DMS BLOG 2

Can I make millions off Collective Intelligence?

Football is played in well over two hundred countries throughout the world, and is classified as the world game. If a player from one of these many countries is good enough, they are chosen to play for some of the biggest clubs throughout the world. This small group of players, who are only a few of the vast footballing fraternity, that is the beautiful game, are payed copious yet ridiculous amounts of money to play the game that they, along with  millions around the world, love.

Wayne Rooney has been in the media recently, with growing speculation over his future with current football club, Manchester United. Contract talks were in process, but as of late last week he signed a new contract, worth two-hundred and fifty thousand pounds ($395,000) a week, which equates to a measly figure of twelve and half million pounds ($20,540,000) a year. Is this lifestyle he has chosen, and the amount of money he gets paid pure luck, or could it possibly be the kind work of collective intelligence?

Collective Intelligence is professionally described as “the capacity of networked information communication technologies to exponentially enhance the collective pool of social knowledge by simultaneously expanding the extent of human interactions enabled by communications networks that can generate new knowledge, and the greatly enhanced capacity to codify, store, and retrieve such knowledge through collective access to networked databases”(Flew, 2008)

However Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams described collective intelligence as, “mass collaboration” and in order for this concept to transpire, four principles derived by them, must exist. (2008)

·      Openness: The sharing of ideas and intellectual property allows for greater benefit through experience and knowledge.

·      Peering: Allows for consumer modification. Gives the customer the chance to put fourth ideas and develop personalised products, along with generating further and future ideas for businesses.

·      Sharing: applies more to the producer of products in the way that companies must share some of their ideas in order to expand markets and produce products faster. Whereas, the withholding of ideas only limits opportunities.

·      Acting Globally: with worldwide communication and interaction so easily accessible these days, geographic location is no longer a boundary, and can produce new market existence. (Tapscott & Williams, 2008)

However, it is the fast-paced development of the digital media world that has allowed for this concept of collective intelligence of individuals, groups and businesses to really take off.   

New media has the capabilities to store media and retrieve information with far greater ease than ever before. Coinciding with the development of the Internet and worldwide databases, information and media, or better known as intelligence, now has the ability to be shared without difficulty. Interactive new media is the way of the future, tapping into the many wonderful aspects of the Internet allows for online participation and distinctive distribution channels for knowledge. As the following video shows, collective intelligence should not only be internally amongst groups and businesses; external intelligence sharing should also be used as it generates ideas, opens new windows and exposes untouched markets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQe8dWTbE2U

“Collective intelligence is not merely a quantitative contribution of information from all cultures, it is also qualitative.” (Flew,2008)People can put fourth their information for others to see (quantitative), but the opportunities that could be generated from that small bit of information by someone else, is priceless (qualitative).

The following video displays the uses of collective intelligence in the real world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cw6tchzm_w

There are many different ways in which this concept of collective intelligence can be interpreted. Many theorists have attempted to shape it around their particular professions and ideals, however one main concept derives around them all. The idea of communication and teamwork, the ability of individuals, groups and businesses to share knowledge amongst each other to generate new and fresh ideas.

So in what possible way, could my ambition of taking my professional career down the path of becoming an international football phenomenon, be related to this in-depth concept of collective intelligence.

All great players have to start somewhere; they have to begin their career at some stage in their life. All players are influenced by collective intelligence from the moment they step out onto the field, in football, collective intelligence is an on-going process. Knowledge is passed on from coach to coach, player to player, player to coach, coach to player, parent to player and sometimes even parent to coach, doesn’t matter how, collective intelligence is taking place. New tactics, skills, playing methods, medical treatments and accessory enhancements i.e knowledge or collective intelligence are developed daily by people all around the world and passed on to others. In football, an original set of tactics were developed, then gradually expanded upon until the set of tactics and ideas that teams embrace today. Tomorrow, a new idea will be generated on how to play the game in a different and potentially more successful way. Without the sharing of these ideas amongst individuals, groups and even football clubs, the game that is loved by so many worldwide, could never have developed or expanded into the enormity it is today. As for our example earlier, collective intelligence has made Wayne Rooney twelve and a half million pounds a year for the next five years. I’d like to think that we as a population continue to endorse the idea of collective intelligence, as maybe in the near future, lets say when I’m 24 (Wayne Rooney’s age) I’ll be making a quarter of what he is annually.

Reference:

Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. D.(2008). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, USA: Penguin Group

Flew, Terry (2008). New Media: an introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press