Harnessing the web 2.0 collective intelligence

1. TrinacriaCamp2007
The creativity machine
Harnessing the web 2.0 collective intelligence
Salvatore Loguercio
loguerci@chemistry.unina.it

2. Vernor Vinge:
“We humans have built a creativity machine. It’s the sum of three things: a
few hundred million computers, a communication system connecting
those computers, and some millions of human beings using those
computers and communications”.
Present-day Internet::Computers + networks + people: Web 2.0
As Tim Berners-Lee pointed out, many of the technology components
of quot;Web 2.0quot; have existed since the early days of the Web.
The “2.0-ness” is not something new, but rather a fuller realization
of the true potential of the web platform.
Stephen Fry:
“Web 2.0 is an idea in people’s heads rather than a reality”.

3. A glimpse into the cloud...

5. Source: T. O’Reilly, “What is Web 2.0”, 2005

6. The architecture of participation:
.The architecture of the Internet, and the WWW, as well as of Open
Source software projects like Linux, Apache, and Perl, is such that
users pursuing their own ‘selfish’ interests build collective
value as an automatic byproduct.
Key principle: Users add value
Web 2.0 systems get better the more people use
them. Successful services act primarily as intelligent
brokers, connecting the edges to each other and
harnessing the power of the users themselves.
Network effects by default:
Web 2.0 companies set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data and
building value as a side effect of ordinary use of the application.

7. Harnessing collective intelligence:
Turning the web into a kind of global brain.
Hyperlinking is the foundation of the web. Much as
synapses form in the brain with associations becoming
stronger through repetition or intensity, the web of
connections grows organically as an output of
collective activity of all web users.
Much of the infrastructure of the web (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP,
Python) relies on the peer-production methods of open source, in
themselves an instance of collective, net-enabled intelligence. Anyone
can add a project, anyone can download and use the code...
Folksonomy (in contrast to taxonomy):
Collaborative categorization of sites using freely chosen keywords (tags).
Tagging allows for multiple overlapping associations that the brain itself
uses, rather than rigid categories (Del.icio.us, Flickr)

8. Blogging and “the wisdom of crowds”
Blogosphere: RSS + permalink + trackbacks
You can subscribe to You can easily link to individual You can see when anyone else links
each others sites comments on a page to your pages, and can respond
Blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental
chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of
our heads. It is a reflection of conscious thought and
attention.
Like Wikipedia, blogging harnesses collective intelligence as a kind of
filter. The collective attention of the blogosphere selects for value.

9. Design for hackability and remixability
Systems like the original web, RSS and AJAX have this in common:
The barriers to re-use are extremely low.
The most successful web services are those
that have been easiest to take in new directions
unimagined by their creators.
Innovation in assembly:
When commodity components are abundant you can create value
simply by assembling them in novel or effective ways.

10. ...The same map nowadays
New
New
New
New
Web 2.0 meme map in 2005...

12. Viral marketing:
Recommendations propagating directly from one user to another.
*The greatest Internet success stories don’t advertise their products.
Virtual worlds (metaverses):
They provide a range of software tools that gives
participants the power to create artefacts. Thus the
game depends on the skill and creativity of its
participants to generate content.
Augmented reality:
Virtual worlds + web maps
The explosion of social networks

13. Opportunities for development
the already seen

14. Sensors

15. Wearable Computing
SUBSTRATE
LOCAL NETWORK INTERCONNECTIONS

16. Ambient Intelligence

17. Smart Dust Sensors
Invisible Computing,
Disappearing Electronics
Target Size ∼ 1 mm3
Target Price ∼ 1 US$

18. Wireless Sensor Networks: RFIDs
Chip (IC)
Antenna
Target Price ≤ 0.01 US $

19. Body implanted RFID

20. What about the future?

21. How Much Information Is Out There?
– World Information Content
• More than 15 Billion Web Pages by Yotta
end of 2002
Bytes
Annual Growth ∼100% Zetta
•
• World information content storaged Internet
All Books
Exa Today?
in analog and digital forms, MultiMedia
estimated by end of Year 2002, in
Peta
the order of several Exabytes (15-
All Books
100?)
(Words)
Tera
– Paper – Film –Optical –
Magnetic Storage A Movie
Giga
• Up 2 Exabytes were produced in
Year 1999, and 2.8 Exabytes are
A Photo
Mega
estimated for Year 2000
• About 5 Exabytes were produced in A Book
Kilo
Year 2002.
Annual Growth ∼ 30%
•
Source: Sims University of California at Berkeley, November 2003

22. Calculations per Second, 1900-2100
1045
1040
1035
Calculations per Second
1030
All Human Brains
1025
Yotta
Zetta
1020
Exa One Human Brain
Peta 1015
One Mouse Brain
Tera
1010
Giga
One Insect Brain
Mega 105
Kilo
100
10-5
10-10
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Time Source: R. Kurzweil, 1999

23. The Moore’s Wall
Performance
Moore’s
(log scale)
Wall
Integrated Computing
Circuit Techniques
• Molecular
Integrated • Quantum
Circuit • Genetic
• Biological
Transistor • Optical
Tube
1900 19461959 2015 2025

24. human interfaces

25. ...The Internet will have leaked out, to become coincident with Earth.
In the end, computers plus networks plus people add up to something
significantly greater than the parts.
The ensemble eventually grows beyond human creativity.
To become what? The answer will be limited only by our imaginations.