Business - Written Wednesday, November 26, 2008 by Denis Hancock - 2 Comments

Wikinomics in action: Ukoonto and the web 2.0

Reading the business news lately is pretty depressing, as article after article goes into detail on which big business (the banks, the car companies, etc.) is in most urgent need of a bailout. I’m personally on the skeptical side about whether any of these will help much, and more importantly believe that much of the focus on how to “stimulate” the economy is misguided. Rather than focusing on bailing out a bunch of big companies that made a huge mess of things, I’d prefer to see more focus placed on encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation at a more micro level. Not only do I see this as the driving force of any future economic success we may all enjoy, but it’s an area where the principles of wikinomics can help out a lot.

That’s why I was so happy to come across this story about Ukoonto when I read the Globe & Mail over lunch. The article is about a young entrepreneur (and soon to be former sound engineer) named Hans Eich, who builds eco-friendly wooden building block toys from his St. Catherine’s based workshop. While I can’t say that I’ve tested the products myself yet, they look great – and from a wikinomics perspective what’s most interesting is how Hans has developed and promoted his company.

As the article notes, outside of an occasional trade show, Hans relies solely on Web 2.0 tools to spread the word about his products. When he started up, he had practically no money, and no big business plan – just an idea to create a toy company. He launched it under the domain of “my toy needs a name”, created a framework online, and asked people for ideas and feedback. From there, to quote Hans:

It was all about interacting with people and trying to set up meaningful relationships. The business evolved out of that.

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