Economics of the Outcome

Beyond the types of outcomes that might be improved via Mass Collaboration, it is important to consider the economics of the outcome. While more ideas might lead to better products or communications, it might come at a high price in terms of time to market or cost of development. In theory it should be possible to engage orders of magnitude more people for many types of outcomes, but outcomes might be useless if they exceed resource constraints. The resources requirements for Mass Collaboration are not insignificant – while tools are often the focus and are increasingly cheap or even free, organizations still requires time and people – i.e. resources, so the cost of organizing Mass Collaboration has to be considered against its potential benefits.  

Consequences of the Outcome

Beyond the economics of Mass Collaboration, other considerations are important. For example, by including more stakeholders, can organizations work towards outcomes that have broader benefits? For example, if more representatives of a community are involved in reviewing and providing feedback to organizations, can that organization ensure that it is acting, not only to serve its own interests, but also the interests of the community in which it operates?