Write a narrative description of the project(s). What is it, who is it designed for, what is it designed to do, what kind of technology does it explore, why should we care about it, where will we see or what is the project’s life beyond the classroom, how does it make a difference?
Due to the nature of the topic that I’m exploring, I could take my project in several different directions. The more I research the idea of ‘collective intelligence’ and the implications found therein, the more I find particular facets of it that I’d like to extrapolate on. Thus, the projects proposed below are not really similar by any means, but all touch on some part of the same broader topic. So now I just need to figure out what idea would truly be best to follow through with. Hopefully some feedback from the class will help with that. Until then, I’m throwing all my ideas out there to be considered.
Regardless of what project I end up working with, the goals and parameters for these ideas are the same. The projects are designed for people who are involved with and contribute to rich media online. By rich media I am not simply referring to things like audio and video and interactive animations, I am also referring to any online content generated by newer technology and outlets such as Web 2.0 technology, data driven content, blogs, feeds, wikis, open source communities, etc. Essentially, anyone who uploads content or participates in some Web format where they generate content and share information is a good candidate for my projects.
With all these potential projects I wish to explore the nature of collective intelligence and demonstrate how we as users and participants are the ‘super computer’ as opposed to it being an entity separate from us. People can talk forever about how powerful this technology is making us and how it is making so much information accessible to us. Yet, I do not see much in terms of showing what implications all this online participation brings with it. Is collective intelligence really a good thing? We see it in such a positive light – perhaps because it is still a novel concept to us – but what is it really doing? What about collective intelligence is bad? Is an entry on a Wikipedia page really true just because the consensus says so? Is collective intelligence truly ‘intelligent’? Or is it just a way for the masses to dumb down information to a more accessible level? And if that’s the case, what’s good and bad about that? What about things like Google? In a sense, Google knows (or at least has access to) everything that we choose to make available online. In the end, does this help us or hurt us as we continue to break down the walls of privacy to reveal ourselves to the virtual world? And what of this virtual world? How is it different from any other realm where we share and access information such as libraries, classrooms, water cooler conversations, eavesdropping while walking in a public space, etc.?…These questions could go on and on. What I’d like to do with all these questions is explore them a bit more and then pose them for others to see and think about. By doing so, it is my hope that people might better understand their place in this vast ‘super computer’ they’re contributing to and perhaps recognize a greater social responsibility they have to it than they might not have otherwise considered. I want to force people to step back from this ‘organized chaos’ that is the Web and have them explore more of this virtual, yet so real, space that they occupy. Collective intelligence demonstrates that people truly do have power and a voice in this world; and I want to demonstrate to people just how important this power truly is.
With all this being said, allow me to introduce my project ideas…
Idea #1 – Wikipedia Sabotage
Execution: Add my own content to a Wikipedia page related to the idea of collective intelligence which creates a disruption/debate to what is being said on the page. This could either be a page that is already well-developed with good information, or one that is seriously lacking in content and validity (which would be hysterically ironic…see image below). I will document what happens and create a blog space to post my findings and generate further discussion about the topic. I am interested to see what reactions I get as I literally put the idea of collective intelligence into practice. My hypothesis is that the results will prove to be somewhat ironic.
Purpose: To create a disturbance in how people view the idea of collective intelligence and to observe and measure how quickly and to what extent people respond to my posts. It is my hope that people will recognize my posts as valid points in this discussion of what constitutes as collective intelligence and will serve to demonstrate just how powerful this ‘intelligence’ is as people work together to discuss this very topic. If this experiment does not foster any worthwhile findings, I will try the same thing through other venues and compare how people respond there as opposed to Wikipedia.
What it shows: This project will show how people work together to define an aspect of collective intelligence – the act of which might prove somewhat ironic. If my entries are deleted right away, what does that tell me about collective intelligence? That my contribution isn’t valid or ‘intelligent’ enough? Wouldn’t that disprove the meaning of collective intelligence? This project will also show how people respond to my demonstration of this act – which also will generate an interesting perspective on how people work collectively to treat the idea of collective intelligence.
Idea #2 – Video demonstration
Execution: create a video that puts together all the research and implications of collective intelligence that I have studied. This video would be similar to work done by Michael Wesch such as his video “The Machine is Us/ing Us (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE) and will set out to demonstrate all the implications – both good and bad – that the Web as a platform is affording us. This video will be posted on high traffic venues such as YouTube and will be tracked to monitor responses and see what sort of reactions I can generate.
Purpose: to raise questions and generate awareness to users about their role in this virtual space not only in terms of the impact all this has, but also on the responsibility that lies in people’s hands.
What it shows: an overview of the nature of collective intelligence and what it really implies for us and what we really imply for it.
Idea #3 – “The Global Google Brain”
Execution: Create an interactive online Flash experience that takes people through all the ways (both good and bad) that Google represents our collective brain. Google now has the ability to know everything that exists online and more. This intelligence was generated all by our own participation and collective intelligence; and while many people view this as quite the amazing phenomena, what does having a ‘Google Brain’ really mean?
Purpose: to demonstrate the major impact Google has is the virtual universe and how this trickles down to our non-virtual livelihoods. It will serve as an interactive learning tool that allows people to discover for themselves some issues and implications with Google that they might not yet have considered and help them understand how they contribute to this.
What it shows: since Google is essentially an umbrella that represents the entirety of the web, this project will show people on an individual basis where they fit in this huge space and how they are affecting it, and how Google (and everyone else who uses a Google product) is in turn affecting them. It is a way to give people a different perspective on the whole collective issue by approaching it from a Google slant.
Idea #4 – Garden of Intelligence
Execution: Create a web space that shows data from collective intelligence sites like Wikipedia, del.icio.us, and others in the form of a garden that grows in real time depending on when new entries are posted. When people visit this site, they can choose what ‘garden’ they’d like to watch growing and then sit back and watch as flowers, trees, bushes, etc. pop up every time an update is made to whatever blog or site they are monitoring. This can also be downloaded as a desktop widget so that people can always have a pretty view of their ‘collective intelligence gardens’ that people are growing together. Every element in the garden can also be clicked on and link you directly to the specific entry that “planted” the new flower in the first place.
Purpose: to serve as a personalized data visualization of people’s own collective intelligence units that they participate in. It is a real time way for people to watch how quickly and to what extent others are participating in the spaces that they care about and gives people a new way of being aware of the part they play in this space.
What it shows: it shows on a more ‘local’ level how people’s individual contributions to something that you participate in can grow into something large and important. It is a way to show people how working together builds something new that can affect you daily and how others also see the view that you are seeing and co-creating. It also measures on a moment-to-moment basis how ‘healthy’ your intelligence garden is and can make people more aware of how too many contributions can create clutter or how too few contributions can make for a sparse garden of intelligence. In a way, this could serve as a new approach to visualizing folksonomy.
Updated Venn Diagram:
Here’s where all my projects fall into the grand scheme of things…
