Web 2.0 and Collective Intelligence

As most of us know, the internet has become a very useful tool in our everyday lives and we can gather nearly endless amounts of information from it that helps direct our lives. We can go shopping, study for an exam, find recipes, find out how to fix the car, build a website, and much more. And what’s interesting is that any of this information we might seek can be provided to us by different people who can live in a variety of different places around the world.

The concept of lots of people putting their ideas together is collective intelligence and has, over the past few years, become the central principle behind Web 2.0. For example, businesses doing business on the internet are tailoring their marketing strategies based on consumer feedback, which is not necessarily the consumer’s purchase of a product, but also where they go once they land on a webpage or what comments they might make while they are there. The information that businesses are able to cultivate from end users directs how that business will market itself on the internet.

For clarification purposes, Web 2.0 is not an application. Rather it’s a conceptual term used in the study of internet advancement and growth. And the research into this field of study indicates that today’s internet business successes are those who have developed techniques and strategies that harness collective intelligence. Yahoo.com is one example of this.

Ebay is another success story of harnessing collective intelligence. Ebay exists because of the collective user activity, whether users are sellers or buyers. This website grows organically from the activity that takes place within it and the company itself enables that activity by providing a context for that activity to take place in and that meets the needs of the users.

Another example of collective intelligence as it relates to its influence in Web 2.0 can be found in the use of open source models. Open source has been around for awhile, and as an example, is what the Linux operating system and the Wikipedia website are founded on. Open source allows users to access interactive communities and production models, use them, as well as make contributions to their improvement. Today Wikipedia is in the top one-hundred of search engine results and is anticipated to be in the top ten in the very near future.

There’s a huge business advantage for any business that employs the concept of collective intelligence. The main one is that a Web 2.0 company, in the end, makes more money. Logically speaking, when users are contributing to the development and advancement of that internet company, that company is saving money in development costs and can then redirect that saved money into other areas of its growth. Additionally, when people make a contribution to something, they feel more of connection to whatever they are contributing to, which can translate into a loyalty to a company and their products or services. In one sense collective intelligence can become a means of networking and is the key to market success in Web 2.0.