Wikis, Collaboration and Hyperinnovation
Recently Iâve been working on our intranet wiki, an open/collaborative and communication platform that is quickly becoming one of the emerging technologies. The ease and speed with which a wiki page can be created offers not only a virtual collaborative workspace that Michael Schrage wrote of in his book Serious Play (1999), but also a platform for âhyperinnovationâ. The capability of the wiki to allow users to compare and keep track of each revision made, as well as providing opportunities for discussion, demonstrates what the Schrage has called âiterative capitalâ. He defines iterative capital as âthe resource that gives companies the ability to play seriously with more and more versions of various ideas in less and less timeâ (âHere Comes Hyperinnovationâ from Strategy + Business First Quarter 2001 issue by Michael Schrage).
Of course, hyperinnovation is not limited to the use of wikis, nor does their use ensure it, anymore than a collaborative workspace can guarantee collaboration. However, hyperinnovation does move us to think and act differently as opportunities and risks are redefined and as the rate of innovation continues to increase.
