1. The Haiti Earthquake
2. Flooding in Alberta, Canada
3. The Boston Marathon Bombing


Examples of Collective Intelligence used in Crises

Scholars debate whether collective intelligence is best with orchestration or complete self-organization of the individuals or digital volunteers. Though there is a forming consensus that a mix of orchestration and self-organization might be best. There could be few individuals or groups as "puppetmasters" in which they help design and instruct the digital volunteers on how they should participate. Though after that considering the spread of social media the digital volunteers would have a great deal of freedom in which tasks they participate in. 

Orchestration or Self-organized Collective Intelligence 

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many others allow individuals to spread and organize information. The information or data can be pictures, locations, and ground-level facts. Aspects of social media like Hashtags allow individuals to group information into searchable categories. Facebook groups also allow for a way of organizing information. This information can then be spread to those in the affect population, officials, emergency responders, and world wide. 

How Collective Intelligence is used in Crises through Social Media

Digital Volunteers are those who use the internet in order to help communities during a crisis. While online activism doesn't always spur political attention or change during a crisis those that are heavily involved in online activism are able to impact the online attention the crisis receives. 

Digital Volunteers In a Crisis

While collective intelligence can be helpful it can also be harmful in a crisis. 

1. Reliability of information and who controls it
2. Communication and connection to officials

Issues with using Collective Intelligence During a Crisis

Collective Intelligence allows for a greater understanding of the problem and a way of gaining more data. The digital volunteers and the information they have garnered is a way of helping older agencies meet the needs of the community more effectively and faster than before. With budget cuts and outdated plans of action the digital volunteers are able to provide a more modern take about how best to solve the crisis.

Effects of Using Collective Intelligence during a Crisis

Collective Intelligence is believed to be best used in crises that involved crowdsourcing activities like analyzing data and building digital maps. Crises that involve man hunts can cause the collective to go off mission and attempt to be digital vigilantes.

Best Crisis to use Collective Intelligence

With the new wave of digital volunteering and the use of social media established agencies are in the process of trying to figure out their new roles and way of interacting during a crisis. 

Negotiating of Agency Roles in Crises 

Collective Intelligence in the modern age is having a big impact on how crises are seen and dealt with. Scholars are interested in how social media plays a role in the creation of collective intelligence during a crisis.  

Albion College

San Jose State University

Crisis informatics is a field of study that looks at the way the public uses social media and information technology during a crisis. More specifically how technology connects people and organizations to relevant information and how technology is used to create new ways of communication.  

Crisis Informatics

Clicktivism can allow for information to be spread easily regarding a crisis. The issue is that the information spread is not always accurate which can cause major issues in dealing with a crisis for example the Boston Marathon Bombing. Another issue is that Clicktivism has a timespan meaning that once the wow factor or drama is gone then so is the attention from digital volunteers.   

Clicktivism used in Crisis

- Gower's Collaborative Theorem
- Collective Intelligence in Early Humans
- Collective Intelligence in the Agricultural Revolution
- Collective Intelligence in the Industrial Revolution
- Collective Intelligence in Businesses
- Collective Intelligence in Crises

Examples of Collective Intelligence

Büscher, M., Liegl, M., & Thomas, V. (2014). Collective Intelligence in Crises. In J.  Stewart (Ed.), Social Collective Intelligence: Combining The Powers of Humans and Machines (pp. 243–265). Springer International Publishing. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08681-1__12

Collective Intelligence in Crises

Using Collective Intelligence in Crises

Clicktivism is a way that individuals can show support for different political and social causes through social media posts and petitions. This type of support requires little to no effort or commitment and often looked down upon because of it.

Clicktivism

1. Economic Crisis
2. Cultural/Social Crisis
3. Political Crisis
4. Natural Disasters 
5. Terrorism 
6. Pandemic or widespread disease 
7. Nuclear or Chemical Crisis
8. War 

Types of Crisis

1. Too much or not enough (needed) information
2. The types of information needed during a crisis changes at various stages of the crisis
3. All the actors and organizations who are involved are constantly increasing the amount of information 
4. Creating a channel for information to be easily shared with the right individuals
5. Creating connections between informal and formal channels 
6. Uncertainty of the reliability of the information 
7. Uncertainty of the trustworthiness of sources
8. Dealing with conflicting information 

Information Challenges during a Crisis 

1. Examing and understanding the importance of knowledge in the different stages during crisis response and recovery
2. Create a system that can analyze the information-seeking procedures and information needs during a crisis
3. Learn about how technology can support communities going through a crisis
4. Understanding how technology impacts the integration and organization of information 

Goals of the Crisis Informatics Feild

During a crisis, social media is used to spread information. Anyone can take part in the spreading of information which can be bad. Trust during a crisis is important and if individuals' social media posts are not regulated or fact-checked like those belonging to an organization or agency misinformation spreads. Rumor's and misinformation can cause panic and lead to resources being spent on false leads.

Social Media is Unregulated: Double-edge Sword 

Considered a subcategory of Sociology disaster researchers uses mainly qualitative methods to record/capture perishable data that arises in social fields (comunication/social media) during non-rotuine situations (disasters/crises).  

Disaster Studies

The Boston Marathon Bombing happened in 2013. FBI lead crowdsourcing in an attempt to gain photos and videos on the Marathon. The FBI was able to find a photograph of a suspect and asked for help with the identification. The digital volunteers did more than that they launched their own investigation eventual falsely accusing two men of being the perpetrators. The FBI did eventually find the real perpetrators.  

Collective Intelligence During The Boston Marathon Bombing

Google uses the collective intelligence of the entire web to present impressively accurate answers to questions typed into the Google search engine. Wikipedia is the world’s largest encyclopedia, offering high quality information with practically no centralized control. The clothing company Threadless allows people to submit t-shirt designs to a weekly contest, then produces a select few designs from those that are most highly rated by users. So this means that for businesses, collective intelligence can be used to (a) know consumer desires and (b) create products that satisfy these desires at little to no cost.

Examples of the success of collective intelligence in companies

In 2009 Tim Gower's attempted to conduct a mathematical theorem using massive collaboration. By way of a blog he invited anyone on the internet to collaborate in providing a theorem. Ultimately the project included 39 people that made a total of over 1500 comments 

Gower’s Collaborative Theorem

Early humans used social skills to work together to protect themselves from predators and to successfully hunt. Communication proved an invaluable tool in allowing for this arrangement. 


Early Humans and Collective Intelligence

Diversified and specialized social roles developed with the agricultural revolution. This required many people doing many more specific tasks. The result was the vast growth of the human population from 12,000 years ago until 1700 CE. This was facilitated by advancements in communication, such as writing. 

Collective Intelligence in the Agricultural Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, starting in the 1700s, marked a period of significant collective intelligence and productivity growth. Factories and machines, combined with innovative organizational methods, increased productivity. For example, the division of labor in a pin factory led to substantial efficiency gains. This era also saw the rise of larger communities, such as the global scientific community, facilitated by evolving information technologies. The world population grew from 600 million to over 7 billion in 300 years, highlighting human dominance over the planet, which now presents its own challenges. These outcomes were not solely due to individual intelligence but the result of collectively intelligent groups of people and their technologies.

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