Collective IntelligenceWeb 2.0

Russell Moore

So, what does ‘Collective Intelligence’ mean?

Collective Intelligence is simply shared/group intelligence . Information is constantly being

added and updated by a large online community, e.g. Wikipedia

Features:

• Constantly updated information.• Continual user feedback.• Vast range of easily accessible

content.• Minimum cost for extensive amounts

of data hosted.• Self-policing communities.• Greater accuracy from many sources.

Drivers:

• Increased access to multiple sources of knowledge.

• Knowledge of vast communities vs. That of the individual.

• Information sharing between users.• Usually free for users to create

content.• Social recognition or monetary

rewards.

Constraints:

• User complacency.• Negative network effects.• Concern over intellectual property

online.• Vast number of users necessary to

achieve reliability.

“Yahoo!, the first great internet success story, was born as a catalogue, or directory of links, an aggregation of the best work of thousands, then millions of web users. While Yahoo! has since moved into the business of creating many types of content, its role as a portal to the collective work of the net's users remains the core of its value.”

(O’Reilly, T. 2005)

“Google's breakthrough in search, which quickly made it the undisputed search market leader, was PageRank, a method of using the link structure of the web rather than just the characteristics of documents to provide better search results.”

(O’Reilly, T. 2005)

Wikipedia

“Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia based on the unlikely notion that an entry can be added by any web user, and edited by any other, is a radical experiment in trust” (O’Reilly, T. 2005)

“The problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how it's been elevated to such importance so quickly. And that is part of the larger pattern of the appeal of a new online collectivism that is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force.” (Lanier, J. 2006)

Wikipedia (continued)

“Wikipedia is best viewed as an engaged community that uses a large and growing number of regulatory mechanisms to manage a huge set of proposed edits. “Digital Maoism” specifically rejects that point of view, setting up a false contrast with open source projects like Linux, when in fact the motivations of contributors are much the same. With both systems, there are a huge number of casual contributors and a small number of dedicated maintainers, and in both systems part of the motivation comes from appreciation of knowledgeable peers rather than the general public. Contra Lanier, individual motivations in Wikipedia are not only alive and well, it would collapse without them.”

(Shirky, C. 2007)

Sites like Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia and YouTube could not exist without their users.

The rise of Blogging

• Blogging harnesses Collective Intelligence (an essential part of Web 2.0)

• Blogs are now more than just a static web page (html) they are “dynamic”.

• RSS technology allows a constant feed of updated information to any user who subscribes, as opposed to just clicking a link once.

Fact!

A new blog is created every second of the day! (technorati.com, 2008)

300 new blogs will have been created by the end of this presentation!

Why is Blogging so popular?

Well, for a number of reasons:• A blog is easy to start and maintain, e.g. Blogger.com• Interactive spaces and instant publishing to the web.• Free space to publish thoughts and ideas that previously

had no public arena.• Knowledge of the masses, ideas are heard and exchange

among a global community.

Global Brain

“If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought. And as a reflection of conscious thought and attention, the blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect.” (O’Reilly, T. 2005)

References:

O’Reilly, T. (2005) What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software [WWW] Available from:http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Lanier, J. (2006) Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism, Edge. [WWW] Available from: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html

Shirky, C et al. (2007) Reactions to Digital Maoism Available from:http://many.corante.com/archives/2006/06/07/reactions_to_digital_maoism.php