The less the cost the more the value - the Wikipedia approach

Perhaps the most obvious example of "the less the cost the more the value" is Wikipedia's exploitation of the seemingly infinite amount of free information available on the Internet. 

Wikipedia has taken this mass of free virtual information and combined it with the knowledge and expertise of a multitude of human volunteers: people who are willing and able, free of charge, to contribute to the categorising, editing and developing of Wikipedia's information.

This process of combining human knowledge and expertise with virtual information often leads to knowledge, expertise and information being applied in innovative and/or useful new ways, so adding significantly to their value. A good example is Wikipedia's system of Regional Notice Boards, which enables local and global information, knowledge and expertise to be focused quickly and easily upon regional needs and interests.

This regionalisation of knowledge, expertise and information would not have been so easy before the Internet and the collaboration it enables. This is because the pre-Internet costs of making regionalisation happen would have been significantly increased, causing people to question the benefit gained from their efforts.

Wikipedia continues to grow and gain ever more information and volunteers. This makes the already minimal costs continue to reduce as the potential to add value grows exponentially (what Dan Bricklin calls the Cornucopia of the Commons - also known as the Comedy_of_the_Commons).

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For more about collaboration go to: Sleeping-with-the-Enemy-Achieving-Collaborative-Success-2nd-Edition.