The Rise of Us
The Dynamics of Smartmobs
kevin lim
Cyberculturalist
university at buffalo
Fall 2008

Wisdom of Crowds?
“Under the right
circumstances,
groups are remarkably
intelligent, and are
often smarter than the
smartest people in
them” - Surowiecki

Wisdom of Crowds?
Conditions for wisdom:
1.Diversity of Opinion
2.Independence
3.Decentralization
4.Aggregation

The Social Contract
Direct democracy
Individual mistakes in
either direction would
cancel each other out
Accurate “general will”
Rousseau (1968)

Collective Intelligence
A CI pioneer, George Pór, defined the collective intelligence
phenomenon as “the capacity of a human community to evolve
toward higher order complexity thought, problem-solving and
integration through collaboration and innovation.”

Popular Examples
of collective intelligence

Wikipedia vs. Britannica
Among 42 entries tested in both encyclopedias,
the difference in accuracy was not great
(Nature, 15th Dec 2005)
On science: Wikipedia had 4 inaccuracies;
Britannica had 3.

Citizen Journalism
as collective intelligence

Commercialization
of collective intelligence

“And, in just 30 seconds,
Amazon sold out of all 1,000 units
of the Xbox at $100.”
- Patti Freeman Evans (Jupiter Research)

CyberWarfare
and collective intelligence

Before
After
New satellite imagery of
Iran's nuclear sites - now
on Google Earth
Ogleearth.com, 16th April 2006

Guardian: Gazan rocket launches planned with Google Earth
Thursday, October 25, 200

Types of Users
and collective intelligence

Types of Digg Users
1. Readers: Alex guesstimates that \"ten to twenty percent of
those ever click ‘digg’\".
2. Diggers: 10-20% says Alex. He also says these are the least
important members of the system
3. Hardcore Diggers: \"people who sit in the queue of
.
submitted stories and watch for breaking news that should
make its way up to the front page, or report stories as being
spam or irrelevant.\"
4. Submitters: people who submit stories. It’s highly
competitive and difficult to be the first to post a successful
story (one that makes the front page).
5. Publishers: \"often bloggers who want to get readership for
their content.”
- Alex Bosworth, Dec 2005

User Motivations
Reciprocity
Perhaps the most anticipated factor that motivates people to give.
Reputation
The willingness to help others can all work to increase one's prestige
in a community.
Sense of Efficacy
The feeling an individual has that makes them feel that they have
some effect on the environment around them.
Need
One may produce and contribute a public good for the simple reason
that a person or the groups as a whole has a need for it.
Attachment
The commitment one has to the group, one’s utility.
Side-effect
Private behavior makes cost of sharing near zero.

AGAINST Wisdom of Crowds
The central thesis of this book is
that the amateurism introduced
by blogs (Blogger, Wordpress
and Movable Type), videos
(YouTube) and wikis (Wikipedia)
has eroded our culture towards a
dangerous world where the
distinction between expert and
amateur is being obscured and
only the loudest and the extreme
dominate in the digital world.

FOR Wisdom of Crowds

theory.isthereason.com

Questions
and hopefully answers