15/06: Now everyone can be a critic AND an Editor
Having been to many of the global sports events, from the Olympics, to the Cricket World Cup (which I never miss), I have to say that I love the passion of the FIFA World Cup fans the most. Despite losing a bet and having to root for England last week, 
I really don't have a favorite team. Here in Hamburg, I’ve been able to see fans from Ecuador and Costa Rica root for their teams. The amount of support from these far away lands was absolutely stunning. And it got me thinking about the Internet.
A dear old friend of mine and author, Jimmy Surowiecki, wrote a great book entitled, The Wisdom of Crowds. Jay and I weren’t always friends. We met after I called him incensed about an article he wrote in his column in the New Yorker. Well, after a few too many DePaz Blue Cane Rhum Mojitos, we solved all the world’s problems and became great friends.
Anyway, Jay’s book talks about how crowds can make much better decisions collectively than a few in an Ivory Tower. Now the late night crowds at FanFest likely weren’t who Jay had in mind, but I like his logic and loved his book.
There is a great service out for tech-news junkies called Digg.com. This site allows the Wisdom of Crowds to determine which articles get to the homepage. Anyone can view an article in the queue, and if enough people like it, it gets promoted to the home page.
Now, even if the news articles aren’t your flavor, the concept has real merit in a lot of different areas. Local papers could exist with almost zero human staffing, using the Digg concept to have locals promote articles that they think are of most importance to other residents. No more back room, cigar chewing editor determining whether the article about Paris Hilton’s latest gaffe appears above the announcement for the Warner Brother’s web site Archer just launched. (Obviously I would have an opinion, if asked)
Corproate Portals could also incorporate this into their own internal communications. Employees could post comments, local news, etc. The joint wisdom of the employees could decide which employee posted comments/stories get posted and which go into the electronic circular file. In the world of information overload, some sort of group filtering/promotion would be a great help!
As companies continue to challenge old standards with the interactivity of the Internet, we will continue to be in for a wild ride!
All I can say is…Buckle Up!
A dear old friend of mine and author, Jimmy Surowiecki, wrote a great book entitled, The Wisdom of Crowds. Jay and I weren’t always friends. We met after I called him incensed about an article he wrote in his column in the New Yorker. Well, after a few too many DePaz Blue Cane Rhum Mojitos, we solved all the world’s problems and became great friends.
Anyway, Jay’s book talks about how crowds can make much better decisions collectively than a few in an Ivory Tower. Now the late night crowds at FanFest likely weren’t who Jay had in mind, but I like his logic and loved his book.
There is a great service out for tech-news junkies called Digg.com. This site allows the Wisdom of Crowds to determine which articles get to the homepage. Anyone can view an article in the queue, and if enough people like it, it gets promoted to the home page.
Now, even if the news articles aren’t your flavor, the concept has real merit in a lot of different areas. Local papers could exist with almost zero human staffing, using the Digg concept to have locals promote articles that they think are of most importance to other residents. No more back room, cigar chewing editor determining whether the article about Paris Hilton’s latest gaffe appears above the announcement for the Warner Brother’s web site Archer just launched. (Obviously I would have an opinion, if asked)
Corproate Portals could also incorporate this into their own internal communications. Employees could post comments, local news, etc. The joint wisdom of the employees could decide which employee posted comments/stories get posted and which go into the electronic circular file. In the world of information overload, some sort of group filtering/promotion would be a great help!
As companies continue to challenge old standards with the interactivity of the Internet, we will continue to be in for a wild ride!
All I can say is…Buckle Up!
