GDW Blog: Jerry Kane on “Wisdom” � Mercurial Mentions in IT

GDW Blog: Jerry Kane on “Wisdom” � Mercurial Mentions in IT

I think this has been a genuinely interesting conversation around the structure of the class.  The fact that you guys are engaging at this level suggests that you’ve got the hang of this “Wisdom of Crowds/Web 2.0″ stuff.  As an aside, I have been overwhelmingly pleased at the overall level of quality of blog posts.  I admit that I thought it was a bit of a gamble to introduce this requirement, but I think it has really added to the class.

So, I have been thinking about whether and why bonus points might be effective (incidentally, I am not particularly committed to it, it’s just worked in situations in the past).  Here’s why I think they might work.

1) It changes the audience.  With the professor giving the grades, you have an audience of 1 (me) with everyone else overhearing.  My fear is that the blog posts would become very academic, but not very interesting.  So, my hope is that the bonus points also make you think about what your classmates would enjoy.

2) It provides immediate feedback.  When you know what types of blog posts are likely to get rewarded, you are more likely to model on the successful posts.  Since I can’t grade until the end of the semester (and I’m glad I don’t, because my standards would have been way too low), students would have no guidance.

That said, I wonder whether it’s the transparency, not the bonus points, that create the desired effect.  What’s unusual about this educational model is that all the deliverables (save the exams) are public to other students.  Thus, you see what other students are doing and raise your own performance to match.  So, is it the bonus points or the transparency that has resulted in the strong in-class blogosphere?

I also wonder if its something about the blog platform itself.  Last year, I used a common class-wide blog that was interesting, but not nearly as high-quality as what is happening in this class.  Might it be that because you have an independent voice and virtual presence associated with you that you put more time and work into it?

Of course, I didn’t offer bonus points last year either….

Crowdsourcing, Groupthink, and the Wisdom of Crowds

Jonathan Healey asked an interesting question following my recent lecture on crowdsourcing.  He wondered at the difference and relationship between these similar concepts such as crowdsourcing, groupthink, and the wisdom of crowds.  I asked for his permission to post my response here.  My response is was as follows:

First, it should be noted that crowdsourcing, wisdom of crowds, and groupthink were developed completely independently from one another.  Any attempt to bring them together into a single, coherent understanding is being done after the fact (by me).  So, the end result might not be as clean as either of us would like.

• Crowdsourcing refers to a business process that involves turning some portion of one’s business to a “crowd” of people.  Here, I’d define crowd as a group of people for whom this business process is not an official part of their job.  So, Best Buy crowdsources internally through prediction markets.  P&G crowdsourced externally, to non-employees.
• The “wisdom of crowds” describes the conditions under which groups make consistently better decisions than any individual in the group (and group think the conditions under which group make consistently worse decisions than individual in the group.)
• Groupthink describes the conditions under which groups make consistently worse decisions than the individuals who comprise that group.

So, crowdsourcing is a process.  The wisdom of crowds are the conditions you want to have when crowdsourcing.

Best Buy Leverages the Wisdom of Crowds

Business – WSJ.com

This article is right on point with our discussion in class this week.  It talks about how Best Buy offers a so-called prediction market to leverage the collective wisdom of their employees.  I think a key point is that they offer employees a modest reward for succeeding (although a bit too modest if you ask me).  Its basically an efficient mechanism to ask employees to offer feedback on particular company initiatives.  Finding out what the front line employees think in a reliable way can be a powerful information tool.