Distributed intelligence

[Amanda Credaro <abcredaro@OZEMAIL.COM.AU>]

Dear Providers of Collective Wisdom,

Just recently devoured Michael Crichton’s book “Prey”; followed by an
extravagant desert of information on the topic of distributed intelligence.
Not the digital type, where
networked computers can work on a problem by using the processing power and
memory capabilities of multiple machines simultaneously.

Fascinating though that is, in the Real (rather than virtual) World, the
theory is extended to demonstrate how “collective wisdom” in a group of
different personality types; with diverse opinions, perspectives,
experiences, training etc excels in the Problem Solving game, compared with
any single specialist/expert.

Which I guess is why LM_net does what it does, and does it so well!!!

---------------------------------------------------------

For those that might be interested in further reading, see the book “The
Wisdom of Crowds”
More information at
http://www.argospress.com/jbt/xref/book-0385503865.htm

Publisher’s review of “Prey” is available at
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/title.cfm?ISBN=073227849X&Author=0009791
<http://www.harpercollins.com.au/title.cfm?ISBN=073227849X&Author=0009791>
or http://tinyurl.com/58z8t

The Tiny http://tinyurl.com/5qq29 is a Google-cached book review of
“Changing Maps: Governing in a world of Rapid Change” (Rosell, et al), which
gives a good overview of the philosophy/theory of distributed intelligence
outside the digital realm.

For an educational perspective, see the discussion paper by Pete Bradshaw on
the topic the use of online communities for professional learning at:
http://www.cybertext.net.au/tct2002/disc_papers/community/bradshaw.htm

There’s also an article by Dr. Shann Turnbull.  Be forewarned.  This article
is *not* a “light read”.  It’s been included here as it provides a
commercial and human resource management perspective on DI.  As the article
also contains some political commentary, skip through to Paragraph 22 to get
to the DI content :-)

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=886


Hope this is of interest.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amanda Credaro

Editor: Warrior Librarian Weekly
http://www.warriorlibrarian.com <http://www.warriorlibrarian.com/>
Author: Biblia’s Guide to Warrior Librarianship
http://warriorlibrarian.com/buythebook.html
<http://warriorlibrarian.com/buythebook.html>
Day Job: Project Officer – Center for Learning Innovation, OTEN

 E-mail:  amanda.credaro@det.nsw.edu.au
<mailto:amanda.credaro@det.nsw.edu.au>   (work)

            abcredaro@ozemail.com.au <mailto:abcredaro@ozemail.com.au>
(home)


--------------------------------------------------------------------
All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET  2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL  4) SET LM_NET DIGEST  * Allow for confirmation.
LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/
LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------