Chapter 4

I think this chapter provides the best example yet of how to make mass collaboration and open-sourcing work for companies, contributors, and consumers. The use of InnoCentive shows how companies can receive the best solutions to their problems, contributors get paid for providing the BEST solution encouraging them to do their BEST work, and consumers benefit from lower costs and faster production.

Companies also benefit by being able to continuously innovate only within their own capabilities. If a company has a solution to a problem outside their current production or comes up with a GREAT new product that would require a complete revamping of their production lines, they can sell it through a collaboration network, recoup or exceed any costs that went into idea generation, and focus on their own products. Consumers benefit from this exchange because they are able to choose from a wider variety of products that are produced more cheaply because only companies equipped for their production accept them.