December 14, 2004
Smart Crowds
According to The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (might make a good holiday gift for someone you know), there are four criteria that need to be met in order for a crowd to display collective wisdom that is greater than its individual members:
(1) diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another; (3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions. The diversity brings in different information; independence keeps people from being swayed by a single opinion leader; people's errors balance each other out; and including all opinions guarantees that the results are "smarter" than if a single expert had been in charge.
Innnnteresting. This is all the kind of thinking that I'm partial to...
Posted by Curt at December 14, 2004 11:25 AM