The creativity machineHarnessing the web 2.0 collective intelligence

Salvatore Loguerciologuerci@chemistry.unina.it

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.