As companies outside the computer industry adopt the collaborative precepts of open source to improve their research and development efforts, they undergo some major management shifts. P&G, for example, once known as an obsessively secretive organization, has thrown open its laboratory doors and invited outside collaborators to help develop new technologies and products, and at the same time is sharing some of its own intellectual property freely.
Whether a business is developing software or consumer products, the promise and challenge of what we will refer to collectively as the open collaboration movement is the same: It serves as a dynamic knowledge exchange, encouraging outside ideas to cross company borders, and empowering employees to work extensively in outside networks and collaborations.
