On April 26, Associate Prof. Chris Dellarocas from Boston University will hold a seminar;

Harnessing Crowds: Mapping the Genome of Collective Intelligence

Abstract

Over the past decade, the rise of the Internet has enabled the emergences of surprising new forms of collective intelligence. Examples include Google, Wikipedia, Threadless, and many others. To take advantage of the possibilities these new systems represent, it is necessary to go beyond just seeing them as a fuzzy collection of "cool" ideas. What is needed is a deeper understanding of how these systems work.

In this talk I offer a new framework to help provide that understanding. The framework identifies the underlying building blocks - to use a biological metaphor, the "genes" - at the heart of collective intelligence systems. These genes are defined by the answers to two pairs of key questions:

The framework distills the genes of collective intelligence - the possible answers to these key questions - and shows how combinations of genes comprise a "genome" that characterizes each collective intelligence system. In addition, it describes the conditions under which each gene is useful and the possibilities for combining and re-combining these genes to harness crowds effectively.

Using this framework, managers can systematically consider many possible combinations of genes as they seek to develop new collective intelligence systems.

This talk is based on joint work with T. W. Malone and R. Laubacher of MIT. An article draft is available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1381502

Short Bio

Chrysanthos (Chris) Dellarocas is an Associate Professor of Management at Boston University. He previously taught at MIT, NYU and the University of Maryland. He studies the implications of user-generated content and social media on strategy, marketing and open innovation as well as how such media should be designed to induce optimal economic and social outcomes. He holds 9 patents and serves on the editorial boards of Management Science and Information Systems Research and the advisory board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT.

Practical information

The seminar takes place on Monday April 26, 10:30-12:00 on Howitzvej 60, 6th floor. The seminar is open to all and participation is free. Please register no later than April 23 by sending an e-mail to Anni Olesen: ao.inf@cbs.dk.