University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
We-Think
Book

We-Think

Mass Innovation, Not Mass Production

Charles Leadbeater
Profile Books, 2008
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Charles Leadbeater offers a breezy, pleasant discussion of the Internet’s possibilities for collaboration. Much of his commentary will seem familiar to those who know the area. However, his predictions of widespread social transformation give readers more meaty ideas to consider. While he clearly looks forward to many of these changes, he explains just how and when they don’t work, and why this powerful transformation in collaboration via the Internet hasn’t affected many pockets of society. His awareness of the Web’s limits lends weight to his discussion of its upside potential. The book’s clarity and style make it accessible to the casual observer, but getAbstract recommends it even more to those who already are somewhat grounded in this topic and who want to consider all aspects of the World Wide Web’s real future potential.

Summary

Web Connection Defines Today’s World

The Internet is transforming the world in good and bad ways. It opens access to information and the media, and allows people to network, despite geographic distance. Yet, the Web expands the chance that onlookers can monitor individual actions; it exposes you to unprecedented, unexpected intrusions. The Web is above all open – a place where barriers are missing or porous; that means both risk and opportunity. Now the Internet is reaching a crucial point in its development. Use has spread so widely that the Web has begun to influence everything people do. The core issue is not how many individuals use the Web, but what happens when they “share and then combine” their thoughts. The Internet matters most as a platform for sharing.

This sharing provokes a fundamental shift in self-definition. Philosopher René Descartes’ famous line about identity and self-knowledge, “I think, therefore I am,” is changing amid this connection and collaboration. Today’s motto might be “We think, therefore we are.” That’s the essence of “We-Think.” Projects like Wikipedia show its possibilities, negative and positive. “Wikipedia is prone to more errors...

About the Author

Charles Leadbeater wrote for Financial Times for 10 years. He is also the author of Living on Thin Air and Up the Down Escalator.

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