Web 2.0 in the workplace - Harnessing Collective Intelligence

This is the final of O'Reilly's core competencies to look at with regard to Web 2.0 in the work place.

Collective collaboration is the idea of users working together to build a better Web 2.0 platform. It is the basic notion that two parts on their own can come together to create something better as a whole.

Without this collaboration social networking sites would not exist. Reading the statistics for Facebook is very thought provoking. I can look at it in the form of numbers, for example, the leap from 1500 users in 2004 to the 400 million that use it now. Or that 160 million objects that people interact with such as groups and events (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics). However, how I'd like to look at is that how in 2006 I had no idea what facebook was, and nor did possibly 50% plus of the people now using it. I didn't even get a facebook page until late 2007. Now, everyday I check my facebook along with millions of people around the world who are all collaborating to the information shared on the website to create a massively intelligent Web 2.0 platform.

Gruber (2007) 3 components that help to harness collective intelligence are:

1) A Social System
2) A Search Engine
3) Intelligent Users

All three of these components help make Facebook the powerful information tool it is today. It is a social system with billions of interactive objects and pieces of content with masses of information to look at. It has an intelligent search engine which recommends pages, friends and photos which it calculates you may be interested in due to other information you have viewed. No wonder a user can spend hours clicking away on facebook when it keeps predicting objects you are going to want to view and interact with. Which is, in fact, the exact point and brings us to the final component of 'Intelligent Users'. Without users logging on, interacting (commenting, posting photos etc.), using the system on a regular basis it wouldn't work nearly as well. The more interactions a user makes with a Web 2.0 platform the better it becomes.

The collective intelligence that millions of users have put into facebook via groups and events means that we all benefit from a system with more information and easier links.

When considering how this benefits my life as a performer. The best way I can describe how is through a recent occurrence in my working life.I met an Estonian girl while working on a job here in Amsterdam. She has worked here for a while and knows the dance world here far better than me. Also, I felt we had a good 'neither-of-us-are-from-here' connection. I wanted to find her through facebook because not only did I think she would be a good contact to have, I also liked her very much! However, all I had was a first name. I thought I'd give it a go anyway and she popped up right away. The reason? We both had updated our 'current location' to Amsterdam and we had one mutual friend. The combination of the intelligent search engine plus myself and the girl plus our mutual friend updating our profiles (being intelligent users) made the process very easy indeed.