Lesson 3: The Wisdom of Crowds

It is time of the week again for me to post my my 2-cents worth of my point of views from the seminar we had last Thursday. It is indeed a extremely meaningful one for me as I am a person who always like to hear the different side of a story to gain more insights before even committing on my ideas or decisions.

So which is better, an individual Smart Alex? Or the Wisdom of Crowds?

I guess this is also a question I have tried to answer before, but I couldn't.... Haha... Even after this discussion with the class and coming home to "reseach" further into this topic in the web. I am still unable to make a stand on really an individual is better or actually the wisdom of the mass crowds stand out. I still feel it is rather subjective to conclude on it but I definately gain lots of insights into this question. And perhaps able to try and deploy the teory learnt here and decide which method to use the next time round when I face a problem.

Alright, just a short recap on what we have learnt and discussed in class:

Many cognitive, coordination and cooperation problems are best solved by canvassing groups (the larger the better) of reasonably informed, unbiased, engaged people. The group's answer is almost invariably much better than any individual expert's answer, even better than the best answer of the experts in the group.

Agreed? Or not agreed? For those unfamiliar with the concept of the Wisdom of Crowds, here is just what you need to catch up with us:

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/

This is the link to the writer of the book, James Surowiecki, on 'The Wisdom of Crowds', as well as information about the contents of the book. Anyone out there who wish to read up more on this interesting topic can check out this website.

While "reseaching" in the web, I came across another blogger by the name 'Dave Pollard' blog article on the Wisdom of Crowds. This guy is a real season blogger who's blog articles and posts running deep under my screen. I guess this is really an interesting blog to read as his posts are all his environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays over a wide spectrum of issues.

He himself after reading the Wisdom of Crowds, have been bouncing ideas on how to implement the principles in James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds off a variety of people in the public and private spheres.

And here is what he had came out with his bouncing ideas: The 'Collective Wisdom' Model

The Value Proposition for this model is compelling:

Tapping into the Wisdom of Crowds with a disciplined process will reduce or eliminate the need for (and cost of) 'expert' consultants, academics and focus groups, while producing better decisions and solutions than those experts can offer.

If you would like to find out more information on this model of Collective Wisdom to solve your problem, you can read up his ideas in his blog here:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/11/15.html

Okay, so much about the Wisdom of Crowds, now back to what I have done today with my team AMG for our assignment for this thursday presentation on the problem exist in the Jurong Bird Park.

I guess the wonder of techologies today are to help we human beings to implement what was then thought as impossible in the past. Hence, whole lots of applications are available in our mind for us to implement them as to serve our fellow human beings better. And here my team have came out with a great idea to help solve the problem of communicating with the visitors in the Jurong Bird Park as well as providing them with the best of information at their finger tips.

But wait...... ...... it is too early to review more on what is up in our proposal. Just hang on a little, we will review in our presentation on this coming Thursday.........

Cheers!!