‘Us Now’ & The Wisdom Of Crowds
Posted by anastasia on 09-16-2009
I have a friend who often hosts “Couch Surfers” here in San Francisco and has used the site while traveling as well. I remember chatting about it with him and asking that predictable question, “Is it safe?” Last night I saw the documentary Us Now, which highlights the potential of the internet and especially collaborative filtering and crowdsourcing to transform our culture and ultimately governments around the world. You can watch the film online for free — it’s fairly UK centric, with North American thinkers like Clay Shirky and Don Tapscott offering perspective as well. It also focuses on the positive potential of the wisdom of crowds while warning that technology will not bring about a utopian vision either. While the film didn’t focus on youth per se, it did raise some of the issues around transparency engaging with your fans/consumers online that Meredith wrote about recently here.
Here’s what I took away…
Couch Surfing is the new hosteling. Evidently it is safe — safer than hostels or hotels for travelers looking for a place to crash and to meet new people in new places. The site uses a reputation management like system that has managed to weed out folks with bad intentions. I loved seeing the young American abroad for the first time, nervous about meeting his Couch Surfing host, happily sharing a meal with him and his new friends.
Millennial moms go online first for advice. They also profiled Mumsnet, a community where mothers trusted the advice from peers more than health services or the government. I know this upsets many health professionals who are concerned about patients getting bad advice, but the woman running this site seemed confident that the best advice was rising to the top with lame advice being discredited or buried.
Self publishing is no longer a solitary act. The film focused on a music site called Slice The Pie where fans could support bands by donating money so they could record an album. As the band profiled explained, they were on the best label ever in terms of maintaining creative control of their music. But they were also able to get anonymous feedback from fans on specific songs and live performances. My friend, Robin Sloan, is doing something similar by raising money to publish a book using Kickstarter. Both of these models eliminate the gatekeepers of record labels and publishers and are supporting artists while actually making them accountable to their fans/patrons/supporters.
I can’t remember who said this in the film, but the idea is that this technology is transforming capitalist societies, which have become more focused on the individual or even our own immediate families, more removed from government and just distant and less accountable to each other. Ironically, technology is bringing us together vs. making us more distant. Check out Don Tapscott’s post on the film as well, which includes links to other examples…
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