"THE POWER OF US"... BUSINESSWEEK DOING WELL

BusinessWeek has a couple good articles this week:

The Power Of Us
Mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business

The 35 employees at Meiosys Inc., a software firm in Palo Alto, Calif., didn't know they were joining a gang of telecom-industry marauders. They just wanted to save a few bucks. Last year they began using Skype, a program that lets them make free calls over the Internet, with better sound quality than regular phones, using headsets connected to their PCs. Callers simply click on a name in their Skype contact lists, and if the person is there, they connect and talk just like on a regular phone call. (full article)

Pierre Omidyar on "Connecting People"
eBay's founder talks about the power of community and his efforts to apply lessons learned from the online giant to other spheres

Pierre Omidyar started eBay with the hope of using the Internet to create a truly efficient market, open to individuals and not just large companies. But he never dreamed how much people would be able to empower themselves online. That experience got him thinking that the same dynamic could be applied well beyond the online marketplace. (full article)