This summer I attended a conference session that was called "The wisdom of crowds." The presenter talked about research about how crowds as a whole are smarter than individuals by themselves. He presented cases where companies and government agency use the wisdom of crowds to solve complex problems. He went on to explain that this is exactly why a lot of the open source software on the Internet is outstanding. Individuals from all walks of life work on this programs for free.
The point he stressed was that a diverse crowd from all walks of life, education, ethnicity, beliefs, and etc were very smart and able to solve huge problems much better than one single individual. Even if the individual is the smartest person on the planet. He went on to say the the key here is that the crowd must be diverse. He went on to demonstrate how the wisdom of a room full of lawyers or a room full of PhDs would, in essence be the opposite. In other words, a bunch of smart people together does not get smarter. The key again , is diversity.
Why am I talking about this? I am talking about this ause I experienced
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Orientation
Reflections:
Several things just simply stood out in my mind; made an impression during the OLLU Orientation. The enormous pride that the faculty and staff took in what they affectionately kept calling "The Lake." Another thing was the compassion and care they took on us.
It was amazing to see how so many of my future peers were writing notes. While I was busy typing notes into my phone computer.
Several things just simply stood out in my mind; made an impression during the OLLU Orientation. The enormous pride that the faculty and staff took in what they affectionately kept calling "The Lake." Another thing was the compassion and care they took on us.
It was amazing to see how so many of my future peers were writing notes. While I was busy typing notes into my phone computer.
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