Collective intelligence

There is no such thing as collective intelligence on the web or elsewhere. Only the contribution of individuals working on their own and in groups (e.g., companies). As each person makes more contributions, the overall amount of content on the web grows to ever larger levels.

Database-driven technology is exploiting web content in ways that make it more useful. For instance, epinions.com collect impartial product reviews by ordinary people and adds value to this content by summarizing and digesting opinions. eBay's half.com accumulates new and used products at discounted prices and make them available to buyers so that the buying process is made easy (large selection, quality product descriptions, pre-ordering tools, seller ratings, etc.).

In both cases, content is created by many users, made available to many users, and enabled by services that enhance the value of the individual contributions. But this is not collective intelligence. It's the sum of thousands of individual contributions. Pure N-to-N interaction.

Kristoffer Bohmann

Collective intelligence

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