Peer Production - The Power Of Us

In one of my earlier blog postings I wrote:
"We are going from mass media to media from the masses. Blogs, Vlogs and Podcasting give anyone the possibility to reach out and influence others."

Media is not the only industry that the Internet is transforming. Business Week's Robert Hof excellent article "Power of us", takes a look at how the net are revolutionizing the many industries, by the contribution from virtual communities.

"Open-source software, blogs, file-sharing networks, free Internet telephony -- are disrupting multibillion-dollar industries and reshaping the businesses. What's the common thread behind them all? Us."

He also writes about other examples of networked contribution, like how Procter & Gambles is using a network with 80 000 independent "solvers", who tackle research problems for P&G's clients.

What makes this happen is of course the Net, it can connect many people with many others at the same time. Cheap computing, software standards, open platforms and faster Internet connectivity are also important factors when trying to understand - "the emergence of an economy of the people, by the people, for the people.".

And you should try to understand how Peer Production can be used, or will be used in changing your industry.

"Only the paranoid survive" as Intel's Andrew Grove put it.