{"id":218,"date":"2015-01-13T09:47:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T09:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/?p=218"},"modified":"2015-01-19T14:50:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T14:50:09","slug":"business-models-wikipedia-encarta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/business-models-wikipedia-encarta\/","title":{"rendered":"Business models: Wikipedia vs Encarta"},"content":{"rendered":"

After watching the Drive –\u00a0The surprising truth about what motivates us<\/a>, I found quite interesting Daniel Pink’s keynote related to Wikipedia and Microsoft Encarta:<\/p>\n

In the mid-1990\u2032s Microsoft started an encyclopedia called Encarta. They employed all the right incentives. They paid professionals to write and edit thousands of articles. Well compensated managers oversaw the whole thing to make sure it came in on budget and on time. A few years later another encyclopedia started \u2014 A different model \u2014 Do it for fun. No one gets paid a cent or a euro or a yen. Do it because you like to do it. Now 10 years ago if you had talked to an economist \u2026 anywhere \u2026 and said \u201cHey, I\u2019ve got these different models for creating an encyclopedia \u2014 If they went head to head who would win? 10 years ago you could not have found a single, sober economist anywhere on planet earth who would have predicted the Wikipedia model. This is the Titanic battle between these two approaches. This is the Ali-Frazier of motivation, right, this is the Thrilla in Manila, alright \u2014 Intrinsic motivators vs extrinsic motivators \u2014 Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose versus Carrots & sticks \u2013 And who wins \u2014 Intrinsic motivation, autonomy, mastery and purpose \u2014 in a Knockout.<\/em><\/p>\n

Great story, well told! Indeed, who would have predicted Wikipedia?<\/p>\n