Collective Wisdom is one of the basic philosophies that stands at the base of the 1%CLUB. Basically it states that a lot of people carry more knowledge than one single expert. And within a good system the Crowd can make even more valid judgments than one simple expert. In the case of the 1%CLUB this translates into our belief that all of our 5000 thousands participants can contribute greatly into effective niche problems solution encountered in developing countries. The idea is that in the end the value will be far greater than a pre-fixed system that drives on experts, even though the level of quality of the different participants varies significantly.
There are some preconditions. The Crowd must be diverse enough AND big enough for the system to work.
In his latest Ted lecture (not online yet) given yesterday at Oxford, Ethan Zuckerman highlights another precondition this kind of systems must meet. In yet another dazzling presentation he points out that sadly enough we don’t use all the varieties of information that are available to us. Instead, we choose to absorb more information about the subjects and especially people that were already familiar to us. We basically stay in the same circles, whether we are online or offline. Thus, he argues, it is more appropiate to speak about “The Wisdom of the Flock” instead of “Wisdom of the Crowd”.
It would be terrible to miss out on all the amazing opportunities that come with a (potentially) interconnected world. Therefore Ethan calls upon us to became a Xenophile. Xenophiles are the people that visits the unknown worlds and translate them for us. In that way they generate true connection among us all.
And by doing that they hopefully will also create this highly effective Crowd with the highest intelligence ever witnessed! Thus: start being a xenophile today. There is only a limited amount of wisdom within your little circles….
Interested in attending the TedGlobal2010 talks that are being held the up-coming days? You can still join the screening at Boom Chicago at Amsterdam.
Eric Hersman has posted a more detailed description of Ethan’s TedGlobal2010 talk here.
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