By Don Tapscott

Many CIOs think Web 2.0 in the enterprise is like the weather—something everyone discusses, but no one does anything about. Big mistake.

The new Web is already enabling new business models with far-reaching implications for the CIO, IT and the enterprise. To be sure, most blogs, wikis, chat rooms and personal broadcasting are mainly used today for personal dialogue, dating and debate. But leading CIOs know that these consumer applications are just the tip of the iceberg. What's coming, and soon, is nothing less than a new mode of business production.

Thanks to the new Web, companies are beginning to conceive, design, develop and distribute both products and services in profoundly new ways. The old notion that a company must attract, develop and retain the best and brightest inside the corporate boundaries is fast becoming obsolete. With the costs of collaboration falling precipitously, companies can now source ideas, innovations and uniquely qualified minds from a vast, global pool of talent.

Encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds and much else are being created by virtual teams made up of thousands—even millions—of people. While some CIOs fear the growth of these massive online communities, the smartest executives practice what I call wikinomics to harness this collective capability and genius, and to spur innovation, growth and success.

As more and more firms see the benefits of mass collaboration, this new way of organizing work could eventually displace the traditional corporation as the economy's primary engine of wealth creation. After all, if you can build an encyclopedia through mass collaboration, why not an operating system, such as Linux? How about a mutual fund, such as marketocracy.com? Or T-shirt designs, such as threadless.com? These are just a few examples of a new kind of collaboration in which peers come together to create value, often outside the walls of a traditional company.

Our research has identified seven new business models or roles that result from Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Each affects both the IT function and the CIO's role in the enterprise:

The Global Plant Floor refers to a planetary eco system for designing and building physical goods, marking a new phase in the evolution of mass collaboration. As traditional supply chains go the way of the dinosaur, how do we create peer-to-peer supply networks like Boeing's for its 787 Dreamliner?

Ideagoras explain how an emerging marketplace for ideas, inventions and qualified minds enables companies to tap global pools of highly skilled talent. Should CIOs harness the 100,000 talented programmers available on TopCoder.com?

The New Alexandrians understand that the science of sharing will rapidly accelerate human health, turn the tide on environmental damage, advance human culture, develop breakthrough technologies and even discover the universe—all the while helping companies grow wealth for their shareholders.

Peer Pioneers are the people who brought you open-source software and Wikipedia. They've demonstrated that thousands of dispersed volunteers can create fast, fluid and innovative projects that outperform those of the largest, best financed enterprises.

Prosumers are consumers who can be engaged to produce your company's goods and services. Online video game consumers of Second Life, for instance, do 99 percent of the work of creating the company's products.

Platforms for Participation are open product and technology infrastructures to create an open stage where large communities of partners can create value and, in many cases, create new businesses.

The Wiki Workplace enables smart enterprises to create a new corporate meritocracy that sweeps away hierarchical silos and connects internal teams to a wealth of external networks.

With these seven business models, blogs, wikis and other collaborative technologies can transform collaboration within both the IT function and the enterprise. Is the IT function a leader and exemplar for the wiki workplace at your enterprise.

Don Tapscott is chief executive of New Paradigm and co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything .