Product Description

Society is no longer based on mass consumption but on mass participation. New forms of collaboration – such as Wikipedia and YouTube – are paving the way for an age in which people want to be players, rather than mere spectators, in the production process. In the 1980s, Charles Leadbeater’s prescient book, In Search of Work, anticipated the growth of flexible employment. Now We-think explains how the rise of mass collaboration will affect us and the world in which we live.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10429 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
"* 'a riveting guide to a new world in which a whole series of core assumptions are being overturned by innovations on the web' Mathew D'Ancona, The Spectator 'Leadbeater - with the help of his hundreds of online collaborators - has written an excellent, intelligent and comprehensive guide to the labyrinth of bewildering ways in which a truly revolutionary era is unfolding.' Sunday Telegraph 'I was gripped. The book's theme is as big and bold as it gets... Leadbeater's book should be compulsory reading for all who seek to understand the driving force of this century.' Management Today 'Likely to be the most controversial book about the internet to be published this year... I urge you to read it' The Independent"

Independent
`Likely to be the most controversial book about the Internet to be published in Britain this year.... A highly readable British synthesis of James Surowiecki's Wisdom of the Crowds and Chris Anderson's Long Tail, Leadbeater's We-Think is definitely an important book, even for skeptics like me who are suspicious of the seductive techno-utopian promises of the Web 2.0 revolution.'

From the Back Cover
‘A riveting guide to a new world … The seer has spoken’ Spectator You are what you share. That is the ethic of the world being created by YouTube and MySpace, Wikipedia and Facebook. We-Think is a rallying call for the shared power of the web to make society more open and egalitarian. We-Think reports on an unparalleled wave of collaborative creativity as people from California to China devise ways to work together that are more democratic, productive and creative. This guide to the new culture of mass participation and innovation is a book like no other: it started first online through a unique experiment in collaborative creativity involving hundreds of people across the globe. The generation growing up with the web will not be content to remain spectators. They want to be players and this is their slogan: we think therefore we are.

Customer Reviews

Where did the author go?
A lot of factual books acknowledge the input of others but then let it be known that the work is in the end totally the author's responsibility. Here the author admits to strong input from outsiders having let it be edited under a wiki format on the web. In the end I don't think you hear Charles Leadbeater's heart or soul in this book but a lot of pussy footing around the subject having tried to accomodate multiple viewpoints.

Contrast Benkler's Wealth of Network's which although available as a wiki the hard copy delivers Benkler's authorship.

Interesting book in the nonetheless in a Cluetrain sort of way!

A good primer on the collaboration business model
Charlie Leadbeater has written a very well researched and approachable introduction to collaboration and creativity. His illustrations of how successful enterprises can be built by harnessing the "Pro-Am" (the amateur who is as skilled as a professional) are sources of hope. He is undoubtedly right but he has also missed a couple of good points. The first is that in science and engineering like Moore's Law (in respect of computer power) and Sod's law ( in respect of things in general) there is Stigler's Law of Inventions: "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." No modern scientific or engineering discovery can be laid at the door of one person - the reality is that multiple entirely independent individuals come up with the same thing at the same time. From the lightbulb to the telephone this has always been shown to be true. This is where "We-Think" can gain its power since, thanks to the Internet entirely independent individuals can collaborate to innovate and invent at warp speed

The second point which Charlie misses (or, to be fair, probably choose not to mention since I believe he is is fully aware of the issue) is the inability of the legal system to protect inventions and technologies developed through collaboration. Brainstorming solutions to problems is overrated - it is easy to brainstorm but it is hard to execute the ideas that have come from the brainstorm. "We-Think" collaboration suggests a mechanism to do just that - but the business models to protect the collaborative effort do not yet exist. (I have some possible solutions but a review of this book is not the place to discuss them.)

All in all a fascinating and thought provoking read - hence the five stars.

This is a fantastic book...
This is a fantastic book. Let me say I'm a sceptic when it comes to the web: okay, I buy from amazon but I think second life is really dull and I only signed up 3 friends on facebook before I got bored. So when I was given this I thought it would just wind me up. It did the opposite. It explains what `open source' actually means, why it goes way beyond the geeks who support linux or play tedious computer games and could affect us all. It suggest answers to those obvious questions like `if everyone is sharing all their knowledge how is anyone going to make a living?' Charles is also really encouraging about the impact of the new technology on the developing world - I always thought the divide between the `information rich' and `information poor' was just going to widen. And the book is optimistic!!! Read it. It inspires.