouTube, and Wikipedia are mass collaboration wiki sites which use the same ideas as the Goldcorp brass had about their mass collaboration project.

Collaboration is not just limited to wikisites online. Medical practitioners, lawyers, and other professionals have their own collaboration methods. These methods could someday help cure cancer or solve an old murder case.

Wikinomics is more that just dollars and cents; it is about getting the best product or result through collaboration. Online collaboration is growing as fast as any collaboration community and will continue to grow as the technology advances and spreads.