The document discusses crowds both online and in the real world. It notes that Wikipedia had nearly 4 million views and over 2,000 edits by 1,000 individuals for one page on kittens. Online crowds have real impacts, as server farms accounted for 14% of global carbon emissions in 2007, expected to rise to 18% by 2020. The document suggests crowds on sites like Facebook and FixMyStreet are large but can be harnessed for good or wasted opportunities, and that digital crowds could help solve problems if companies focused them on issues rather than ads. It ends by questioning what could be done if more harnessed crowds for good causes.

1. Crowds
Ross Breadmore
November 2011
Page 1 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

2. This slide deck was created to
precede a panel session on crowd
behaviour, and as such only took
five minutes to present.
The following may, or may not, make
sense.
Page 2 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

3. Wikipedia page
To examine
crowds, I started
with kittens.
Where else?
Page 3 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

4. Behind the kitten hide
some big crowd
numbers, such as
3,948,381* views…
*a rough estimate
Page 4 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

5. …and 2,178
edits, by over
1,000
individuals.
Page 5 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

6. Co2 output
• Intro These numbers are
amazing, and show real
crowd behaviour, but
crowds online have a
real world impact,
including pollution.
Page 6 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

7. Co2 output
• Intro Server farms accounted
for 14% of global
MtCO2e emissions in
2007, expected to be
18% by 2020
Source: SMART 2020: enabling the low carbon economy in the information age
RE
CENT
D ATA
Page 7 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

8. Facebook page
• Intro
Elsewhere,
platforms like
Facebook house
enormous crowds…
Page 8 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

9. • Intro
…and sites like
FixMyStreet show
how such crowds
can be harnessed
for good…
Page 9 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

10. • Intro
…but sometimes
the crowd
opportunity is
wasted 
Page 10 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

11. Cow Clicker
• Intro
“If instead of pointing their incredible
infrastructure at making people click
on ads, what if they pointed it at great
unsolved problems in science, how
would the world be different today?”
Jeff Hammerbacher, former Facebook research scientist
Page 11 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

12. • Intro
Some are learning
to harness digital
crowds for good…
Page 12 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

13. …BUT WHAT IF MORE
DID?
This is where I finished, and
sat down.
Page 13 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011

14. Thank you!
@rossbreadmore
nixonmcinnes.co.uk
Page 14 | Fabrica / Crowds | November 2011