Charles Leadbeater was a speaker at our first Hotel of the Future conference back in 2002. He gave an excellent insight into luxury. His latest project is We-think – an exploration of and experiment in collaborative creativity. His book, We-think, is due out next year but his publishers have agreed to him putting it on-line now in the spirit of open innovation. Blurb from an email circular below:

With Google on the verge of bidding for Youtube, I wanted to alert you to my new book – WE-THINK: the power of mass creativity – which is available in draft on my website. You can download the draft, print it off, share it and comment on the text through the site.

WE-THINK is about what the rise of the likes of Wikipedia and Youtube, Linux and Graigslist means for the way we organise ourselves, not just in digital businesses but in schools and hospitals, cities and mainstream corporations.

My argument is that these new forms of mass, creative collaboration announce the arrival of a society in which participation will be the key organising idea rather than consumption and work. People want to be players not just spectators, part of the action, not on the sidelines.

With the support of Profile, my publisher, I am releasing the book prior to formal publication next year so that people can comment upon the text, add to it, disagree with it. I hope this open approach to peer review is in itself an experiment in collaborative creativity and will help to create new ways for people to write books and share ideas.

You can find WE-THINK through my website – www.charlesleadbeater.net – and by putting – www.wethinkthebook.com – into your browser.