Ben Letalik
Ben Letalik is a summer student at nGenera. He is entering the final year of his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Queen’s University specializing in finance, strategy and economics. Prior to working at nGenera, Ben worked as a quantitative analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Finance. At nGenera, Ben is working on updating New Paradigm content, and is a member of the Wikinomics Blog team.
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August 18th, 2008, 11:22pm
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What are people saying about Wikinomics this week across the blogosphere?
Daniell Pritchett’s blog, sharing at work, talks about seven great communities for sharing ideas for collaboration in the workplace. He says that the Wikinomics Blog is his first stop! Thanks for all your great comments on the blog, Daniel!
Singapore Entrepreneurs talk about how Wikinomics principles are being applied in the new Singapore-based business Gogme.biz. Gogme plans to harness the minds, resources and pockets of individuals world-wide to kick-off three new businesses. They will whittle down an initial pool of 50 business plans down to 3 via votes from its membership. The final three plans will then be implemented.
Jon Mott talks about the Wikinomics of education. He talks about Web 2.0 technology in education and that it has yet to be fully utilized and that educators need to do a better job of making education more modular.
Louis Columbus talks about how Twitter can be used to enhance customer relationships on the Perfect Customer Experience blog.
JMadigan.net is reading and reviewing 52 books in 52 weeks. #36 on the list was Wikinomics. Interesting idea. The review isn’t entirely positive, but still recommends the book as a good read. He even mentions how he witnessed the power of collaboration while working at Gamespy.com (a service I used in the early days of online gaming).
Come back next week for more links across the blogosphere.
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August 11th, 2008, 02:41pm
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Nicholas Carr is a well-respected thought leader who we have agreed and disagreed with in the past (see here and here). A few weeks ago, he posted The Cloud’s Not So Silver Lining as a response to Sarah Lacy’s article in BusinessWeek. Once again, Mr. Carr, we respectfully disagree, and hope to have a spirited debate on the topic and we would appreciate the comments and insights from both our readers and yours.
He describes how the software as a service (SaaS) model and on-demand computing is not a gold mine for software vendors.
Anyone who thinks the software-as-a-service business is a gold mine for vendors is wrong. The economics are fundamentally different from those of the traditional software business - and not in a good way. As Lacy writes, the Web is “just as good at displacing revenue as it is in generating sources of it. Just ask the music industry or, ahem, print media. Think Robin Hood, taking riches from the elite and distributing them to everyone else, including the customers who get to keep more of their money and the upstarts that can more easily build competing alternatives.” Web apps remain a hard sell when it comes to big, conservative enterprises, and the capital and marketing costs are daunting, particularly if you’re running your own data centers. This revolution in business software will play out slowly and, for most suppliers, painfully.
Read More »
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August 5th, 2008, 01:36pm
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Lost in the quest for more data is the ever increasing cost of building and cooling server farms. A great article in Business Week proposes the idea of building a massive server farm in a small fishing village 35 minutes south of Reykjavik, Iceland. The location is ideal, because it has a lot of vacant land, it is naturally cold (Iceland), and it has access to cheap geothermal energy. The graphic below shows how servers are cooled, and how much the energy cost of cooling them has increased in recent years.
The demand for more server capacity will continue to grow exponentially as both the number of web users grow, and the data becomes more complex. Although energy costs are still relatively small, they have the potential to spiral out of control. Am I the only one who sees the Great Canadian North as the possible future server farm capital of the world? There is endless, cheap, land, plenty of wind for power, and it’s naturally very cold. However, Siberia may give it a great run for its money.
Do people see this as a problem in the future, or will more efficient alternatives replace the concept of the server farm for our ever-increasing data needs?
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July 28th, 2008, 03:09pm
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Can Wikinomics Create a Fifth Street Corner?
This week I will profile the Seattle based coffeehouse giant Starbucks. In case you missed my last report card on De Beers; you can find it here. You can now find all my previous entries, and posts relating to them on the new Regular Features tab on the top left side of the page. Like all my previous entries, I will be evaluating Starbucks on the Wikinomics principles of being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally.
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July 17th, 2008, 11:18am
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Yesterday, the Ontario Government announced that they wouldn’t be putting a gas-fired generator on a Mississauga Lakeview site after a citizen developed waterfront plan was enthusiastically endorsed by the Mississauga city council.
The site was home to a coal power plant until 2005, and was to be replaced by a gas-fired generator before the community led Lakeview Ratepayers Association stepped in. The 800 member group came up with a plan that called for a 200 hectare mixed use community with medium-rise buildings, residential, employment and educational sites, and a “destination” waterfront area devoted to trails, parks, an aquarium or stadium, and a pier with entertainment and educational features.
