I am excited to hear your the plans to tap into the collective intelligence of the nation (and possibly the world).
My rational mind has trouble grasping that from the diversity of the crowds and wisdom of collectives, come brilliance beyond belief. However, my life experiences both professionally and personally, continues to validate the power of the collective.
To that end - I recently ran across a company - BRIGHTIDEA (www.brightidea.com). I am investigating collective intelligence and collaboration tools. This one struck me to have covered some powerful components needed to open up idea generation to the public, with visibility, prioritization, and management.
You and your team may want to check them out if you have not already.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
I hear a lot of talk about citizen participation and public engagement, such as enabling citizens to track government decision-making and comment on it.
I'd like to offer some useful distinctions between
Al Gore made an intriguing comment about the presidential election at the recent Web 2.0 Summit: "One of the reasons we were all thrilled Tuesday night is it was pretty obvious this was a collectively intelligent decision."
See my reply in the "Obama, collective intelligence, and Current TV" entry of the Blog of Collective Intelligence.
Following the Obama campaign over the last few months has been an exciting and inspiring time. The campaign has been conducted brilliantly, and can be considered perhaps the most well executed and progressive Presidential campaign of all of time. Of all the many facets of the campaign, the utilization of the internet and social media has been extraordinary--and likely a fundamental factor in the overall success of the campaign. Here, I want to outline the components of this new media campaign strategy, explore the implications of this trend as it can follow into the Presidency, and speculate on how the advents of communication technology and socially-driven politics suggest the emergence of 21st century democracy, and evolution of social change.
I wrote about why I think that giving our shared attention to boost our collective IQ will be helpful to win the White House. Here, in this post, I want to share some of my fave resources that I believe can help with that not so easy but vital task. They include social technologies, centers, initiatives, websites, books, articles and various social practices, designed to take collective intelligence and wisdom to scale:
"collective intelligence" in Wikipedia
social technologies for boosting collective intelligence and wisdom in groups of any size:
A few days ago, I posted an excerpt from an editorial by two Yale students (David Manners-Weber and Justin Kosslyn) who, inspired by the Obama campaign rhetoric, put out a challenge to their peers to take action in their own neighborhoods. (Incidentally, there's a new site called The Point, which is designed to help people issue challenges, to others. I'll do X if 10 other people do Y.)
The Yale article intrigued Princeton graduate student Arvind Murugan, who wrote about the article on a few listservs which were, in turn, read by Philadelphia area residents who started collaborating through emails and impromptu meetings to launch a grassroots movement dubbed Obama Works. ObamaWorks is a means to create visible public service projects and inspire collective action.
On March 1, Philly residents will hold a "Philly Sweep" and it is expected that other neighborhood clean-ups will take place around NYU and Yale, too. As one of the authors wrote me, "I couldn't be more thrilled to let you know that, with the help of people I've never even met, words are getting turned into action."
Manners-Weber goes on to say in his email about my earlier blog posting: "In your post, you wrote of "people collaborating to improve their own social conditions." Well it looks like folks are starting to do just that - within 24 hours, 100 people signed up to participate in the "Obama Philly Sweep," where volunteers will be cleaning up the streets around the Graduate Hospital area."
Here is their press release:
Philadelphia, March 1, 2008... Within only 24 hours, 100 supporters of Barack Obama signed up for the first Obama Philly Sweep, which kicks off at 2227 Christian St. in the Graduate Hospital area on Saturday, March 1st, at 1:00 pm. Street cleaning tops the agenda for this community service event - signaling the start of a new breed of political campaign that brings volunteers together around a constructive purpose. The Obama Philly Sweep is the first local event hosted by Obama Works, a grassroots organization currently taking shape in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Obama Works intends to implement Barack Obama’s message of change through community service projects. According to organizer Amirah Naim, the group is “working to transcend our differences and transform our country.” Obama Works will sponsor additional clean-up efforts in other Philadelphia neighborhoods prior to March 24th, the voter registration deadline for the Pennsylvania primary election. After the primary, Obama Works will continue to develop and organize a variety of community service outreach projects.
Philadelphia, March 1, 2008... Within only 24 hours, 100 supporters of Barack Obama signed up for the first Obama Philly Sweep, which kicks off at 2227 Christian St. in the Graduate Hospital area on Saturday, March 1st, at 1:00 pm. Street cleaning tops the agenda for this community service event - signaling the start of a new breed of political campaign that brings volunteers together around a constructive purpose. The Obama Philly Sweep is the first local event hosted by Obama Works, a grassroots organization currently taking shape in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Obama Works intends to implement Barack Obama’s message of change through community service projects. According to organizer Amirah Naim, the group is “working to transcend our differences and transform our country.”
Obama Works will sponsor additional clean-up efforts in other Philadelphia neighborhoods prior to March 24th, the voter registration deadline for the Pennsylvania primary election. After the primary, Obama Works will continue to develop and organize a variety of community service outreach projects.
