the creativity machine
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Harnessing the web 2.0 collective intelligenceTRANSCRIPT
The creativity machineHarnessing the web 2.0 collective intelligence
Salvatore [email protected]
TrinacriaCamp2007
Vernor Vinge:“We humans have built a creativity machine. It’s the sum of three things: a few hundred million computers, a communication system connecting those computers, and some millions of human beings using those computers and communications”.
As Tim Berners-Lee pointed out, many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.
Stephen Fry:“Web 2.0 is an idea in people’s heads rather than a reality”.
Present-day Internet::Computers + networks + people: Web 2.0
The “2.0-ness” is not something new, but rather a fuller realization of the true potential of the web platform.
A glimpse into the cloud...
Source: T. O’Reilly, “What is Web 2.0”, 2005
The architecture of participation:.The architecture of the Internet, and the WWW, as well as of Open Source software projects like Linux, Apache, and Perl, is such that users pursuing their own ‘selfish’ interests build collective value as an automatic byproduct.
Key principle: Users add valueWeb 2.0 systems get better the more people use them. Successful services act primarily as intelligent brokers, connecting the edges to each other and harnessing the power of the users themselves.
Network effects by default:Web 2.0 companies set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data and building value as a side effect of ordinary use of the application.
Harnessing collective intelligence:Turning the web into a kind of global brain.
Much of the infrastructure of the web (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP, Python) relies on the peer-production methods of open source, in themselves an instance of collective, net-enabled intelligence. Anyone can add a project, anyone can download and use the code...
Folksonomy (in contrast to taxonomy):Collaborative categorization of sites using freely chosen keywords (tags). Tagging allows for multiple overlapping associations that the brain itself uses, rather than rigid categories (Del.icio.us, Flickr)
Hyperlinking is the foundation of the web. Much as synapses form in the brain with associations becoming stronger through repetition or intensity, the web of connections grows organically as an output of collective activity of all web users.
Blogging and “the wisdom of crowds”
Blogosphere: RSS + permalink + trackbacks
You can subscribe to each others sites
You can easily link to individual comments on a page
You can see when anyone else links to your pages, and can respond
Like Wikipedia, blogging harnesses collective intelligence as a kind of filter. The collective attention of the blogosphere selects for value.
Blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It is a reflection of conscious thought and attention.
Design for hackability and remixability
Systems like the original web, RSS and AJAX have this in common:The barriers to re-use are extremely low.
Innovation in assembly:When commodity components are abundant you can create value simply by assembling them in novel or effective ways.
The most successful web services are those that have been easiest to take in new directions unimagined by their creators.
Web 2.0 meme map in 2005...
New
NewNew
New
...The same map nowadays
Viral marketing:Recommendations propagating directly from one user to another.*The greatest Internet success stories don’t advertise their products.
Augmented reality:Virtual worlds + web maps
The explosion of social networks
Virtual worlds (metaverses):They provide a range of software tools that gives participants the power to create artefacts. Thus the game depends on the skill and creativity of its participants to generate content.
Opportunities for development
the already seen
Sensors
Wearable Computing
SUBSTRATE
LOCAL NETWORKLOCAL NETWORK INTERCONNECTIONSINTERCONNECTIONS
Ambient Intelligence
Smart Dust Sensors
Target Target SizeSize ∼∼ 1 mm31 mm3Target Price Target Price ∼∼ 1 US$1 US$
Invisible Computing,Disappearing Electronics
Wireless Sensor Networks: RFIDs
Chip (IC)
Antenna
Target Price ≤ 0.01 US $
Body implanted RFID
What about the future?
How Much Information Is Out There?
– World Information Content• More than 15 Billion Web Pages by
end of 2002• Annual Growth ∼100%• World information content storaged
in analog and digital forms, estimated by end of Year 2002, in the order of several Exabytes (15-100?) – Paper – Film –Optical –
Magnetic Storage• Up 2 Exabytes were produced in
Year 1999, and 2.8 Exabytes are estimated for Year 2000
• About 5 Exabytes were produced in Year 2002.
• Annual Growth ∼ 30%
Yotta
Zetta
Exa
Peta
Tera
Giga
Mega
KiloA Book
A Movie
All Books(Words)
All BooksMultiMedia
A Photo
Internet Today?
Bytes
Source: Sims University of California at Berkeley, November 2003
Calculations per Second, 1900-2100
YottaZetta
ExaPeta
TeraGigaMega
Kilo
10-10
10-5
100
105
1010
1015
1020
1025
1030
1035
1040
1045
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
Calc
ulat
ions
per
Seco
nd
Time
All Human Brains
One Human Brain
One Mouse Brain
One Insect Brain
Source: R. Kurzweil, 1999
ComputingTechniques
• Molecular• Quantum• Genetic• Biological• Optical
1900 2015 20251959
Performance(log scale)
IntegratedCircuit
Moore’sWall
Tube
Transistor
1946
IntegratedCircuit
The Moore’s Wall
human interfaces
...The Internet will have leaked out, to become coincident with Earth.
In the end, computers plus networks plus people add up to something significantly greater than the parts.
The ensemble eventually grows beyond human creativity.
To become what? The answer will be limited only by our imaginations.