Institutions vs. Collaboration
March 31, 2009 by Raj Sheelvant
Clay Shirky, in his TED talk, shows how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributors have big roles and fluid cooperation replaces rigid planning. He highlights the constraints of institutions and demonstrates how collaborative Web 2.0 fills in the gap left by the institution.
Shirky, a prescient voice on the Internet’s effects, argues that emerging technologies enabling loose collaboration will change the way our society works. Interesting point Shirky points is how the institutions (I call traditional organizations) in their quest to maximize profits focus on the 80% of the market. This is where the long tail comes into the picture. Organizations cannot pursue last 20% of the demand curve because it’s not profitable. To get to last 20% market share, traditional organization acts as an inhibitor. But the Web 2.0 applications are creating infrastructure to collaborate can and will target the last 20% of the demand curve. Just look at Wikipedia. It has articles that Britannica would have never included in their encyclopedia.
Anyway, what Shirky points out is that institutions will continue to act as an inhibitor for the collaborative tools.
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