There’s no denying what Wikipedia has done for the modern world, and our gratitude for it should not stop at Jimmy Wales, but it should be extended to each and every contributor and reader. Without Jimmy Wales, we wouldn’t have Wikipedia. Without the contributors, Wikipedia would not have grown. Without all the readers, contributors wouldn’t have given the 110% into Wikipedia.
All-in-all it’s a fantastic ecosystem which harnesses a lot of the great minds of the world in one place.
Lets look at it from a slightly different angle – an entreprenuers. Entreprenuers are innovation/process junkies. Their view of the world is not the same as yours and mine. They see the world as a web of intricate systems and they tend to look for improvements and ideas to make things better. Inspiration is found everywhere, whether its to improve the current systems (innovation) or build something brand new (invention).
Here’s where Wikipedia comes in. As it has already been establised, Wikipedia is a big source of information, and I think it can be used as a good (not fantastic) source for market research. Say you’re thinking of entering a certain market, chances are high that Wikipedia might have a comparison page of the various products on the marketplace. You could use these comparison pages, annotate it and it could be the base of your innovation strategy – to bridge the gap between various products in the market place.
Now go look at this long list of comparison pages and you’ll know what I’m talking about. See those comparison pages ? Pick something that you have an idea on, that you’re inspired about, that you want to improve on and innovate around one of those comparison pages. Look at offering something that the current marketplace does not offer. In those comparison pages, there are plenty of gaps in the marketplace. You don’t really have to make sure your product fills in all the gaps, but you could try filling in most of them.
Got a great idea for a Wiki system that you can easily monetize ? Have a look at this and go innovate!
Got a great idea for a file hosting system ? Have a look at this and go innovate!
Got a great idea for an instant messaging system ? Have a look at this and go innovate!
I can carry on with this for a long, long time.
So, what are you waiting for ? Grab a coffee/tea/beer/whatever and start innovating! There are a lot of ideas out there in those comparison pages, and I suspect that there are some really awesome ideas and products just waiting to be discovered.
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