In December, I saw a patient who had been concussed after hitting his head while falling off the back of a treadmill; he’d been reading the book Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything.1 He brought the book to the appointment while still symptomatic. Not surprisingly, he forgot it in my office; in the spirit of Dr House I snitched it for the week. What is the core of wikinomics? And does it apply to our field?

“Wikinomics” describe extensive collaboration and user participation. Authors Tapscott and Williams claim four powerful new ideas: “openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally”. Openness refers to tapping the global talent pool—ensuring, for example, that potential collaborators from Abu Dhabi to Zagreb have equal ready access to information. It might mean providing data, questionnaires or videos of exercise interventions. Journals such as BJSM can embrace openness in peer review, and, where …