"Visions of World Benefit & Global Responsibility: Perspectives of McGill Students


Friday, July 27, 2007

Collective Intelligence and Web 2.0

Wikipedia.com, Youtube.com, Digg.com, and other web 2.0 companies understand the power of collective intelligence and turn their ideas into “killer apps”. These apps make our lives much easier and better. At the same time, these companies also made huge amount of fortune. Is the collective intelligence plus Web 2.0 just the formula for making fortune? The answer is no. This combination has far more powerful implication than anyone could image. It may even push human society into the ideal stage where democracy reaches its climax.

By harnessing the combination of the collective intelligence and Web 2.0, leaders could embed their products into Web 2.0 to serve anyone who needs it. If the ones using the product can better engage in the cooperative activities, more and more people will use the product due to the advantage of the product. Meanwhile, the quality and the quantity of the cooperative works created by these people will increase with popularity of the product. Progressively, these works could be widely used by many people including those people who are neither interested in the product nor the creation of the work. Furthermore, the works are created by people and used by people. Therefore, the complaints against the products will be minimal and the royalty of the creators and the users will grow continuously. Namely, leaders can use the collective intelligence and web2.0 to create the best customer ever.

Leaders also need to realize that the combination of collective intelligence and web 2.0 is based on the belief that people can freely express their ideas and build up works without the restriction from companies. 21st century leaders need to maintain the subtle balance the freedom given to the users and the control over the product.

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