I read a nifty piece by Wikinomics authors, Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams, this morning on the Guardian's website about some of the future uses of the internet. The article focuses on how business can use the power of the internet to dramatically improve their bottom line. Most of the examples given strive to harness a large user base to solve complicated problems. The computer industry calls this kind of stuff, 'Web 2.0'.

Some highlights.

• The 'self-organizers'

China's burgeoning motorbike industry isn't dominated by a handful of corporate behemoths employing thousands of employees, or outsourcing tasks to smaller subcontractors. Instead, a self-organized system has emerged in which many smaller companies collaborate to share the risks and the profits - often, admittedly, by copying Japanese designs.