One of the cornerstones of most definitions of Web 2.0 is the idea of the Wisdom of Crowds. In Tim O’Reilly’s seminal essay on the subject, he talks about the blogosphere being an example of this:
If it were merely an amplifier, blogging would be uninteresting. But like Wikipedia, blogging harnesses collective intelligence as a kind [...]
Richard MacManus reports on some of the developments around Enterprise 2.0, the application of some Web 2.0 technologies and approaches to big business. There’s some debate over whether Web 2.0 is a pure consumer phenomenon and that therefore Enterprise 2.0 is a different animal.
I don’t think it is.
While many of the poster children of Web [...]
Regina Lynn at Wired News is often asked where to find better porn. Thankfully, the brave new world of Web 2.0 is ready to find the answers for her with a wisdom engine for smut… Wonder if Michael and Pete will cover this?
The result is the fledgling MoSex Index (NSFW), an attempt to combine the [...]
In breaking news err… yesterday, NewAssignment.net has received a $100,000 grant from Reuters to hire an editor. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen explains the project’s agenda:
The idea is to draw “smart crowdsâ€â€”groups of people configured to share intelligence—into collaboration at NewAssignment.Net and get stories done that way that aren’t getting done now. By pooling their [...]
As I’ve observed before, marshalling collective intelligence, or the wisdom of crowds, on the Internet isn’t always very easy. Social news voting sites like digg are susceptible to social influences. Wikis are also weakened by this: do you really want to edit what your boss says? One way, though, to generate the necessary conditions (independence, [...]
USA Today takes a pop at internet techies citing the Wisdom of Crowds, suggesting that the recent digg and wikipedia controversies may show the idea is fallacious. David Freedman takes another swipe in ‘What’s Next: The Idiocy of Crowds‘ published at Inc.com, saying that on the internet, “the scum tends to rise to the top”.
As [...]
The news aggregator site reddit has been profitable since April, according to Mass High Tech. I’m very pleased for them. The site takes the digg model a little further with recommendations based on your voting habits. It also seems to have a somewhat quieter, maybe older user base, which leads to a difference in the [...]
