Weinzettl, M. (2009). New business opportunities in the field of online collaboration [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubtuw:1-56203
This thesis analyses the ground laying concepts of social networks, crowd sourcing, commons based peer production, open source projects and freelancer marketplaces. Subsequently a combination of these concepts is formed and a new product idea is elaborated building on these findings. One billion people are already online, open innovation approaches spread and social networking services see continuous growth. Open source self-organized projects are currently mostly found in IT areas, but theories exist that this open source mindset will spread to other areas. Collaboration across continents is already usual for companies working with offshore contributors. These developments are picked up and used as a starting point for the analysis. In a first step theoretical concepts from available research are analyzed and a map of where these concepts fit in and how their real world implementations fit together is drawn. In a second step a classification is developed which looks at certain commonalities and differences of real-world crowd sourcing solutions, freelancer marketplaces and open source projects. The classification is mainly based on qualitative factors and internet research. Freelancer marketplaces and crowd sourcing solutions are analyzed in more detail. The conclusion is that depending on the point of view and the decisive classification factors different groups of concepts belong together. In a third step a brief opportunity analysis is developed. Potential product features are formulated and a strategic positioning is defined. The outcome is very promising. On one hand starting points for further research are suggested, on the other hand concrete potential product features are defined. However, this topic is on the forefront of innovative internet topics and is thereby still in a fluid phase, which means a lot of features and combinations need to be tried out and can not solely be deducted from research. Still the ground laying concepts of research do provide a basis for new product concepts which are currently not found in any competitive offers. The authors' take on the topic is that within the next years a lot of new concepts in this area will emerge.