wisdom

Why social media gives your doctor an ulcer

Some runner out there was a little overeager. A member of question-and-answer site Quora used the service to pose a burning question about a potentially reckless activity: "How do you train for a marathon with a stress fracture in your ankle or foot?" Seriously? Ouch.

Luckily, there happened to be a sports therapist who was reading. "There (are) plenty of marathons left in the world for you to do when the stress fracture has healed," the therapist warned. "The amount of training required for a marathon means that this will severely stress the bone if … Read more

The 'wisdom of crowds' loses steam

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. That popular aphorism never seemed truer than today when reading The Wall Street Journal's analysis of Wikipedia's declining volunteer base. Despite countless articles extolling the virtues and seeming omnipotence of "community" over the past several years, the technology industry seems to be settling back into old habits:

Command and control.

It's not that the "wisdom of crowds" idea hasn't influenced the way technology is developed, or how news and information are gathered and distributed. It has.

It's just that the … Read more

Crude fortune teller

MB I Ching Software is an unimaginative twist on using the principles of I Ching divination to answer your questions about life, love, and unhappiness.

The crude interface offers little in the way of guidance, but dedicated users will figure out that after entering their name and a question, they must click on a "toss coin" button six times to create two of the hexagrams from the Chinese classic text "The Book of Changes." The program then interprets the hexagrams to answer the question by providing a "judgment" and an "image." Both … Read more

Guardian angel finder

MB Guardian Angel allows users to find their guardian angels based on their day of birth, month of birth, and sun sign. What exactly this is based on, we don't know, but the program does provide the angels and their descriptions.

The interface, like many that of many programs from Mystic Board, is devoted in part to advertising; users are encouraged to contact Mystic Board to find out how they can "co-brand" and have their own advertising information appear within the software. Beyond that, the interface is tolerable, with a place for users to enter their name, … Read more

Kabbalah future reader

MB Kabbalah Astrology provides curious users with a glimpse of their future and their personality traits. While tackling a complex subject, we were pleasantly surprised by this program's user-friendliness.

This program has a simple to use interface, which is a clear benefit for those confused by the vast amount of information presented. With a user-friendly Kabbalah tree and highly readable information about an individual, we were pleased by this colorful display. While there are plenty of onscreen definitions and a comprehensive online Help file, users who are not familiar with this type of astrology might need to seek some … Read more

The power of the crowd, revisited

Almost three years after Jeff Howe coined the term in his seminal article "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," and, ironically, in the very week 1,300 handpicked scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and other thinkers, movers, and shakers assembled at the TED conference in Long Beach, the term "crowdsourcing" yielded more than 1 million search results on Google.

That's quite an accomplishment. Crowdsourcing is no longer an exclusive noun for a few in the know, it has become a verb for the crowd. Mom-and pop shops, SME's, and large corporations, receptionists, interns, middle managers, and CEOs – everyone'… Read more

The wisdom of the clouds: an introduction

Welcome.

With that single word, an ongoing discussion makes its leap from the pages of a humble Blogger.com blog to the illustrious address of http://blogs.cnet.com. My name is James Urquhart, and I am the author of The Wisdom of Clouds (now "The Wisdom of the Clouds"), an in depth look at cloud computing and its consequences for the enterprise and the individual. With a small but loyal following (that I hope actually makes the transition with me here), I'm proud of the influence that this blog has had on the cloud computing conversation.

For those that know me, rest assured that I will continue to look for the key insights into the technological, business and philosophical ideas that will drive cloud computing adoption, or even its resistance. I continue to be overwhelmed with both the challenges and opportunities surrounding cloud computing adoption. There is much to write about.

For those that don't know me, I hope to convince you that cloud computing is a revolutionary technology solution to some difficult business problems, and that while there is much to be excited about, a little skepticism is often in order here.

To give you a sense of what I write about, here is a list of the top 6 posts from the old incarnation of the blog:… Read more

Q&A: Jeff Howe on 'crowdsourcing'

In 2006, Wired magazine reporter Jeff Howe published a story about a phenomenon he'd been following in which the power of large numbers of people was being harnessed to make things happen that hadn't been possible before outside the auspices of corporations or other big institutions.

He called the phenomenon "crowdsourcing," and the term quickly caught on, joining others, like "tipping point," "wisdom of the crowds," "the long tail" as household phrases for the ways that things were changing all around us, often thanks to the democratizing reach of the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 776: The Dark Knight kills the Godfather

The wisdom of the crowds turns out to be simple mob rule, as Dark Knight fans not only mod up their new favorite movie but start modding down The Godfather on IMDB. Also, we do a probably wildly inaccurate (but, we think, hilarious) T. Boone Pickens impression because plain old financial stories are just not interesting enough. Oh, and Scrabulous is now gone from Facebook. So, you know, get back to work. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 776

Yahoo says DRM issue overblown by media, but will offer refunds http://www.betanews.com/article/Yahoo_says_DRM_issue_overblown_by_media_but_will_offer_refunds/1217287551

Microsoft goes … Read more

When the 'wisdom of crowds' turns on itself: IMDB edition

The concept of the "wisdom of crowds" is a fundamental building block of a lot of the Web 2.0 services that we see today. While not all of them are built on this core concept, major sites like Digg, Wikipedia, and Mahalo rely heavily on crowds being wise. There have been several instances of this system breaking down in the past, one notable occurrence being the infamous Digg HD-DVD revolt. On occasions like this, a mob mentality tends to take over a very vocal and active segment of a community, greatly skewing the product of their collective &… Read more