Collective Intelligence: Concepts, Analytics and Implications

Collective Intelligence is often referred to as ability of groups, organizations, communities and cultures to exhibit mind-like properties. It is a form of intelligence which emerges out of collaboration, coordination and cooperation of many individuals. Collective Intelligence is an old concept which has been there since ages from hunter gatherers to human societies. However, it has got renewed attention only recently after recent developments in information technology & social media and the World Wide Web. The new forms of communication technologies support cooperation and collaboration among large number of individuals irrespective of geographical boundaries. This has generated new concepts of working together such as computer supported cooperative work, collective knowledge systems, participative Web (Web 2.0) and collective intelligence. Taking into account the enormous opportunities that collective intelligence may have, it is utmost important to understand the dynamics of emergent collective intelligence and the factors shaping and affecting it. This paper tries to identify the key concepts and themes around collective intelligence; present a suitable methodology of analyzing the dynamics; and explore the possibilities of applying collective intelligence concept to designing better working teams and higher order organizations and society.

[1]  Marco Dorigo,et al.  Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems , 1999 .

[2]  Francis Heylighen,et al.  Collective Intelligence and its Implementation on the Web: Algorithms to Develop a Collective Mental Map , 1999, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[3]  Thomas R. Gruber,et al.  Collective knowledge systems: Where the Social Web meets the Semantic Web , 2008, J. Web Semant..

[4]  Satnam Alag,et al.  Collective Intelligence in Action , 2008 .

[5]  Pierre Lévy,et al.  Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace , 1997 .

[6]  U. Netlogo Wilensky,et al.  Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling , 1999 .

[7]  Phillip Brown,et al.  Capitalism and Social Progress: The Future of Society in a Global Economy , 2001 .

[8]  Chrysanthos Dellarocas,et al.  Harnessing Crowds: Mapping the Genome of Collective Intelligence , 2009 .

[9]  John Bowers,et al.  Studies in computer supported cooperative work: theory, practice and design , 1990 .

[10]  Vivek Kumar Singh,et al.  Agent based models of social systems and collective intelligence , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Intelligent Agent & Multi-Agent Systems.

[11]  Craig W. Reynolds.  Flocks, herds, and schools: a distributed behavioral model , 1987, SIGGRAPH.

[12]  R. Axelrod.  The Dissemination of Culture , 1997 .

[13]  Irene Greif,et al.  Computer-supported cooperative work: a book of readings , 1988 .

[14]  Tim O'Reilly,et al.  What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software , 2007 .

[15]  Craig W. Reynolds.  Flocks, herds, and schools: a distributed behavioral model , 1998 .