Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Coopetition

💡 In simple words: Co-opetition means working together AND competing at the same time. People compete to do their best work, but they share tools and rules that help everyone. Like a sports team where players push each other to improve but win together.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): Co-opetition, a portmanteau of cooperation and competition, is the social and economic philosophy WikiDeal is exploring: providers compete on quality, specialisation and approach, while cooperating on the shared infrastructure, legal frameworks and dispute resolution that protect everyone. The model starts from wiki culture, where transparent rules turn vigorous debate into better collective outcomes, and observes that well-structured competition can increase the incentive to cooperate, as in free software development. Because contributions are published in real time, management stays transparent and all participants operate on a level playing field. The approach is intertwined with Wenger's Communities of Practice and resonates with Cultural Creatives values. At a macro level, it aims at sustainability and energy sobriety through less blind competition and more redistribution, since all developments and contract templates remain openly accessible. The Open Calls process is intended as its most explicit institutional expression: proposals compete, and the shared platform improves through productive criticism.

For a service provider, the daily question is simple: how do I stand out without being crushed by a race to the bottom? For a client, it is: how do I get quality without opaque platforms deciding for me? Co-opetition is WikiDeal's answer to both, drawn from how Wikipedia and free software communities already work: compete on quality, cooperate on the shared infrastructure that protects everyone.

On this page:

• Co-opetitive Culture
• The Wiki Culture Foundation
• Competition Fostering Cooperation
• Real-Time Transparency and Equity
• Communities of Practice and Cultural Alignment
• Sustainability, Sobriety, and Redistribution
• The Open Call as Cultural Expression
• Who does what
• State of the art

Co-opetitive Culture

Co-opetition, a portmanteau of cooperation and competition, describes WikiDeal's social and economic philosophy. The platform is not a commune where competition is suppressed, nor a traditional marketplace where competition is the only principle. It is a structure where competition between individual providers produces quality and innovation, while cooperation between those same providers produces shared Infrastructure, legal protection, and collective advocacy.

The Wiki Culture Foundation

WikiDeal takes its cultural inspiration from the wiki movement, specifically from the productive tension within Wikipedia between individual contributors who sometimes fiercely disagree about content and approach, and the shared commitment to an encyclopaedia that serves all of humanity. Wikipedia's quality is, paradoxically, partly a product of conflict: the vigorous debate between editors, governed by transparent rules and a shared mission, produces articles that are more accurate and nuanced than any single author could produce.

WikiDeal applies this insight to commerce. A babysitting platform where all babysitters earn the same and face no competitive pressure to improve might produce mediocre service. A platform where babysitters compete purely on price might drive them to unsustainable rates. WikiDeal's model allows babysitters to compete on quality, specialisation, availability, and approach, while cooperating on the platform Infrastructure, the legal frameworks that protect them, the dispute resolution systems that keep trust high, and the collective advocacy that ensures their working conditions are fair.

Competition Fostering Cooperation

One of WikiDeal's more counterintuitive observations is that well-structured competition can increase the incentive to cooperate. When a babysitter in Geneva knows that a family who has a bad experience will simply choose a different babysitter (competition), she is more motivated to contribute to the platform features that raise overall quality (better contract templates, clearer dispute resolution, improved communication tools) because these improvements also benefit her relative to less cooperative competitors.

This dynamic is structurally similar to how GNU/Linux kernel developers, while sometimes competing intensely for technical influence and organizational position, cooperate on the shared codebase because the codebase is more valuable to everyone when it is better. The competition happens at the level of ideas and contributions; the cooperation happens at the level of shared Infrastructure.

Real-Time Transparency and Equity

Co-opetition brings significant advantages for quality, transparency, and equity. Because it is based on the publication of contributions in real time, there are very few secret or hidden aspects in its management. This high level of transparency makes the platform inherently attractive to users and contributors alike, as everyone operates on a level playing field.

Communities of Practice and Cultural Alignment

The WikiDeal approach to co-opetition is deeply intertwined with Etienne Wenger's concept of Communities of Practice. By learning together and sharing knowledge, members elevate the entire community's competence.

Furthermore, this model strongly resonates with the demographic profile of the Cultural Creatives, individuals who value ecology, authentic relationships, and social justice. In sociological terms, co-opetition aligns with the highest, most inclusive tiers of Spiral Dynamics (often associated with integral theory and NLP), which focus on systemic integration, collaboration, and holistic thinking rather than zero-sum competition.

Sustainability, Sobriety, and Redistribution

At a macro level, sustainable development and energy sobriety require a fundamental shift: less pure competition and more resource redistribution. This shift is made viable in a co-opetitive model precisely because all ongoing developments, innovations, and contract templates are published and openly accessible to all. When knowledge and tools are a shared commons, society can optimize resources and reduce redundant, competitive waste, paving the way for true sustainability.

The Open Call as Cultural Expression

The Open Calls process is WikiDeal's most explicit institutional expression of co-opetition. Proposers compete for recognition and funding; but in order to compete effectively, they must engage seriously with the existing model and with competing proposals. The process creates what the WikiDeal founder calls "productive criticism", critique that must be constructive to win, and cooperation that must be rigorous to be credible. The result is a community that is simultaneously competitive (producing better proposals) and cooperative (improving the shared platform).

Who does what

• Providers compete on quality, specialisation and approach, never in a hidden ranking.
• Contributors cooperate on shared contract templates, dispute tools and advocacy.
• The community keeps the rules and all ongoing developments public, so competition stays fair and cooperation stays credible.

State of the art

The co-opetition hypothesis draws on a wider body of research on cooperation between competitors, communities of practice and mass collaboration. The works below are offered as background references that inform and inspire this exploration, not as evidence that the WikiDeal model works.

• Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff (1996), Co-opetition, Currency Doubleday: coopetition on Wikipedia · Barry Nalebuff.
• Maria Bengtsson and Sören Kock (2000), "Coopetition" in Business Networks: to Cooperate and Compete Simultaneously, Industrial Marketing Management, 29(5): doi:10.1016/S0019-8501(99)00067-X.
• Maria Bengtsson and Sören Kock (2014), Coopetition, Quo vadis? Past accomplishments and future challenges, Industrial Marketing Management, 43(2): doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2014.02.015.
• Etienne Wenger (1998), Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge University Press: doi:10.1017/CBO9780511803932 · community of practice on Wikipedia.
• Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press: doi:10.1017/CBO9780511815355 · situated learning on Wikipedia.
• Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams (2006), Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio: book page on Wikipedia.
• Yochai Benkler (2006), The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale University Press: book page on Wikipedia.
• José van Dijck and David Nieborg (2009), Wikinomics and its discontents: a critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos, New Media & Society, 11(5), a critical counterpoint on wikinomics: doi:10.1177/1461444809105356.

See also: Communities of Practice · Open Calls · All innovations