Information Cascade

I found the talk that James Surowieki gave really interesting. What caught my full attention was this idea of diversity when speaking about the wisdom of crowds. It seems to make sense that the more diverse a group of people are, the greater the collection of knowledge will be to pull from. People from different economic, social, and financial backgrounds will most likely look at information from multiple perspectives. I guess what is challenging is figuring out what is credible. Surowieki mentions the idea of an information cascade, and this point can be illustrated through the first article about digg.com. Simply to me, it's the idea that the masses are always correct. If everyone thinks a restaurant or particular song or movie are quality, then I should as well. Information cascades are what drive sites like twitter and digg. Members promote their links and idea's and the more popular they are, the more people will most likely check them out.

Online networking communities can be a great resource. Beyond the social aspect of posting pictures and spying on people from the past, the potential to share meaningful information is available. LinkedIn has taken advantage of this idea. People have developed groups based on their particular industry and interests and can discuss topics posted by their members. I personally belong to a few industry groups and have found some quality links and information this way. What I am guilty of is not having a diverse spectrum of groups that I associate with. It makes sense that the broader your knowledge and interest, the greater your repertoire will be on a specific subject.