On Collective Wisdom

I was just thinking of writing my new blog on social communities but then I came across this site and it was too compelling to be left without mentioning. A friend send me a link to this plain looking but interesting site AVANOO. But before I get all excited and start talking about the site, lets spend a few lines on Collective Wisdom.

The book The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, first published in 2004, is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. The whole concept of 'crowd intelligence' can not only solve numerous research problems but also help find innovative solutions to many a stubborn questions.

Four elements required to form a wise crowd

Not all crowds (groups) are wise crowds. According to Surowiecki, these key criteria separate wise crowds from irrational ones:

Diversity of opinion. Each person should have private information even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts.
Independence.People's opinions aren't determined by the opinions of those around them.
Decentralization. People are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge.
Aggregation. Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision.

But that's not what this blog is about. The interesting bit is how web 2.0 is harnessing and utilising this collective wisdom. And one good example I found was AVANOO. It works on the principle that if people can access the perspectives of different communities when asking questions, getting recommendations, or trying to understand anything about the world, they will be able to make better decisions than if they were to consult experts or rely on majority crowd opinions.

Avanoo is a community of people who care about issues ranging from politics to relationships, and who feel that global issues must be understood in terms of smaller communities. Avanoo also claims to be the first application of the Wisdom of Communities on the Internet.What is more interesting is that they are also working on creating a web community and as the website states, "... they think they can change the world".

I don't know about the world but this will definitely change how marketeers look and interact with consumers. A new channel of reach or a a new discipline of market research. But whatever it will grow out to be, it definitely should not be ignored across industries.

On a lighter note, how bout collective wisdom on ' What Women Want?' :)