Product Realization in the Age of Mass Collaboration

TLDR

Mass collaboration—large communities jointly developing products, exemplified by Linux and Wikipedia—has recently emerged, prompting companies to adopt new business models and presenting both opportunities and challenges for next‑generation product design, distinct from traditional collaborative approaches. This paper discusses recent mass‑collaboration developments in engineering design and identifies new research challenges for successful implementation. The authors examine recent mass‑collaboration trends and their impacts on product realization processes.

Abstract

There has been a recent emergence of communities working together in large numbers to develop new products, services, and systems. Collaboration at such scales, referred to as mass collaboration, has resulted in various robust products including Linux and Wikipedia. Companies are also beginning to utilize the power of mass collaboration to foster innovation at various levels. Business models based on mass collaboration are also emerging. Such an environment of mass collaboration brings about significant opportunities and challenges for designing next generation products. The objectives in this paper are to discuss these recent developments in the context of engineering design and to identify new research challenges. The recent trends in mass collaboration are discussed and the impacts of these trends on product realization processes are presented. Traditional collaborative product realization is distinguished from mass collaborative product realization. Finally, the open research issues for successful implementation of mass collaborative product realization are discussed.