“Wisdom of Crowds” (cont’d.)

In a recent post, I breifly mention the notion of a smart crowd. I started to talk about this in the context of Web 2.0, the term coined in large part by Tim O’Reilly. He identifies a number of principles to help explain what this is. Omitting the more programming specific,...

What is the Origami Project?

Microsoft has launched a teaser website promoting the release of something called the Origami Project on March 2nd. There is ongoing speculation on some well read blogs about what exactly The Origami Project is. Engadget actually dug up pictures revealing it to be a personal device. My two cents: the “Touch Me”...

Multi-Touch Interaction Research

Single touch screen displays are pretty common at museums, airports, bookstores, etc. But the technology hasn’t been there for the kind of multi-touch interfaces hinted at in movies like Minority Report. Researchers at New York University are working on it and have a great video demonstrating what’s possible....

Brit Beats US with Google Maps

Came across this political campaign site that incorporates Google Maps. It’s for Ming Campbell’s campaign for the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK. This is the first one I’ve seen so far doing this. Pretty cool....

“The Wisdom of Crowds”

This book by James Surowiecki shows how, under the right curcumstances, crowds can make better decisions than individuals, and individual experts. I want to spend the next few posts talking about his insights in the context of Web 2.0 and the media.

Talking about smart crowds, Surowiecki, means an assembly of people that meets four critieria: 1) it needs to be diverse,...