David Nydegger's Weblog

Collective Intelligence

In philosophy, reductionism, seen as the opposite of holism, states that it is possible to explain a complex system by reduction to its fundamental parts. If applying this idea to the rather holistic concept of Web 2.0, without a doubt, collective intelligence would emerge as the fundamental pattern of the new web.

The newly founded MIT Center of Collective Intelligence defines collective intelligence as “groups of individuals doing things collectively that seem intelligent“. Now, thanks to the Internet, huge numbers of people all over the planet can work together in ways that were never before possible in the history of humanity and create new things. Hence, it must be the main object of every Web 2.0 application to harness such collective intelligence by creating sophisticated architectures of partcipation. Succeeding in this era begins with understanding two key principles, namely that users add value and network effects can magnify this value.

Either as a side effect of their actions or through active participation, people add value to every web application they use. This could be by directly creating content, such as contributing to a Wikipedia article or by linking websites, tagging content, recommending products or by commenting on a blog post.

The discussion about network effects traces back to Robert Metcalfe and his famous law, which states that the value of any telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. Originally applied to LAN networks, today Metcalfe’s law convincingly explains the network effects occurring on the Internet. Metcalfe’s law has been partially extended by Reed’s law, which, in addition, considers the group forming capabilities of the Internet.

Any value generated by users today is therefore vastly amplified by the network effects of the Internet. Consider for example an article from the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia: From an isolated viewpoint a Wikipedia article already embodies real, user generated value. But only through the network effects caused by the high level of interlinking, the power of collective intelligence becomes clearly obvious. Moreover, via network effects, any user-initiated word-of-mouth can lead to dramatic user growth. By the end of 2006, more than 500,000 users visited Digg every day, yet the company never spent any money on advertising. Setting network effects by default enables viral marketing, a best practice of harnessing collective intelligence.

But the concept of collective intelligence has its critics as well. First and foremost there is the issue of privacy and liability. People being active on the new web increasingly reveal their private details, including opinions, relationships, political views, media, personal history, and so on. These data can be mined by third parties, including employers or government agencies. The fact that research has already picked up the topic, shows that such concerns are real. Consider the paper Semantic Analytics on Social Networks by Boanerges et al. (2006) that reveals how data from online social networks and other databases can be combined to uncover facts about people.

To sum up, the best Web 2.0 software must be inherently designed to harness collective intelligence through an architecture of participation. This is accomplished by actively involving users, minimizing the barriers to product adoption and use, and by designing products and features that encourage viral network-driven growth.

The History of Religion

Awesome!

Especially for my special friend here. Above, check out my new project.

My Playlist

This is my attempt for the ultimate playlist. Actually it's just my playlist. From now on you'll find my last.fm widget on your right (down, down, yes the blue one, now you have it!).

Enjoy!

1st of May in Berlin

Berlin, 1st of May, 9am, Streetcar M6 to Zinnowitzer Strasse.
For an instance I really wondered why they call it "Tag der Arbeit" then....

Start-Up Stuff

Folks, I am in Berlin at the moment doing some start-up stuff. This is currently one of my favourite resources...

I made an example cap table for personal use because the ones available on the net are shit. Maybe I should share it with the world (if there is no mistake in it after all:-). Well, here it is:

Example Cap Table

What else to say? Maybe that you should try out mozy which is an excellent web backup tool. Works perfectly and smooth in the background and entirely fulfills my needs. This is how software should be.

For Google:-)
Capitalization Table, Cap Table, CapTable

Worst Album Covers Ever

Enjoy!

Distorted History?

In Clay Shirky's paper about ontology (basically that's the only one paper you need to read to understand the internet) I came across something interesting. Look how the Library of Congress classifies World History:

D: History (general)
DA: Great Britain DB: Austria DC: France DD: Germany DE: Mediterranean DF: Greece DG: Italy DH: Low Countries DJ: Netherlands	DK: Former Soviet Union DL: Scandinavia DP: Iberian Peninsula DQ: Switzerland DR: Balkan Peninsula DS: Asia DT: Africa DU: Oceania DX: Gypsies

Yap, books which are mainly about the history of Switzerland are on the same classification level as books mainly about the history of Africa and Asia. As you might know, libraries normally don't classify for relative importance (whatever that may be) or geographical area but for number of published books to optimize shelf space. Funny.

Some Thoughts on Multitasking

I read a very good article on multitasking and its flaws.

According to the author, several research reports provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car.
Here I can tie in with some thoughts I had lately about technology and the dangers of multitasking myself. Modern technological devices and the new web have one major thing in common: they foster multitasking or, more bluntly spoken, they force its users to do multitasking. PDAs or blackberries allow people to read e-mails, send IMs and telephone at the same time. And all this while probably driving a car or attending a meeting. With tools like RSS, the new web is able to gather a massive amount of various and instantly updated information and deliver it in a convenience cockpit to the user. Basically, you got more things to work on  - but also more things to distract you.

And there's the point. What we already know from project management literature seems to be true: Multitasking is not as good as it might sound, at least if you are male.* Of course, multitasking itself is inevitable and an important skill in today's business environment. But in my opinion, being able to manage multitasking behavior is a skill that's even more important. In the article it says that "the inability to concentrate on two things at once is a core limitation of our brain" and "multitasking is going to people down, increasing the chances of mistakes". Agree, or haven't you found yourself at least once "multitasking yourself through the morning" without being actually any productive at all?

To sum up new technologies and applications are great, because they serve us information in a better and more ubiquitous way.  But we have to know how to manage them. And the best way to do that is to start at managing multitasking behaviour. And here my advices:

• If not really necessary to do else, try to do only one thing at a time
• Check your E-Mail every 30 minutes at the most. Turn off your notifier.
• If listening to music while working, listen to smooth stuff like classical.
• What you did while studying, can't be that wrong in a professional environment. Wear earplugs when doing /reading something that needs your full concentration.
• If you got a reading that exceeds 5 pages, print it out and close your laptop while reading it.
• (...)

Ok, this is clearly woip. But maybe it's a start. I will keep to it.

cheers, David

*but that's another story :-)

Geeky Underwear

Swiss retailer Migros sells geeky women's undies* with an @-pattern. I thought I'm gonna share this with the world. Sorry about the bad picture.

*Why and how I discovered this? Don't ask! Things... just... happen...
:-)

Some Quote

I grew up with an impatience with the anti-scientific. So I'm a bit miffed with our current love affair with all things Eastern. If I sneeze on the set, 40 people hand me echinacea. But I'd no sooner take that than eat a pencil. Maybe that's why I took up boxing. It's my response to men in white pajamas feeling each other's chi.

Hugh Laurie, Cambridge graduate and impersonator of House M.D.