Quiet Revolution Underfoot, but unstoppable
Draft
What if there is a quiet revolution underfoot that can bring democracy to the totalitarian corners of the world far more effectively that American imperialism–cultural or military– now in Iraq under the guise of "liberation?" What if, in addition, this movement is virtually unstoppable.
Just as the web helped bring one million Ukranians to the streets of Budapest weeks ago to protest first and then prevent a rigged election. Just as the web helped organize 35 million street protesters last year around the world in hundreds of places to demonstrate simultaneously against the US war against Iraq.
Blogging is the new web tech-use exploding that promises to give power to the people, ordinary folk everywhere, regardless of government and media Powers That Be (PTB). It is already changing the media, both print and broadcast media and journalism.
It was the Bloggers who brought down Trent Lott after the main media ignored his unwise racist remarks in the Senate. Other brief examples (to follow). It was the Bloggers who brought down CBS and Dan Rather. etc.
Our society usually trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses. Yet New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues and demonstrates, IMO, that in certain instances, it is the group that is smarter than the smartest ones in the group. The TV audience of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire guesses correctly 91 percent of the time compared to the experts who guess correctly only 65%. (Surowiecki, Wisdom of the Crowd, Doubleday, 2004)
Even if, says Surowiecki, group members don’t know all the facts or, individually, choose toacti irrationally. Four conditions, according to S are necessary. I would add another to make five.
(1) diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another; (3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions.
Diversity brings in different perspectives and data; independence keeps people from being swayed by a single bias or dominant talker; people's errors balance each other out; and when all opinions are included, smarter results are guaranteed than if a single expert had been in charge. My number five is that we need a few bold, creative, risk takers to stir the pot. The American Revolution started with a few patriots. Bloggging revolution started with a few hundred nerds who loved to surf the net and connect and challenge one another. It did not take off until 9/11.
Guess what? With those 4 conditions, you just stepped into the Blogging world, or blogosphere. All of these conditions match up.
Diversity of opinion - Bloggers publish hundreds of thousands of posts daily, each one charged with the writer's unique opinion.
Independence of members - Bloggers are not controlled by anyone else.
Decentralization - Publish your blog anywhere you want with any tool you want. There is no central authority.
A method for aggregating opinions - Internet syndication of your post (or Blog feeds ) make aggregation easy. There are multiple services that take advantage of that fact.
See, for more discussion.
http://www.blogger.com/knowledge/2004/07/wisdom-of-blogs.pyra
What if there is a quiet revolution underfoot that can bring democracy to the totalitarian corners of the world far more effectively that American imperialism–cultural or military– now in Iraq under the guise of "liberation?" What if, in addition, this movement is virtually unstoppable.
Just as the web helped bring one million Ukranians to the streets of Budapest weeks ago to protest first and then prevent a rigged election. Just as the web helped organize 35 million street protesters last year around the world in hundreds of places to demonstrate simultaneously against the US war against Iraq.
Blogging is the new web tech-use exploding that promises to give power to the people, ordinary folk everywhere, regardless of government and media Powers That Be (PTB). It is already changing the media, both print and broadcast media and journalism.
It was the Bloggers who brought down Trent Lott after the main media ignored his unwise racist remarks in the Senate. Other brief examples (to follow). It was the Bloggers who brought down CBS and Dan Rather. etc.
Our society usually trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses. Yet New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues and demonstrates, IMO, that in certain instances, it is the group that is smarter than the smartest ones in the group. The TV audience of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire guesses correctly 91 percent of the time compared to the experts who guess correctly only 65%. (Surowiecki, Wisdom of the Crowd, Doubleday, 2004)
Even if, says Surowiecki, group members don’t know all the facts or, individually, choose toacti irrationally. Four conditions, according to S are necessary. I would add another to make five.
(1) diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another; (3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions.
Diversity brings in different perspectives and data; independence keeps people from being swayed by a single bias or dominant talker; people's errors balance each other out; and when all opinions are included, smarter results are guaranteed than if a single expert had been in charge. My number five is that we need a few bold, creative, risk takers to stir the pot. The American Revolution started with a few patriots. Bloggging revolution started with a few hundred nerds who loved to surf the net and connect and challenge one another. It did not take off until 9/11.
Guess what? With those 4 conditions, you just stepped into the Blogging world, or blogosphere. All of these conditions match up.
Diversity of opinion - Bloggers publish hundreds of thousands of posts daily, each one charged with the writer's unique opinion.
Independence of members - Bloggers are not controlled by anyone else.
Decentralization - Publish your blog anywhere you want with any tool you want. There is no central authority.
A method for aggregating opinions - Internet syndication of your post (or Blog feeds ) make aggregation easy. There are multiple services that take advantage of that fact.
See, for more discussion.
http://www.blogger.com/knowledge/2004/07/wisdom-of-blogs.pyra
posted by Paschal Baute at 11:33 AM
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