James Surowiecki’s book mentioned in this chapter outlines four elements to create a so-called “wise crowd,” one that can make decisions better than experts. These include “diversity of opinion” and “independence.” Since social groups online seem to form crowds of many like-minded people, what caution would you give someone using information they find from a socialized website or resource?
Diversity within groups allows for the collaboration of material, and a synergistic effect when problem solving. It allows people to think together and feed off each others ideas. Social groups that form online usually have people that either think alike or are interested in the same opinions and ideas. I have been apart of many groups in college, and most of the time I was able to use other group members knowledge to figure out a problem or create an idea for a paper. Each person adds there bit of information and it creates an atmosphere of flowing ideas that produce a greater outcome. Online social groups need to take precautions around biases that people in that group hold. When people join a group it is usually something they are interested in or already have an opinion about. Bias is a huge downfall in socialized websites. You can't take anything for granted because it might not be factually based. If people are aware of the opinions within their group they can look passed the bias and evaluate the factual part of their opinions. People in social groups need to look passed the information they need, and try to form factual based decisions that eliminate bias.
No comments:
Post a Comment