The best ideas for your business might come from someone who doesn't even work for you. That's the contention made by author and consultant Don Tapscott in his newest book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Tapscott, along with coauthor Anthony D. Williams (who teaches at the London School of Economics), believes that the pervasiveness of the Internet will usher in an era where companies will lower their proprietary barriers and collaborate to foster greater innovation. As people employ instant messaging, blogs, wikis and other Web-based applications to communicate and develop ideas, Tapscott believes the Internet will become a platform on which companies will be forced to seek external talent in order to solve their greatest challenges.

With its focus on the Internet as a business development platform, Wikinomics adds to the growing discussion about the value and process of mass collaboration. There is, for instance, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia launched in 2001, from which the book draws its name. Wikipedia allows its users to post and edit data on a variety of topics, but the resource-and its susceptibility to vandalism and tampering-has stirred objections from academics and media critics who question its accuracy. The idea that the collective experience of large groups can trump that of individual experts became popularized by James Surowiecki's 2004 best-seller, The Wisdom of Crowds. Meanwhile, in October 2006, MIT launched its Center for Collective Intelligence in order to study the dynamics of collaboration and the tools to facilitate it. (The center's advisers include Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Alph Bingham, founder of Innocentive, a website that allows companies to post R&D problems and reward anyone who posts a winning solution.)

Tapscott stopped by CIO's Framingham, Mass., office to discuss his theory of Wikinomics and what it means for the IT and business strategy.

CIO: Can you tell us what you mean by Wikinomics as a business theory? And what would be a good example of Wikinomics at work in the business world?

Don Tapscott: Wikinomics is the theory and practice of harnessing mass collaboration for growth and for innovation. All of this isn't going to happen outside the boundaries of the corporation. Let me tell you a story to make the point.

I know this guy named Rob McEwen. He's my neighbor. He ran a gold mine for several years and was ready to shut the whole company down because his geologists could not tell him if there was gold on the company's property, and where it was, or how much there was.