1001 Books to Read Before You Die...and Wikinomics

Once upon a time, there were 100 Books to Read Before You Die (according to Penguin Classics). This year, a professor from Sussex University encouraged 105 critics, editors and academics to up the ante to 1001.

With all of that meaningful literature yet to be pondered, plus my own unlisted backlog of wanna-reads, must I, or anyone in B2B marketing, read Wikinomics?

Let's take a quick tour of the pros and cons. You can even download a free sneak peek of Wikinomics (the 33-pg intro) first.

PROS

1. We already bought it.

2. It promises to demonstrate and explain 'powerful new models of production based on community, collaboration, and self-organisation rather than on hierarchy and control' - which is awfully relevant to, say, business blogging, a topic we hold near and dear.

3. I'm hoping it will offer some practical ideas on how to resolve the tension between open participation and authority inherent in collaborative ways of working on a large scale - which touches on issues of control that we struggle with when considering WOM, for instance.

CONS

1. A quick scan seems to show that these lessons for the wiki workplace or new collaborative economy apply mostly to science and tech enterprises - companies that need to do vast amounts of research and digest tons of information, not so much marketing entities (except maybe data marketing firms?).

2. It makes up ugly, awkward terms like 'ideagoras' and 'prosumers'. Call me oversensitive, but I resent being forced to think in and potentially use such groanworthy terms, no matter how compelling the ideas behind them may be.

3. This comment by Andy Whitlock, a fellow creative agency-type person, who gave up. The prospect of repetition of the intial premise without any further tweakings of enlightenment doesn't inspire me.

But I guess I'm committed to at least a slower scan, given Pro #1. And I'm still hoping the book will tackle some of my own misgivings about the shiny, new (?) idea of 'peer production:

- Does 'community' necessarily and smoothly evolve into a model for an economy?
- If everyone's an authority, is anyone an authority?
- In a collaborative economy, how are individuals valued, recognised and rewarded?

Could be I expect too much. But I'm going to have to put off reading Things the Grandchildren Should Know and Wanderlust to get through this anytime soon. You feel my pain, yes?

Anyone else read the book, or at least the sneak peek?