Business Will Change

As some of you already know, I have been working on a book. So far I have written first drafts of twelve chapters and second or third drafts of a few. The book is the result of reflecting on the fifteen years I have now spent participating in the evolution of the Web, and more specifically is inspired by the consulting work I am currently doing. In this work I am trying to help businesses understand the fundamental shift that is underway right now in the very notion of production, brought about by the rapid adoption of social technologies.

Many people have written about The Power of the Network (David Cushman) or to be more academic, The Wealth of Networks (Yochai Benkler). And marketers have been warned about what happens when there is a Groundswell (Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff) or what to do when Here Comes Everbody (Clay Shirky). And these all have been terrific inspirations for my thinking.

But this book is a little bit different from these others. As I write in the introduction

"I wrote this book for every business person struggling to make sense of the changes that are sweeping through our world today."

That is, this is a book that seeks to help explain what is happening in every day language and what to do about it as an individual business person.

Embracing the same concepts that I am writing about in the book, I have launched today a website on which I will be publishing drafts of every chapter, open to comment (and hopefully improvement!) by anyone who chooses to stop by. The site is:

http://www.business-will-change.com/

To start with I have posted just three pieces:

Introduction -- How Collective Intelligence Will Change The Way We Do Business

Chapter One -- Adapting to Change: How We are evolving into a new species

Chapter Two -- The Precursors of Change

In a week or so I will load a few more chapters on and so on, hopefully settling into a regularly weekly update cycle. I hope this idea of writing a book in public captures your interest and that you join in and tell me what I am getting right and wrong!