Comments on: How to Make Smarter Crowds

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:55:07 +0000

Thanks Alexandre! (For both comments)

By: Alexandre Pina

Alexandre Pina — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:43:20 +0000

Greetings, Greg. Thanks for quoting. Another masterpiece of the challenging thinking of yours. I think it’s absolutely right that there are 2 phases: (1) give what people realy need or want desperately, and (2) antecipate their needs. Which in some cases, don´t even knew that might need. Examples abound (iPad just to quote the most recent). The difference between Einstein and Today, is the speed, quantity, and learning curve, which are much quicker and happen faster, now. Feedback is almost instant, and each one can do it. You can have Soros’s everywhere, and can change everything, from that moment on. Crowds are normally happy with what they have… they follow! Just to quote A. Lefley (P&G), for major consumer goods companies, there are 2 moments of truth: Win new Consumers, and Retain them continuosly. Big changes-innovations-transformations, always came from small groups. Yes, with great leaders that lead them. Is there ONE single example that proves against? Best, and please keep up the topic.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:34:47 +0000

Stan,

Thanks for your contribution.

- Greg

By: Stan

Stan — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:22:10 +0000

Greg,

Nice to see one more article on “Crowds”. It is a challenging and quite broad subject. With today’s “wired” crowds we are to discover new ways of doing things, that were unthinkable in the past, and we will also have to get rid of some illusions. When and how crowds can contribute positively in this new world is yet to be discovered. Let’s not forget that blogging itself has an element of crowdsourcing – you write and get immediate feedback that help you work on next posts. That was not so easy with traditional media. Probably a natural topic for your blog would be crowds in online media. I would love to read something on that.

Stan

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:45:30 +0000

Jacob,

Good points. Thanks.

- Greg

By: Jacob

Jacob — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:54:12 +0000

Interesting article; you are very right that we can’t just rely on the wisdom of the crowds. The key is knowing how to source relevant information, and learning to cherry-pick the best ideas, and ignoring the bad ones.

Of course, if we want to be trendsetters, we need to learn to think ahead of the curve. I suppose that would be the hardest thing, but with the greatest rewards if we can succeed.

Thanks for the thought provoking read.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:44:31 +0000

Thanks Chaitra

Good luck.

- Greg

By: Chaitra

Chaitra — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:00:59 +0000

Hi Greg,
I love the concepts on how to make crowds smarter. The analogy around Good crowds have great leaders is really really true. The more I put the lens on crowds that I am participating, I am gravitated and more productive when leader is inspirational, visionary and participatory.

Thanks for sharing.
.-= Chaitra´s last blog ..Integrating Smart Partnering into business process: A Case Study – Alticor =-.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:49:10 +0000

John,

Thanks, but you said it better. That’s actually what I did mean. Crowds are great for aggregating data, which is why they make such good pricing mechanisms, but they are very bad at seeing around corners and can often be self referential.

- Greg

By: John Cavanaugh

John Cavanaugh — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:25:05 +0000

Greg,

Thanks for another thought-provoking post.

I like your Star Trek angle, but it also pointed me in a little different direction. Using your analogy, Commander Data could also represent, well, data. And though he could represent all the crowd data, good and bad, he holds the metric key to the crowd’s feedback. Captain Pickard, to his credit, seemed consistently able to tell when the data was the important factor and when it was misleading. So, he was able to look at all the input and decide what action to take.

Crowds are one example of data being an unreliable single source. It is a misconception that the will of a crowd is collective in its nature and therefore can be its one corroboration. In reality, a crowd only gives you one metric to consider among many possibilities.

-John
.-= John Cavanaugh´s last blog ..It’s Not Easy Being Green-ish =-.