Table Of ContentHumanizing the Web
Technology, Work and Globalization
The Technology, Work and Globalization series was developed to provide policy makers,
workers, managers, academics and students with a deeper understanding of the complex
interlinks and influences between technological developments, including information
and communication technologies, work organizations and patterns of globalization. The
mission of the series is to disseminate rich knowledge based on deep research about rele-
vant issues surrounding the globalization of work that is spawned by technology.
Also in the series:
MANAGING CHANGE IN IT OUTSOURCING
Albert Plugge
ADVANCED OUTSOURCING PRACTICE
Mary C. Lacity and Leslie P. Willcocks
ENTERPRISE MOBILITY
Carsten S ø rensen
GLOBAL SOURCING OF BUSINESS AND IT SERVICES
Leslie P. Willcocks and Mary C. Lacity
ICT AND INNOVATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Francesco Contini and Giovan Francesco Lanzara
EXPLORING VIRTUALITY WITHIN AND BEYOND ORGANIZATIOINS
Niki Panteli and Mike Chaisson
KNOWLEDGE PROCESSES IN GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED CONTEXTS
Julia Kotlarsky, Ilan Oshri and Paul C. van Fenema
GLOBAL CHALLENGES FOR IDENTITY POLICIES
Edgar Whitley and Ian Hosein
E-GOVERNANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT
A Focus on India
Shirin Madon
OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING OF IT WORK
Mary C. Lacity and Joseph W. Rottman
OUTSOURCING GLOBAL SERVICES
Ilan Oshri, Julia Kotlarsy and Leslie P. Willcocks
BRICOLAGE, CARE AND INFORMATION
Chrisanthi Avgerou, Giovan Francesco Lanzara and Leslie Wilcocks
e-GOVERNANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT
Shirin Madon
CHINA’S EMERGING OUTSOURCING CAPABILITIES
Mary C. Lacity, Leslie P. Willcocks and Yingqin Zheng
GOVERNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Information Nets and Social Practice
Jannis Kallinikos
THE OUTSOURCING ENTERPRISE
From Cost Management to Collaborative Innovation
Leslie P. Willcocks, Sara Cullen and Andrew Craig
COLLABORATION IN OUTSOURCING
A Journey to Quality
Sjaak Brinkkemper and Slinger Jansen
SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL OUTSOURCING
Ron Babin and Brian Nicholson
Humanizing the Web
Change and Social Innovation
Harri O inas-Kukkonen
University of Oulu, Finland
and
Henry Oinas-Kukkonen
University of Oulu, Finland
© Harri Oinas-Kukkonen and Henry Oinas-Kukkonen 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30569-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-349-45488-4 ISBN 978-1-137-30570-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137305701
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
For our families
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgments x
Part I I ntroduction and History
1 A Shift in Thinking about the Web 3
2 W aves of the Web 11
3 T he Killer Wave: The Social Web 27
Part II S ocial Web as a Transformer
4 T he Promise 4 3
5 T he Change 5 7
6 S ix Paradoxes 74
Part III Social Web as an Innovation Accelerator
7 T he Quest for Zero-to-One Innovation 91
8 S ocial Web as an Innovation Ecosystem 105
9 S ocial Web Innovation Strategies 1 20
Part IV S ocial Web as a Humanizer
10 T he Next Generation of the Web: The Humanized Web 1 39
11 C ore Business Values 1 56
12 F uture Challenges 174
Part V F inal Remarks
13 C onclusion 1 91
Notes 197
Primary sources 2 15
References 2 28
Index 239
vii
Preface
Both of us have had a long-term, profound interest in understanding human-
centered technologies, in particular the web. Since this has been the focus of
our scientific research for quite some time, we wanted to get some fresh and new
ideas. We came to think that our diverse academic fields, one being a computer
scientist and one being a historian, could be made to meet, and that as brothers,
co-authoring a book would make a nice job. At that time Harri was on a sabbatical,
being a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and Henry came to visit Stanford’s
archives. We saw this as an opportunity to interview Silicon Valley based web
innovators in order to deepen our own understanding of the web as a phenomena
and how it changes the way people think and innovate. The journey that ended
up in this book had just begun.
This meant a multitude of discussions on a myriad of issues, approaching them
from various perspectives, reading and thinking, and writing and re-writing
about the topic (and again and again and again). Because of our other obliga-
tions we often had practically no time to work on the book project, which of
course caused delays, but we were persistent. At times we had to escape to hide-
away cottages in Hailuoto and Vuokatti to be able to concentrate and push the
project forward. But in spite of the huge workload the work was enjoyable and
intellectually rewarding. We had a wonderful time during our data gathering
trips to Silicon Valley and Napa and we felt that doing the background work and
authoring a book of this type was an innovation process in itself.
A special feature in the book is that it draws upon 20 longish first-hand inter-
views of highly recognized world-class web innovators, who are Silicon Valley
specialists and influencers, including founders, entrepreneurs, system developers,
and managers from companies and organizations such as LinkedIn, Wikipedia,
Flickr, MySQL, Google, Mozilla Corporation, Cisco Systems, and Yahoo! The
interviews are a compelling resource. All references to our interviewees as well as
to their quotes are from the first-hand interviews unless otherwise specified. The
interviews have been listed at the end of the book.
Yet, the book essentially builds upon rigorous scientific research carried out by
the authors over the past 20 years in various contexts and development stages of
the web. In addition to these, it also uses primary sources, such as official docu-
ments, blogs, and other online material, making the reference base exceptionally
abundant and versatile. The book can perhaps also be described as a European
interpretation of the future of web innovation, because of the Scandinavian
authors of the book. Furthermore, two scientific fields, such as management
information systems and history, rarely are integrated by two brothers who both
have long-term academic experience in the way it has been done here.
The book is structured around the important issues regarding the social and
future web with many illustrative cases and examples; these are not, however,
viii
Preface ix
presented in a case-by-case manner. Rather, the book could be described as a
discourse in four ways. First, it is a discourse between two voices: Computer
Scientist and Historian. Second, it is a discourse between the interviewees and the
authors: the interviewees being Silicon Valley related visionaries and the authors
being Scandinavian researchers. The topic is also such that for many of the issues
raised no definite answers can be given; thus, the third type of discourse. Fourth,
even though the social web as business is being debated much online, the discus-
sion is scattered around in different forums, such as Twitter and blogs, and this
book makes a coherent argument about the social web as a business ecosystem.