This amazing feat brings the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) opposition to a new level. Will Dick wrote about direct democracy last week. In a world like that, how is the NIMBY problem solved? NIMBY relegates power plants, airports, and other high polluters farther and farther away from population centers where they are more useful. Even though high voltage AC transmission lines try to minimize energy loss when transporting electricity, they still lose about 20% per 1000 km.
Is this a loss we can deal with when giving citizens more power in planning their respective communities?
P.S. Sorry Wikinomics Report Card fans, I don’t have another entry this week, but if you missed my last entry on De Beers, you can find it here. The Report Card will return next week, better than ever!
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July 12th, 2008, 12:16pm
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Can Wikinomics transform blood diamonds into a girl’s best friend?
This week I will profile the South African based diamond company De Beers. I case you missed my last report card on Blizzard Entertainment; you can find it here. I would like to thank Will Runyon for suggesting this week’s topic and directing me to this excellent Wall Street Journal article. Like my previous entries, I will be evaluating De Beers on the Wikinomics principles of being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally.
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July 7th, 2008, 04:12pm
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What did people say about us this week?
- Andrew Jones of the Tall Skinny Kiwi talks about how the Wikinomics ideas of transparency, generosity, and trust relates to the Bible and Christian ideals.
- As mentioned in the comments of last week, a relatively new website, Swirrl, has posted a review of Wikinomics.“Swirrl is like a wiki, but better.”
- The State Sunshine and Open Records blog criticizes “Show us a Better Way”, a new website sponsored by the British Government, but reconsiders the statement after hearing this site is the brainchild of the U.K.’s Minister for the Cabinet Office. The website invites users/citizens to post ideas for new government services.
- Wikinomics and how mass collaboration will fundamentally change learning was one of the topics at the recent NECC 2008 conference.
- Brendan Dunphy’s Innovation Blog debates the Wikinomics Report Card on General Motors. He argues that closed innovation is better when the current market solution is not sufficient.
- Paula Thornton of the Fast Forward Blog talks about Don Tapscott’s economic tsunami in reference to the User Revolution and the Age of Aquarius.
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July 4th, 2008, 03:02pm
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Can the unstoppable gaming juggernaut continue to WoW with Wikinomics?
This week’s edition of the Wikinomics Report Card will profile Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of World of Warcraft and one of the world’s most profitable gaming companies. In case you missed my last report card about General Motors, you can find it here. Like my previous entries, I will be evaluating Blizzard on the Wikinomics principles of being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally.
Company Background: Blizzard Entertainment was founded as Silicon and Synapse in 1991 by three UCLA students and after a number of name changes, settled on the name Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. That same year, Blizzard broke though when they released Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and solidified Warcraft as its flagship franchise the following year with the release of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. In early 1997, they revolutionized the industry by offering a free online gaming service, Battle.net, to go along with their new game Diablo. Read More »
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June 28th, 2008, 02:01pm
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Can Wikinomics Keep the 77 Year Streak Alive?
This week’s edition of the Wikinomics Report Card will focus on General Motors Corporation (GM). In case you missed my first report card about Major League Baseball, you can find it here. Like last week, I will be evaluating GM on the Wikinomics principles of being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally.
Company Background: GM was founded in 1908 and is the world’s largest automaker and leader in global sales for the last 77 calendar years. It manufactures cars and trucks in 35 different countries under the brands Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac, and many more. Under the strength of Alfred Sloan’s revolutionary corporate structure and leadership, GM was once one of the world’s most profitable companies peaking in the early 80’s with a U.S. market share of 45%. However, the legacy costs and complex accounting systems associated with the Sloan era have hindered GM’s efforts to create a more lean manufacturing process. Stiff foreign competition from companies like Toyota and poor strategic decisions like focusing on SUVs and light trucks in a rising fuel market has led GM to one of its weakest points in its history. Yesterday, its stock reached a 53-year low after Goldman Sachs changed it status to “sell”. GM is hoping that it can weather this storm long enough to introduce its new line of alternative energy vehicles like the Chevy Volt and reclaim some of its former glory.
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June 20th, 2008, 03:43pm
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How Does America’s PASTime Fare in the World of Wikinomics?
Hello Wikinomics blog readers! I’m a new summer student with the Wikinomics team. I have decided to do things a little differently and profile a different business each week and grade them through the Wikinomics Report Card™. I will try to focus mainly on older businesses and organizations and analyze how they are utilizing the wikinomics principles such as being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally.
Background: Major League Baseball (MLB) was originally founded in 1876 and the current structure of the American League and National League has existed since 1903. Baseball is a game ingrained in American culture, and is frequently referred to as America’s pastime. Although attendance has grown steadily since the league’s inception (ignoring strikes and lockouts), the game is slowly fading away from the public consciousness.
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