If the task is to create, the task can be accomplished through collection, contest, or collaboration. Collection is useful when the task can be divided into small activities that can be done relatively independently of each other. YouTube and Flickr are examples of collections, as YouTubers and photographers upload videos independently of each other. A contest is useful when only a few good outcomes are needed, like for instance in the Threadless t-shirt contests. A collaboration should be used when the task cannot be divided into independent pieces, and the dependency among the pieces can be managed well. All Wikipedia articles, for instance, are collaborative. 

Create

If the task is to decide, the task will either require a group decision (every group member needs to abide by the same decision) or individual decisions (people can make their own decisions or tastes are highly varied).

Decide

This building block is split into two categories based on whether one is creating or deciding.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Despite the power collective intelligence holds, many businesses are not using it because they don’t understand how to do so. To shed some light on this confusion, a study at MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence analyzed almost 250 examples of web-enabled collective intelligence, and identified building blocks to explain how these systems function. These building blocks answer the following four questions: What is the task at hand? Who is doing it? Why are they doing it? How is it being done?

Building blocks explain how to use CI in companies

Malone, Thomas & Laubacher, Robert & Dellarocas, Chrysanthos. (2010). The Collective Intelligence Genome. IEEE Engineering Management Review. 38. 38-52. 10.1109/EMR.2010.5559142. 

The Collective Intelligence Genome

It is usually one (or both) of the following: create or decide. 

Creating is generating something new, like for example t-shirt designs. Deciding is evaluating and selecting the best choice among alternatives, like for example selecting among t-shirt designs.

Building block 1: What is the task at hand? 

Building block 2: Who is doing the task?

Motivators include money, love, and glory.

Love is defined as enjoyment of the activity, enjoyment of the opportunity to socialize with others via the activity, or feeling that one is contributing to a larger cause. Appealing to love and glory over money tends to reduce the costs. However, providing money and glory makes it easier to control the direction in which a crowd moves and how quickly they achieve the goal.

Building block 3: Why are people performing the task?

Building block 4: How is it being done?

Each gene and its variants have specific outcomes/goals and thus are best used in certain combinations and types of systems.  

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