As Professor Batchelder mentioned, this idea “collective intelligence” has many meanings. Wikipedia, a site which has certainly capitalized on the concept, explains that collective intelligence can relate to bacterial, plant, animal, and human societies. I am intrigued by this concept, and I think Wikipedia does a wonderful job in tapping into this phenomena. The site was built on the premise that, “with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” (O’Reilly). This quote is really interesting to me. It seems like through most of my academic years, teachers were focused on everyone doing individual work. Outside of the occasional group project, most work was done solo, and if not repercussions would be had. I’m starting to think that maybe this isn’t always the best way to learn, and maybe some really great things can be produced when created by more than one person.
I went back to the famous O’Reilly Web 2.0 article to reread the portion on collective intelligence. O’Reilly explains, “The central principle behind the success of the giants born in the Web 1.0 era who have survived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to be this, that they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence” (O’Reilly). The author goes on to cite companies that have been successful because they have embraced the concept of collective intelligence, including companies like Google, eBay, Amazon, and Flickr. It seems like companies that do not embrace this concept will be left behind, because of the power of the collective voice.
Another article I checked out was The Hype and the Hullabaloo of Web 2.0 which had a great quote, “A collective intelligence is achieved when a critical mass of participation is reached within a site or system, allowing the participants to act as a filter for what is valuable” (Kroski). I think what the author is saying here is that when using collective intelligence, the users decide what is important to them and improve the site/product. To me, there is no better way to sell a product or service then to have the customer decide what they like and make it better.
I have always found that I learn really well from other people, and that working in a group enhances my learning process. On the other hand, I think the years of doing solo work in school has engrained in me a kind of weird ownership over my work. I would like to start to embrace the idea of collective intelligence, gaining from other people’s knowledge, but also sharing what I know to make others better. In my PLE, I am definitely open to learning as much as possible from other people. I have started getting into web design and other related blogs to learn as much as I can. And I think when we start our personal blog in this class I will share what I’ve been learning with other people as well.
Sources:
O’Reilly, Tim. “What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.” O’Reilly Media. 30 Sep. 2005.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
Kroski, Ellyssa. “The Hype and the Hullabaloo of Web 2.0.” Infotangle. 31 Dec 2006.
http://infotangle.blogsome.com/2006/01/13/the-hype-and-the-hullabaloo-of-web-20/
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 21, 2008 at 10:45 pm
usernumber
“I’m starting to think that maybe this isn’t always the best way to learn, and maybe some really great things can be produced when created by more than one person.
I agree with you! We all see things in different ways… we can help each other out.
Hah…. Hullabaloo… wtf
“…allowing the participants to act as a filter for what is valuable”
Very interesting
April 22, 2008 at 10:28 am
wayne
I like your perspective here, and your honesty about breaking out of the bonds of “doing solo work in school”. There was a series of articles in Wired (sorry I haven’t found them yet!) about 5 companies that decided to allow their employees to blog about the company – whatever they wanted to say, including the bad and the good. Turns out the blogging by employees made the companies rise to the top! They became more successful. This concept is part of your observation of customers helping to make products and services better.
As for doing solo in school – this continues to bug me as I spent all those years becoming very good at giving teachers what they wanted that I found it very difficult to break that pattern as a teacher! It is easy to just lecture and give you guys the content. It is very difficult to break the old patterns and learn to let students discover and develop self-directed learning skills. But what I learned through blogging and connecting to others in my field, made me realize that there is a better way than going solo, and a better way than pouring in the content.
April 22, 2008 at 12:30 pm
jdbosley
I also reread that section of the O’Reilley article when researching collective intelligence. That section of his post is how I navigated to the book The Wisdom of Crowds and continued on from there. I really enjoyed reading the second article you posted, I especially like the term they used “architecture of participation” as I really think that sums up Web 2.0 and collective intelligence in one phrase, don’t you? What is the address to the public side of your Netvibes account? I want to look through the Web Design tab you were talking about on your second PLE post.
April 22, 2008 at 4:11 pm
dannymacdougall
After reading everyones blog, I realize that collective intellegence is a valuable tool. On the other hand I also think that narrow mindedness is habitual. Sometimes it is hard to think outside the box and step out of your comfort zone.
I found it interesting that those compaines who practice collective intelligence are some of the most valuable and successful business in the world.
It goes to show that there is power in diversity.
April 23, 2008 at 4:09 pm
nicosilva
I also agree with your comment about solo work. It can be so hard to comment on someone’s work all because we were only taught to pass the exams in school. School taught us to memorize rote and not pause to share and analyze. At least we do have a way to make learning collective online. There are times when I feel so defensive when someone reads and criticizes my work, and I feel that is a nasty habit learned back when only a teacher would be critical of what I wrote.
I find it funny how there are people who can be so critical about this sharing of information, when in reality it is making us better students. I just think they feel like their little pedestal may be knocked down.
April 23, 2008 at 8:43 pm
jlphannah
After reading your post I feel as if I might need to go revisit the O’Reilly article and see what I’m missing.
I don’t agree with Nico’s comment about school teaching us to memorize and not collaborate to a point. I had to do a number of group projects throughout my first college experience (I attended Mississippi State University). I like group projects ONLY when the participates are as willing as myself to learn and cooperate / contribute to the project. I had too many bad experiences with group projects from MSU as well as before in high school. Being paired with people that were lazy and didn’t want to do their fair share. So for the most part I prefer to go solo.
Collective Intelligence is an interesting concept when placed within a willingly cooperative environment of people.