Harvard Business School Professors Karim R. Lakhani and Andrew P. McAfee prepared this case. Senior Multimedia Producer Melissa Dailey and Experience Designer Peggy Nelson assisted. This case was developed from published sources. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.

Courseware #9-607-712. Copyright © 2007 President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute, and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. GNU Free Documentation License (PDF)

Check for updated versions of this case and supplemental learning materials at the Harvard Business School Publishing website: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu.

Links

This case study uses screenshots from Wikipedia articles accessed in December, 2006. The following are external links to the actual articles that reside on the Wikipedia server and that may have been updated since 12/2006, listed in the order that they appear in the case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Xrblsnggt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:LinaMishima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_computing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A9die

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopaedia%2C_or_Universal_Dictionary_of_Arts_and_Sciences

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html?pg=3&topic=wiki&topic_set=(none)

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/

http://nupedia.8media.org/policy.shtml#assignmentov

http://www.wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nupedia

http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseImageLinks.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_war

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Trivia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapbox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vanity_page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_include_copies_of_primary_sources

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_page

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cite_sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Guidelines_for_controversial_articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Talk_page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ownership_of_articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Etiquette

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Civility

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_personal_attacks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Stay_cool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Three-revert_rule

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Do_not_disrupt_Wikipedia_to_illustrate_a_point

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ignore_all_rules

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Be_bold

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editing_policy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:GRFA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_administrators

http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-February/001149.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bureaucrats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bots

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards

http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-December/033880.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html

http://blogs.nature.com/wp/nascent/2005/12/comparing_wikipedia_and_britan_1.html

http://www.techcentralstation.com/111504A.html

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Inclusionist_Wikipedians

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/07/emergent_bureau.php

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deletionism

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/AWWDMBJAWGCAWAIFDSPBATDMTD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pedant17

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enterprise_2.0&oldid=55193480

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Artw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Enterprise_2.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enterprise_2.0&oldid=67619905

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sleepyhead81

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rossmay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:SPEEDY

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enterprise_2.0&oldid=55234768

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sj

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_policy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_guidelines_for_administrators

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Guide_to_deletion

Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Enterprise_2.0_%28second_nomination_full

Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Enterprise_2.0_%28second_nomination_small