Crowds and groups
From Stayconscious
Ask MetaFilter – querying the hive mind
I hate my girlfriends little dog. I told her not to get it from the beginning. It's going to break us up. [more inside]
The internet is an explosion of noisy democracy, a vast crowd of individual but cooperating voices where every person has a right to express their opinion, ask their questions, give their answer.
- Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise. (Surowiecki, p. xix)
The net’s premier Q&A community! Your place to find out what people really think:
Has your opinion of Major League Baseball changed since the Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drug usuage among players was released? choose: Yes, no, or who cares?
On the other hand, the internet is the natural home of the homogenous group, even if its members are now dotted all over the globe.
- Homogeneous groups become cohesive more easily than diverse groups, and as they become more cohesive they also become more dependent on the group, more insulated from outside opinions... (ibid, p. 36)
The Experience Project – Discover People Like You
