SXSW: crowd wisdom, not group think

Luke Wroblewski at Functioning Form breaks down a SXSW "crowd wisdom" presentation. It's helpful to me, having just written that some are not satisfied with wise sites like Tech.Memorandum and Digg. Skeptical that crowd wisdom can be achieved by algorithm, Nicholas Carr, for example, sees a continuing role for mindful editing.

Blogging what James Surowiecki had to say at SXSW, Luke Wroblewski writes:

The reason collective intelligence can arrive at a good decision is that every individual in the group has some piece of information about the solution as well as some misconceptions or incorrect assumptions (my emphasis).

Surowiecki says there must be, among other things:

• A flat playing field
• many cognitive biases and
• some insulators that afford true individuality and protect individuals from peer pressure.

Check it out for yourself.

Wayne

Technorati tags: SXSW, design, innovation, widsom of the crowds

Comments

[bruce boston]

The other characteristic is a high ratio of community benefit to community interdependency.

One of the things that really seem to make things from Digg to Netflix ratings work is that there is a huge benefit to people participating and a almost no interdependencies. Contrast this to 'group development' projects, where there is a much high rate of interdependency and it's not hard to see why they often fail.

-bruce boston
quidstreet.net

[Wayne]

Thanks Bruce. Good points.

Wayne